11th August - Devils Trust press release

It is only a few months since an overwhelming vote by supporters of Crawley Town FC to form a trust took place. At that point, although there was almost universal condemnation of the total mis-management by the owners of the club, there seemed no prospect of actually removing them.

When the club entered administration this remained the situation, the SA Group were the only shareholders and far and away the largest creditor. They had an unfair advantage with regard to any settlement to creditors or bid to purchase the club. The SA Group had even described administration as a “formality”.

They have a revised viewpoint nowadays - the process went to the wire and possibly beyond - the Trust looked at all possibilities including a consortium to run a part-time conference club and an investor prepared to wholly fund a Ryman league outfit at Crawley Town.

The first option required the current owners to be part of the solution and given the timescales for league registration a positive result would have been difficult to achieve. In preparation for this possibility the Trust met with the owners in a meeting called by the Supporters Club.

The Trust had asked for a number of assurances in the event of the incumbents remaining and these were totally agreed to by the owners in a very frank and open dialogue. However doubts still remained about their financial viability, behaviour and attitude.

As a consequence the second option appeared to be the most viable but it was only achievable by the creditors committee voting to liquidate the club in time to obtain the registration in the Ryman League.

This difficult decision was endorsed by the Creditors Committee on Tuesday the 8th August when the Administrator Rob Sadler of Begbies Traynor confirmed to the Trust and the media that he was planning to liquidate the club.

However Mr Sadler was then presented with an “extra-time” offer from the incumbents with an amazing 50p in the pound dividend to creditors via a CVA. The Committee did not give a mandate to proceed with the proposal but a decision was made to do so on Thursday 10th by the Administrator.

As a CVA proposal provides a stay of execution the window of opportunity for the club to join the Ryman League will be lost for this season.

The Creditors Committee members faced tremendous pressure, some of it unhelpful and unwanted, and the Trust thank them for taking on a courageous task (although the possibility still remains for the CVA to be rejected).

The club is still not safe financially and the Trust believe that only with a revised attitude from the owners, new investment and some radical changes can there be any confidence in the future of a club that starts the season with a ten-point penalty.

We will be applying pressure to encourage the club to make the changes as soon as possible, however it is not encouraging that from the outset the club have issued a “joint statement” that was not approved by the partners mentioned.

The lies issued on behalf of the club has been a historic reason for bitterness and yet sadly they do not appear to have learned the lesson.

There will be no co-operation with the owners all the time they renege on their promises and we will ensure those broken promises are revealed to a wider audience.

Some fans will never trust the SA Group, some will give them a chance and some will follow them blindly, that is their personal choice and we respect it.

The administration process has proved categorically that the fans of a football club have clout and must be taken seriously.

The Trust would like to thank all supporters throughout football who have backed our stance, particularly at clubs that themselves face problems such as our near-neighbours Brighton & Hove Albion as well as other clubs in crisis like Rotherham United and Wrexham.

The Devils Trust never asked for this baptism of fire, but believe we can proudly say to all football fans that they should never be bullied and must stand proud and confident that they will achieve the right outcome in the fullness of time.

For now the Trust has postponed its official launch and other activities while it became the focus for expressing the feelings of Crawley Town fans, football fans nationally and the community of Crawley and district.

We hope that we can soon put our original plans into action to achieve our aims and objectives without worrying about the club's future.