The Devils Trust - Crawley Town Football Club Supporters Trust

26 June - AGM address to members

On behalf of the board I wish to begin this AGM with an address that we have jointly prepared. The statement will be posted on our website after the meeting & at the conclusion of the address we will discuss the issues it covers.

Hello – there is a Euro 2008 semi-final taking place tonight & I am sure that a few of you will also be at the football club’s fans forum tomorrow night.

So I thank you for the fantastic dedication you display by being here at this AGM.
Speaking of the fans forum, at the preceding one in June last year, the question was asked about what the Devils Trust had achieved.

It is a sign of the times at Crawley Town FC that questions regarding the unpaid £1.8m CVA, the competence & integrity of the owners & the deduction of 13 – at the time – points, were strangely & forcibly discouraged.

In fact we were all loudly told to move on & look forward… all that is, except for the newly formed Trust.

The Trust alone had to stand up & justify itself.

Our impromptu spokesman attempted to explain that amongst other things the Trust had championed the plight of the unpaid creditors.

These people were still waiting for the funds - half of their actual debt - to finally be paid. At the time it was 9 months overdue.

We feel that the Trust were the only people who spoke openly, truthfully & unambiguously that night, despite the apparent unpopularity of our message.

In fact the room was told that & I quote. “The Majeeds had saved the club”.

The Trust members never believed that & the Board are proud that the membership always made it clear to the Board that they never trusted the club’s owners.

The Trust started off trying to address the issues that all Trusts encounter at their inception, but it was always in a climate of intimidation, conflict & chaos.

Events at Crawley Town were unlike most other clubs.

The priority soon became clear, the Trust had become the public conscience of the club, whether it wanted it or not, it had become the de facto natural voice of grassroots opposition to the club regime.

The Trusts mission became to gain maximum publicity to highlight the reckless incompetence & lack of integrity of the owners.

Through this we tried to make the club behave themselves, to recognize the damage they were doing & to try & make them be more truthful & accountable in their actions, not least towards creditors, staff & fans.

The Trust alerted the local, football & business communities to the issues at the club in order that these groups could help sustain the pressure.

The Trust perceived from diminishing attendances at home matches & lack of sponsorship that the message had been heard.
Certainly something made hundreds of home fans lose faith in the club.

The Board was approached by many football fans with offers of sympathy & support.

Individuals & organizations with offers of investment & sponsorship approached the Trust.

The Board saw various opportunities come & go when groups or individuals who were sympathetic to the Trust tried to gain a foothold in the club, but were ultimately thwarted by the irrational & inconsistent approach of the incumbents who would always move the goalposts.

So a year ago the Trust were frustrated because although it had rallied the football community - fans of other clubs had been universally fantastic in support of our plight & we thank them – but the club still appeared to be treated with kid gloves by the people who could effectively bring them to heel, the football authorities.

But then events began to change & it caused a re-think within our ranks.

Following an unsuccessful meeting between the authorities & club officers, our opinion was sought by members of the football community.

We will stress that they approached us, as they had recognized we were the only credible & independent voice for establishing the truth about Crawley Town FC.

Subsequently we changed tactics.

The Board continues to network with groups that have influence, fans groups such as Supporters Direct & the Federation of Football Supporters, re-established existing relationships & actively sought new contacts with football people.

Consequently the Board was invited to visit other clubs & Trusts & help people of influence understand the reality of the situation at Crawley Town FC.

Consistent with our efforts, other clubs were part of a grassroots movement concerned at the approach to Crawley Town FC by the Football Authorities and wanted the Conference executive to justify their decisions & lack of effective action.

It certainly bemused many that the Conference had failed to act when the club did not have the required complement of players under contract by an initial deadline & they wanted answers.

The Conference Chief Executive actually resigned ahead of a confidence vote due to inactivity in sorting the situation & the FA made it clear that they were now keeping a very close eye on events.

It was in this climate that the Conference deducted a further six points from the club, three for their treatment of creditors & three for their cavalier approach to the fit & proper regulations by directors.

Plus they set a suspended £10k fine & asked for a £100k bond to be lodged to guarantee the club finished the season.

The football authorities would also force the club to pay their creditor’s - they even ensured the payments had been received by them - before finally lifting an embargo allowing them to register players, quite literally just ahead of the final deadline.

The club never actually had the funds to pay the huge costs accrued by the CVA & this meant that a court order was required to sell the owners apartment.

The Board were told by the Club told at a meeting that they were spending over £20k on a QC to fight an appeal against the penalty decision.

They had this sort of funds for the appeal, yet still wanted the Trust to provide free publicity for a televised international match at Redz bar. The Board politely declined.

Their actions illustrated their twisted priorities & just how out of touch the club had become with the way they were perceived both locally & within the corridors of football power.

