Takeover Thread - July 1st statement, Staveley letter to Tracey Crouch (and response) in OP

[manorpark]

Chi Onwurah's full question . . .

 

"To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the fan-led review of football governance and the takeover of Manchester City Football Club and proposed takeover of Newcastle United Football Club, what discussions he has had with the Premier League on the importance of transparency and consistency in the approval of takeovers of Premier League football clubs."

Good question. The answer due to be given tomorrow (26/11/2020)

[Paully]

[Whitley mag]

More details on NCSL action.

 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/make-public-consortium-reveals-next-19345310

[Paully]

[Robster]

Not to pour water on anything but did anything happen when loads of MP's wrote to the PL ? Will this have an affect ?

[Whitley mag]

This site will allow you to paste their letter, and e mail off. This action is backed by both buyer and seller, no excuse for anyone who wants this takeover not taking 2 mins to do it.

 

https://www.writetothem.com//

 

[bowlingcrofty]

Done - piece of piss.

Content here if it's easier to copy and paste than download the doc:

 

 

 

Newcastle United FC and the English Premier League

I write to you today for an urgent answer into the unacceptable and discriminatory way that the body known to you and I as the English Premier League (EPL) has treated Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC). I also wish to draw to your attention the behaviour of the EPL, which is being challenged by some of your colleagues within the DCMS.

Closer to home you will appreciate that Government allowed football to return to action in June and in return for retaining TV monies, there was agreement that the EPL would send in the region of £250 million to the English Football League (EFL) clubs to assist their revenue losses during the Covid 19 pandemic. By no surprise, this organisation (dominated by the ‘Big Six’ clubs) have deliberately delayed the process in the hope of seizing power and control of the whole 92 football league clubs in England.

Their belligerent plans, known, as ‘Big Picture’ would see these clubs control our national sport. We fear that there’s a deliberate attempt to delay much needed funds to EFL’s clubs; with little pressure from their CEO, Rick Parry who is an advocate of Big Picture and did little in the DCMS forum to press for any monies. Equally your ministers should appreciate, EPL and EFL use the same solicitor!

Fans fear this would be detrimental to football. The EPL has so far offered less than £50 million to the EFL clubs, ten of which are apparently desperate for monies, and around half of those payments are a loan offer. We fear offering loans to EFL clubs would worsen their futures. Without the means to service those loans, it could automatically render some clubs insolvent. It’s become clear the EPL has accepted Government’s goodwill but they don’t recognise the commitment to support teams beneath them, but prefer to use a pandemic as a power grab window. Within their charter of control, the rules they wish to impose is that the ‘Big Six’ clubs will decide who can purchase a football club in the EPL. So, the six clubs, who are trying to fatten their stomachs, are suggesting that they should determine who competes in their marketplace. This gives football fans’ grave concerns about the future of our national sport.

Richard Masters, CEO of the EPL, when questioned by the DCMS, confirmed words to the effect that football is nothing without fans. Fans in our country feel that the EPL is not a governing body but is simply an organisation operated by the ‘Big Six’ for these six well-documented clubs.

The ‘Big Six’ are clubs from London, Manchester and Liverpool. They are made up of Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. These clubs are trying to control investment into every other city in England. We believe this is wrong and we fear it is anti competitive. We observe that 5 of those 6 Clubs have overseas owners and the 6th has an owner who lives overseas as a UK tax exile.

Were this to materialise, any club in England, perceived to be a threat against the Big Six cartel through a takeover, would not be granted permission to compete and the takeover would be rejected or shrouded in obfuscated procrastination aimed at dissuading the interested parties from completing their investment. This has been the case with NUFC, and I am seeking your support to open this matter up into the public domain and to demand both expediency and transparency. The fans of NUFC have simply been kept in the dark too long.

The ‘Big Picture’ scheme was rejected by 20 votes to nil, and we urge government to accept that football CANNOT regulate itself any more and before the ‘Big Six’ return as Big Picture 2.0 we are seeking Government and Parliament support that you insist that Newcastle United’s application and current judicial process is heard in public and determined openly and transparently for the sake of the general public. If you choose to seek to regulate the sport yourselves in a fans led approach, our fans insist that NUFC’s case is heard before your own investigation and reports are carried out.

