Thursday 19 March 2020

Southall and Heller dig-in for their pay-off

Mastt Southall has this afternoon published an open letter on Charlton Athletic headed paper on his Twitter account. It is signed off by him and Jonathan Heller in their erstwhile guises of "Executive Chairman" and "Director" respectively. You will note that this wasn't via the Club's website which he no longer has access to.

It purports to tell us that there has been a Board Meeting of ESI today attended by three shareholder (them and Nimer) and their respective lawyers. Nimer apparently brought two others to the meeting (assume a conference call) who Nimer is now saying are on the Board. Southall claims there are "serious legal questions over the standing of one of these men" an suggest the EFL's Owners & Directors Test may be tough for them.

He goes on to say that he and Heller were disappointed that "resolutions have been passed" which they believe are invalid and unlawful. He doesn't say what these were but I am sure Taynoon Nimer will be telling us shortly via Instagram. 

Southall also says that Nimer shut down any discussion about the "pressing matter" of the "Charlton secured creditors" and instead "chose to pursue his personal vendetta against myself." He digs at Nimer for still not having satisfied the EFL of his source of "alleged funds." 

The killer paragraph is the last one, where he tells us that until Nimer "fulfils then obligations that he promised when purchasing the club, there shall be no discussions about me stepping away from Charlton Athletic Football Club, in my day-to-day capacity or as an owner through my shareholding in East Street Investments." Presumably by 'obligations' he means more than the penthouse flat on the river, the Range Rover, £200k annual salary and bonuses for completing the 'takeover' which I would think may be approaching a legal challenge if the Charlton secured creditors get their way.

It looks, therefore, very much like Southall and Heller are clinging on to their positions in ESI until they are forced or encouraged to go. If Nimer can't force them off - and he may have tried that today through the "resolutions...passed" - then the hard-pressed duo may well be rubbing their hands for encouragement to leave.

Southall had received 171 replies to his Tweet from Charlton supporters who were less than supportive of what he had to say and whose advice seemed to be fairly unanimous that he should head off very quickly. Looks like he may have taken the Tweet down now to save any further embarrassment.

Nimer's response should be the highlight of the evening. I'd love to see it posted on the Official Site too, just to make a point. Nimer does have to get the EFL onside quickly, especially if the former Director's are close to getting their case heard. If he could do that he might be able to reach an accommodation with the Directors but if not he could find he has no deal with Duchatelet, which might also suit him if it gets him out of a hole he has fallen into.


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