Naturally the appeal was a waste of money & hopefully it finally gave the club a wake up call. It certainly caused disquiet in the fan-base.

The Trust had effectively established it’s credentials & with the warning of further measures by the Football Authorities the Board decided to deliberately go quiet.

The Football Authorities made it clear that further lapses by the club would lead to it’s ejection at the end of the season.

The Trust did not want to risk being associated with something as dramatic as that, as the Board also knew that they had been unfairly used as a scapegoat in the past.

Aware that for many supporters the six point deduction & reckless appeal by the club would be the last straw the Board decided to take themselves out of the firing line with a news blackout.

While the Trust had never called for a boycott, it was felt that, as attendances continued to drop, a low-key approach would ensure that the Trust could not be blamed for the missing fans & help to force the club to look inwards.

Somewhere in all of this mess the Majeeds appear to have left & the Trust were now sharing information with informed sources, the Board were finally confident that the authorities were looking out for the clubs best interest.

Of course the Trust would like to have seen the Duly’s paid in full & cannot quite understand why the investment that has now arrived did not materialize during the Majeeds reign, strange really, as the people involved always had nice things to say about them.

The Trust has heard all of the warnings about Steve Evans – it is a sad indictment of how low things had got at Crawley Town FC, that his appointment actually raised the level of professionalism & integrity at the club.

But the Trust intend to leave him to get on with his job, attending to team matters & hopefully he can bring success to the Club that we can all be proud of.

The Trust welcome with enthusiasm that the Majeeds have gone & wish the new regime success, we welcome talk of transparency & the move to get an accountant & a solicitor on the board.

The Trust welcomes the new approach of the Conference proposal to replace the current wage-cap with a program of on-going periodic review of the books.

Most of all we welcome the input of people of substance such as the Duly’s, the Carters & Mansell. & Phil Jarman too, he is at least a proven football fanatic.

It is early days & the Trust does not yet know were it will fit into the equation with the club.
Trust between us, the Club & the Supporters Club needs to be re-built on all sides & personal grievances need to be resolved too.

The Trust has started a constructive dialogue with the Club & it is now time for truth & reconciliation, there will be NO witch-hunt, well not from the Trust.

More honesty is what is required.

At our meeting last autumn the Trust voted to make a small donation to the player’s insurance scheme, the Trust had voted against the scheme the previous year.

The club has had the offer for a while now & it is their choice whether they accept it on the basis on which it had been offered.

The Trust have more to offer the club, but it takes two to tango & Board now seek a mandate from the members as part of this AGM process to help define the Boards approach.

The Board now feels confident enough to launch two independent initiatives.

It is intended to organize another Legends match, sometime in September/October.

Depending on the fixture list (due out 6th July) to decide a date, it is hoped to stage the game at the Broadfield Stadium.

In September the Trust will be launching its own Soccer School. It will be a pilot scheme to help promote football in the community of Crawley.

A coach & school have been lined up & the intention is to start after the summer recess.

Unlike other offerings this focuses on bringing football to kids who may not otherwise be able to afford to play.

This scheme is totally free & provides a more inclusive alternative to other soccer schools. If the pilot scheme works, the
Trust will apply for grant funding to take it to the next stage using the model that can be rolled out across the town.

Because the people of Crawley voted overwhelmingly to create a Trust & members such as you empowered the current Board, the
Board feels proud of it’s part in ensuring the world knew about Crawley Town FC & restoring some sort of order at the club & also giving something positive back to the town.

At last we can all start looking forward.

Before I finish I must give a vote of thanks to a few people who have helped behind the scenes, Our Secretary Sarah, Membership Secretary Ian & Webmaster Peter.

The Board acknowledge that they & some others followers feel a little uninvolved & uninformed but the Board hope that it has explained the strategy behind this & equally that you approve of the way in which the Board have conducted it’s operation on the memberships behalf.

We now begin a new era of quiet optimism that means that the membership can become more positively engaged in helping our organization grow, prosper & become even more effective & part of our effectiveness is being involved in a movement that is becoming increasingly more influential throughout the world game.

A Supporters Trust does not represent the club or even the supporters of the club. It represents the community & as part of Supporters Direct it is able to be part of a modern progressive movement that shows football supporters are no longer just ignorant sheep that blindly follow their team.

The Board thanks you for your patience in sticking with us & asks you for a mandate to continue to build on what we have all started.

Chairman: Mark Ogbourne

Board Members: Phil Agius, John Hooper, Colin Lowes, David Morley, and Jeff Thaddeus

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The Devils Trust is the trading name for Crawley Town Supporters Society Limited, an Industrial and Provident Society
registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies. Registered Number: 30100R