That "Investment Opportunity Overview" - Spiegel's view of CAFC

A 21-slide deck emerged yesterday which purports to show Mark Spiegel's Football Strategies Group's assessment of the Charlton Athletic 'opportunity' and it's bid for more investment (can be viewed here - attached in DubaiCAFC's post).

Apart from the overtly 'sales' nature of the deck which is littered with casual mis-truths to tell a better story, the key issue appears to be the degree to which Mark Spiegel needs the additional £20m investment it seeks. On face value it looks like he may be short of the money needed to convince the EFL he has the wherewithal to run the club once he has acquired it from Sandgaard. If this is the case then you can't see him being able to strike a deal and that may account for the fact he has been unable to do so until now and his exclusivity period has expired.

Rich Cawley contacted him yesterday re this and the response was that they "are not looking for funds to run or acquire the club. They say the investment document circulating is to raise funds for some acquisition funds planned in 18-24 months." There is also a strong line emerging that Spiegel may be ready to complete the deal this week, so we shouldn't have long to wait on judgement.

Looking at the deck, the mention of the £20m investment could be read both ways - that they need it to convince the EFL or that they have the money they need now and it's just what they intend raising downstream (to support further growth/development). The 18-24 month timeline suggests it would be too late to fuel a promotion charge and that they may have this covered in the running costs until then. On that basis, the timeline would suggest a bid to support life in the Championship. You could also question why they would circulate a deck now when it would look that much more convincing in a week or a month's time when they could be bidding as the new owners who have bought the club and satisfied the EFL?