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Empty Mirror

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  1. Ok.  Our great club is in crisis.  Relegation to the third tier of English football looks likely.   More relevantly (since no one has a divine right either to be in the Championship, or the Premiership – someone’s got to go down to “League One”) we are underachieving, and have been for the last decade.   Based on average attendances, we are the second best supported club in the Championship (see http://itv.stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/D1/attend.html) and even on this season’s attendances we would rank 16th in the Premiership.        Who’s to blame?    Well, it’s worth reminding ourselves that there doesn’t have to be anyone to blame.   Things just go wrong sometimes.    But with this level of underachievement being maintained over a decade, with not one single finish at a level commensurate with the club’s support, it is hard to escape the view that someone somewhere has got something badly wrong.  There seems to be a consensus on these boards that the Board is to blame.     So, how do you go about “getting rid” of the Board?    The suggestion made in this thread is to put together a “shadow Board” made up of posters from these forums.  Well, credit to Yankee Canary, because it’s the first suggestion anyone’s made.  I’m not against it, because it may make people feel a bit better, and goodness knows we all need to feel a bit better.   But in terms of changing anything, it doesn’t get off the ground.   Norwich City Football Club is a plc, and governed by the Companies Acts, the Rules of the Stock Exchange, and the company’s Articles of Association.  There’s nothing in any of those that would force a majority shareholder to sell up because a shadow Board plays what (with respect) amounts to fantasy football on an internet site.   There’s also a risk that any shadow Board will provide a distraction for forces that could be more usefully applied elsewhere.   There are suggestions of a demonstration, People, if it makes you feel better, meet in the Murderers to discuss it before, after and during the Coventry match, and I’m not against that (as I say I’m all for people feeling better), but don’t for a moment think it’s gong to make a difference.  A few protesters doesn’t begin to put you in a position to mount a bid for control of a plc.   The only circumstances where public pressure can make a difference is where there is a take over bid in position, but the price offered is proving unattractive to the majority shareholders, and then public pressure can sometimes serve to make a price that had seemed unattractive seem rather more interesting.  Something similar happened at the end of the Chase era.   But the difference is that then, there were parties with hard cash bidding (more than one, actually).    Does anyone have any hard evidence that this is the case here?  I’ve not seen any.  The Turners don’t seem minded to make a move, and in the final analysis there’s no blaming them for that.  It’s their money.   If you want to take control of a plc you need cash.  Not just to buy the shares.  It’s usual for the debt to be capable of being called in if the lenders don’t like the party taking over, so one needs to have someone of a financial stature that is likely to be acceptable to the lenders, or be prepared to buy out the debt.   If someone knows of a big investor who’s just waiting to be invited then by all means let’s hear it.   But the likely candidates, like Peter Cullum, have ruled themselves out.   And whilst some posters urge the Board to get out and find major investors, it’s a bit of a Catch 22 – if the Board don’t want a take over, they’re not exactly going to go and look for someone to mount a hostile takeover.  They might find someone who’s willing to put a bit of cash in for a seat on the Board, like the Turners, but as we’ve seen that’s scarcely a regime change.   In the absence of the Invisible Mega Investor, we’re left with the “Barcelona option”.   Buying the shares and then turning the club into a members’ club.  We’d have to do that, because if you just buy the share and spread them about more widely, we’re still vulnerable to some billionaire whose made money doing goodness knows what buying up a majority stake stealthily, and before you know it you’re one person’s plaything again.  But in a members’ club, each member has one vote and one vote only, there’s no buying up of shares to give anyone a majority.   And to answer the poster who wondered how all the members agree – they don’t.   Every couple of years, there’s an election for president, and then a vote of all the members.   Candidates campaign on their record (if already in office) or their plans (“Vote for me and I’ll bring Ronaldhino / David Beckham / Gary Docherty to the club”).    It would be a first in English football, and would attract massive publicity, raise the club’s profile, and probably help to make it an interesting place for players and coaches to come.   And we’d be the only fans in the country to own our own club, and NCFC would be the only club in England safe from foreign (or domestic) billionaire owners.   But, one would need the cash to buy the shares.   To turn the club into a members’ club, it would mean buying all of them (333,750).  Stock Exchange rules would require this anyway.  Don’t be misled by the par value of the shares – shares (like football clubs) can go up or down.   The majority shareholder at NCFC holds 61%.   One poster said it would take £9,000,000 to buy those shares.  I don’t know where that figure comes from; maybe it’s more, or less.  IF that were the figure for 61%, then it would take just under £15,000,000 to buy the lot.   On top of that one would have to be ready to clear the debt, in case the lenders were not quite so excited about this experiment in football club ownership and call the loans in.  Even if the terms of the loans don’t permit this, it’s probably wise to do that anyway, otherwise how does all this help? The figure quoted is usually £17,000,000.     So, that’s £32,000,000.   24,000 attend Carrow Road week in, week out.   Some, of course are children, but they plainly have parents capable of paying for their tickets.   I’m guessing – but don’t know, that there must be another 8,000 supporters “out there” who can’t make the games.   So, that’s 32,000 supporters, which would mean £1,000 each.   Is that achievable?   I doubt it.   Though I don’t see why it couldn’t be.   A thousand pounds is a huge amount, but it’s less than most of us spend on a car.   And yes, I know, in rural Norfolk we need a car, and we don’t need a successful NCFC (though, actually, that’s open to debate, I think Norfolk does).   But, look on the roads, few of us need the size and spec of cars we drive.  Plenty of people spend £1,000 on a holiday each year. One poster has already offered to put up one thousand pounds.  I’ll second that.  So that’s two.   If we really want to make a difference, we’d have to mount a campaign to raise the money.    Start on these forums.    See how many posters would commit.  If there’s enough, then set up a website to start gathering pledges.  As someone pointed out, there’s already a campaign to buy a football club and turn it into a members’ club: if we launched a campaign it’s possible some of them would come across and join us.  Once you get a few hundred I’d bet there’d be no shortage of media interest, so publicity is likely to be easy.   And it would be positive publicity, showing Norfolk people’s support of and commitment to the club.  Players might even want to come here, you never know.   And it would be publicity that would put real pressure on the Board – the fact that people were pledging to put their money where their mouth is in order to buy back “our club” would show them in a rather interesting light.   They still couldn’t be compelled to sell, but it would  be very difficult for them to resist.  I wonder if the price might even come down, to show them in a good light, “handing their club back to the people”.     Of course, if only half a dozen people are up for it, then the idea falls flat on its face.   I fear that’s the likely outcome.  But in the absence of an invisible fantasy investor, if we the fans aren’t prepared to put up, then we’ll just have to hope Glenn can pull off the great escape.  I shall be hoping and cheering for that anyway – but I’d be even more game for the “Barcelona” option.  Fifty years ago Barca built the Nou Camp with money in effect donated from their fans (they bought season tickets for five years).  If they can, why not us?  Over to you.    
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