Amid scenes of wild celebration on social media today, Chris Farnell was booted unceremoniously out of Charlton Athletic Football Club. The news is the hat-trick for supporters and follows his termination as a Director at East Street Investments and his failing the EFL's Owners & Directors Test.
It brings to an end a frenetic few months of activity since Taynoon Nimer appointed Farnell as the club's lawyer principally to take action against Matt Southall following his abuse of club funds. Farnell had previous with Southall having taken him to court and winning a £10,000 payment case in January 2019, so he looked the perfect person to go after Southall. Southall was eventually evicted from the club and denied access to the club's bank account back early Spring but Farnell busied himself with other matters and took on a greater role in Nimer's and Southall's absence.
It also became very clear after a few initial searches, that Farnell had a lot of form when it came to other clubs and much of it was not positive. Most recently he was involved at Bury who subsequently went bust but has a string of associations with other clubs who have suffered mismanagement as well as some of football's shadier characters. He was quickly fronting Nimer's ongoing and unsuccessful attempts to convince the EFL of proof and source of funds, but it was his attempted takeover of ESI via Paul Elliott that really blew it for him with Charlton fans.
Having failed to find a credible buyer after several years of searching and numerous failed negotiations, principally because of the heavily overvalued assets, Duchatelet looked to have done the impossible with ESI Version 1 (Nimer & Southall). However, it quickly became clear that they had only paid £1 for the club and a five year commitment to pay £50m for the assets (Valley and Sparrows Lane). Nimer put no money in and Southall spent what club funds he could. Duchatelet's chances of getting £50m back looked impossibly slim and who would want to take the club on with that obligation hanging like the Sword of Damocles? Step forward Paul Elliott, a man with no apparent football connections, no otherwise interest in Charlton Athletic and who runs an estate agency business in Manchester. It didn't look right, it didn't feel right and it certainly didn't smell right. A cynical view was that Elliott, a near neighbour and mate of Farnell, was a convenient stooge for the sale. Assuming the club was sold for close to it's purchase price of £1 there would be an opportunity to 'flip' the club onto another buyer for a decent profit if they were willing to take the risk on the £50m asset obligation. That scenario would also mean Southall wouldn't profit as a 35% shareholder in ESI from the sale to Elliott.
As would-be owner, Paul Elliott oversaw the payment of club bills in June and July although on what terms and with whose money we have yet to learn. Farnell and Elliott appeared now to have some real skin in the game if they hadn't previously. There was a rumour that Farnell had sold Charlton's sell-on clause for Joe Gomez to Liverpool for £500k in order to pay the bills and then that Dave Jones was being lined-up in some capacity to facilitate the sale of Dillon Phillips to bring liquidity to the club's funds. Both were strenuously denied but Farnell worked with Jones at Bury and when a posse of Charlton fans arrived unannounced at Farnell's IPS Law offices on Friday, who should be there in a meeting with Farnell - none other than Mr Jones!
We may yet have much to learn about Farnell's involvement at Charlton. What is clear from his previous roles that can be researched is that there is a level of complexity, many of the same characters appear and reappear and there are often lots of unhappy people. I am sure we haven't seen or heard the last of him. The EFL Misconduct Investigation is ongoing as is one by the Solicitor's Regulation Authority. No doubting too that he will join the list of those presenting large invoices to the club for 'services' rendered.
Whatever happens next to Charlton Athletic, I believe we should all be grateful that Farnell is gone. If the EFL regulated to ensure anyone failing their O&DT or those associated with mismanagement at any of the clubs in their league could not reappear and start afresh at another club, then they might start to prevent people from becoming involved just to make a quick buck and leave football clubs in perilous financial positions and at risk of collapse. They also have to consider getting their foot in the door much earlier in the sale of clubs process and perhaps looking to put in place a bond or some other form of financial guarantee so prospective owners can't cut and run.
Good article.
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