 

It’s for Newcastle fans to choose who we would like to run our club. In a poll of fans, 97% of NUFC fans confirmed that they would prefer the current bid of the PIF Consortium. That’s the choice of the paying fans. It antagonises our fans when Government views investors from Saudi Arabia as fit and proper allies in many important trade deals, such as British Aerospace trade, but then turns a ‘blind eye’ when six football clubs (disguised as the EPL) object to competition investment from that country and that investment is rejected. It’s good enough for you in Government and Parliament but maybe not for the people of Newcastle? Do you need reminding about the tens of thousands of jobs in the UK which exist entirely because of the UK’s trade from Saudi Arabia?

Two members of the public, Keith Patterson and Gordon Stein (Newcastle Consortium Supporters, NCSL), on their own merits have built a case with Robert O’Donoghue QC of Brickcourt Chambers and sent a letter before action to the EPL on the grounds of illegality due to anti-competitive behaviour. However, the EPL has responded through their solicitors, Bird & Bird, that NCSL doesn’t have a case, doesn’t have sufficient monies to pursue it and meet costs, don’t have standing and in any event they’ll try and get the case thrown out. Then say they won’t agree to expediency because they are fighting another legal action with NUFC and it may “duplicate” matters.

As fans, we insist these cases are expedited! When private members of the public bring an action to the attention of Government that is full of potential discrimination, cartel activity and collusion, then our Government needs to stand up, take control and force action. We are questioning during the Project Restart shambles just who runs matters, the Government or the big six Premier League’s clubs?

Today the talking must stop! Our national game needs protection. Investment into our region needs recognition. The self-serving financial interests of the big 6 must not be allowed to dominate English football. They cannot be allowed to push the EPL into not hearing the legal case of a competitor with potentially more investment than they have.

As one of your constituents, I’m asked to attend a polling booth and vote for you. Now it’s your turn to see if you support my concerns. I’ll see if you’re interested in investigating a cartel in a multi-billion- pound industry within our national sport who are using a pandemic to seize power. I would like you to write to me by return to indicate that you are going to write to the EPL and lobby Parliament to hear these matters urgently and without any further delay.

I want to know if you are going to support our concerns or not. If you don’t, this will leave me time to be able to pursue someone within our constituency to take this up on my behalf. I want to know first and foremost, if you will lobby for the Newcastle United FC versus EPL dispute to be given a firm timeframe to be heard and be made transparent for the 100,000+ NUFC fans who sit during one of the most miserable times in our lives under lockdown asking questions without answers. This is the time I am going to be able to see if my MP has the time and determination to seek answers and bring this matter into the open.

Once the deliberate ‘bottleneck’ is opened and the EPL determines their case with NUFC it will allow the fans to have answers and the Newcastle Consortium Supporters to lodge their competition action and, hopefully, the EPL to fulfil their promise of funds to the lower league clubs. All should be done BEFORE government investigates the regulation as the two are separate matters.

In closing, I wish to ask you one question. Millions of pounds were promised in this takeover of Newcastle United by one of our richest trading allies into the Newcastle region and surrounding areas. Is it therefore fair that the British Government allows representatives from London, Manchester and Liverpool to decide who invests in Newcastle, Birmingham, Portsmouth or Leeds or any other English city that they compete with?

Please respond back to my email address below with your willingness to support me in seeking expedition and transparency of Newcastle United’s court case with the English Premier League to determine the owners right to sell his club to a willing buyer.

Yours sincerely,

 

[Rocker]

Done.

[RobS]

Done.

[Shearergol]

So we're back to writing to MPs to put pressure on, which had zero impact last time?

[Joey]

Also done.

[Scoot]

Done - piece of piss.

Content here if it's easier to copy and paste than download the doc:

 

 

 

Newcastle United FC and the English Premier League

I write to you today for an urgent answer into the unacceptable and discriminatory way that the body known to you and I as the English Premier League (EPL) has treated Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC). I also wish to draw to your attention the behaviour of the EPL, which is being challenged by some of your colleagues within the DCMS.

Closer to home you will appreciate that Government allowed football to return to action in June and in return for retaining TV monies, there was agreement that the EPL would send in the region of £250 million to the English Football League (EFL) clubs to assist their revenue losses during the Covid 19 pandemic. By no surprise, this organisation (dominated by the ‘Big Six’ clubs) have deliberately delayed the process in the hope of seizing power and control of the whole 92 football league clubs in England.

Their belligerent plans, known, as ‘Big Picture’ would see these clubs control our national sport. We fear that there’s a deliberate attempt to delay much needed funds to EFL’s clubs; with little pressure from their CEO, Rick Parry who is an advocate of Big Picture and did little in the DCMS forum to press for any monies. Equally your ministers should appreciate, EPL and EFL use the same solicitor!

Fans fear this would be detrimental to football. The EPL has so far offered less than £50 million to the EFL clubs, ten of which are apparently desperate for monies, and around half of those payments are a loan offer. We fear offering loans to EFL clubs would worsen their futures. Without the means to service those loans, it could automatically render some clubs insolvent. It’s become clear the EPL has accepted Government’s goodwill but they don’t recognise the commitment to support teams beneath them, but prefer to use a pandemic as a power grab window. Within their charter of control, the rules they wish to impose is that the ‘Big Six’ clubs will decide who can purchase a football club in the EPL. So, the six clubs, who are trying to fatten their stomachs, are suggesting that they should determine who competes in their marketplace. This gives football fans’ grave concerns about the future of our national sport.

Richard Masters, CEO of the EPL, when questioned by the DCMS, confirmed words to the effect that football is nothing without fans. Fans in our country feel that the EPL is not a governing body but is simply an organisation operated by the ‘Big Six’ for these six well-documented clubs.

The ‘Big Six’ are clubs from London, Manchester and Liverpool. They are made up of Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. These clubs are trying to control investment into every other city in England. We believe this is wrong and we fear it is anti competitive. We observe that 5 of those 6 Clubs have overseas owners and the 6th has an owner who lives overseas as a UK tax exile.

Were this to materialise, any club in England, perceived to be a threat against the Big Six cartel through a takeover, would not be granted permission to compete and the takeover would be rejected or shrouded in obfuscated procrastination aimed at dissuading the interested parties from completing their investment. This has been the case with NUFC, and I am seeking your support to open this matter up into the public domain and to demand both expediency and transparency. The fans of NUFC have simply been kept in the dark too long.

The ‘Big Picture’ scheme was rejected by 20 votes to nil, and we urge government to accept that football CANNOT regulate itself any more and before the ‘Big Six’ return as Big Picture 2.0 we are seeking Government and Parliament support that you insist that Newcastle United’s application and current judicial process is heard in public and determined openly and transparently for the sake of the general public. If you choose to seek to regulate the sport yourselves in a fans led approach, our fans insist that NUFC’s case is heard before your own investigation and reports are carried out.

 

It’s for Newcastle fans to choose who we would like to run our club. In a poll of fans, 97% of NUFC fans confirmed that they would prefer the current bid of the PIF Consortium. That’s the choice of the paying fans. It antagonises our fans when Government views investors from Saudi Arabia as fit and proper allies in many important trade deals, such as British Aerospace trade, but then turns a ‘blind eye’ when six football clubs (disguised as the EPL) object to competition investment from that country and that investment is rejected. It’s good enough for you in Government and Parliament but maybe not for the people of Newcastle? Do you need reminding about the tens of thousands of jobs in the UK which exist entirely because of the UK’s trade from Saudi Arabia?

Two members of the public, Keith Patterson and Gordon Stein (Newcastle Consortium Supporters, NCSL), on their own merits have built a case with Robert O’Donoghue QC of Brickcourt Chambers and sent a letter before action to the EPL on the grounds of illegality due to anti-competitive behaviour. However, the EPL has responded through their solicitors, Bird & Bird, that NCSL doesn’t have a case, doesn’t have sufficient monies to pursue it and meet costs, don’t have standing and in any event they’ll try and get the case thrown out. Then say they won’t agree to expediency because they are fighting another legal action with NUFC and it may “duplicate” matters.

As fans, we insist these cases are expedited! When private members of the public bring an action to the attention of Government that is full of potential discrimination, cartel activity and collusion, then our Government needs to stand up, take control and force action. We are questioning during the Project Restart shambles just who runs matters, the Government or the big six Premier League’s clubs?

Today the talking must stop! Our national game needs protection. Investment into our region needs recognition. The self-serving financial interests of the big 6 must not be allowed to dominate English football. They cannot be allowed to push the EPL into not hearing the legal case of a competitor with potentially more investment than they have.

As one of your constituents, I’m asked to attend a polling booth and vote for you. Now it’s your turn to see if you support my concerns. I’ll see if you’re interested in investigating a cartel in a multi-billion- pound industry within our national sport who are using a pandemic to seize power. I would like you to write to me by return to indicate that you are going to write to the EPL and lobby Parliament to hear these matters urgently and without any further delay.

I want to know if you are going to support our concerns or not. If you don’t, this will leave me time to be able to pursue someone within our constituency to take this up on my behalf. I want to know first and foremost, if you will lobby for the Newcastle United FC versus EPL dispute to be given a firm timeframe to be heard and be made transparent for the 100,000+ NUFC fans who sit during one of the most miserable times in our lives under lockdown asking questions without answers. This is the time I am going to be able to see if my MP has the time and determination to seek answers and bring this matter into the open.

Once the deliberate ‘bottleneck’ is opened and the EPL determines their case with NUFC it will allow the fans to have answers and the Newcastle Consortium Supporters to lodge their competition action and, hopefully, the EPL to fulfil their promise of funds to the lower league clubs. All should be done BEFORE government investigates the regulation as the two are separate matters.

In closing, I wish to ask you one question. Millions of pounds were promised in this takeover of Newcastle United by one of our richest trading allies into the Newcastle region and surrounding areas. Is it therefore fair that the British Government allows representatives from London, Manchester and Liverpool to decide who invests in Newcastle, Birmingham, Portsmouth or Leeds or any other English city that they compete with?

Please respond back to my email address below with your willingness to support me in seeking expedition and transparency of Newcastle United’s court case with the English Premier League to determine the owners right to sell his club to a willing buyer.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Cheers for that. I copy and paste the letter from the Chronicle website and after I pasted it into my email to send to my MP, half the words in the email were stick together. Ffs!

 

Anyway, Done!

[Scoot]

So we're back to writing to MPs to put pressure on, which had zero impact last time?

 

Just do fuck all mate. That's the way.

[Minhosa]

Done.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Done.  May come to nothing, but better to try something than do nothing.

[Whitley mag]

Done.  May come to nothing, but better to try something than nothing.

 

Exactly can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t at least take 2 minutes to do this. The least these lads deserve is our full support, any pressure is good pressure.

 

Also important to note it is the clubs case that they are trying to expedite and make sure is done transparently.

[1964]

Yeah, I've done it, Alison mcgovern is my mp and likely could not give a fuck but we will see.

 

She got a shade put on the lamppost outside our house so she gets stuff done

[frankpingel]

Done, little bit of effort from everyone who's pro this potential sale please.

[Shearergol]

So we're back to writing to MPs to put pressure on, which had zero impact last time?

 

Just do fuck all mate. That's the way.

 

Well I've actually done it, like I did the first time. I just wondered why the "we're fully confident" has now gone to "we need fans to get MPs to put pressure on"?

[Alberto2005]

So we're back to writing to MPs to put pressure on, which had zero impact last time?

 

Just do fuck all mate. That's the way.

 

Well I've actually done it, like I did the first time. I just wondered why the "we're fully confident" has now gone to "we need fans to get MPs to put pressure on"?

Done, but I agree it seems a little depserate.

[Stifler]

Sent it, but I edited it and removed sections which looked a bit ‘Karen off Facebook’ like.

[Waddles mullet]

Could they make it any harder? Ffs

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scoot]

So we're back to writing to MPs to put pressure on, which had zero impact last time?

 

Just do fuck all mate. That's the way.

 

Well I've actually done it, like I did the first time. I just wondered why the "we're fully confident" has now gone to "we need fans to get MPs to put pressure on"?

 

Fair enough.

 

It could have been all part of the plan from the off to get MP's involved again? Who knows?

[Sa1tY]

I have done it like I did last time but it just feels like its ever decreasing circles.

[Robster]

My MP voted against giving kids free school meals so I'm not expecting much

 

Done anyway though.