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Unfortunately I won’t be at the match as I’m busy doing coach type stuff this weekend. It will be interesting to see what sort of protest does emerge, how many actually protest, and how many of those end up being handcuffed by the stewards.
I feel that lower league clubs are at a high risk status of poor ownership, and fans of the clubs should all support each other to campaign for better governance of owners. If we want a protest that has more voice we should be reaching out to the away fans too. Imagine just how much Swann’s jowls will wobble if he sees images of fans protesting at four sides of the ground.
#UTI #Iron #SwannOut
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Let me break his statement down:
“I have decided to stand down as Chairman of Scunthorpe United. This wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, but having weighed up the options, it will hopefully ease the tensions at the club and enable the manager, staff and players to focus on their jobs, rather than there be distractions at what is a very important time in its history.” – I read this as “I am hiding from the club and passing the buck onto the manager, staff and players”.
“It is vitally important for you, the fans, to continue to support the club and that means buying match tickets and season tickets, using the club shop and catering facilities, sponsoring matches and players, etc as much as possible. This is because while we are budgeting to run at break-even, any extra income to that position can be reflected in the playing budget. I can assure you that all the income received by the club is used to meet the running costs of the club. Whatever you may hear or see I haven’t taken one penny out of the club and all the money generated is kept by the club. It is therefore important that fans support the club as much as they can in order to ensure there isn’t a shortfall against budget.” – I read this as “I ain’t putting any money into the club so you need to bankroll the club for me.”.
“I have done all I can financially to support the club over the last few seasons and we have had a concerted effort to take the club to a sustainability model and that would have happened earlier if it wasn’t for the pandemic. The turnover the club generates isn’t enough to maintain a large playing budget and that was and has been evident over the last few seasons. Sadly, the lack of cash flow and having to borrow monies from the EFL have combined with the club being restricted on its player recruitment and this has been detrimental to our performances, and we find ourselves staring relegation in the face.” – I read this as “Covid has enabled me to hide the mismanagement of the club finances during my tenure, and I took out a loan from the EFL without understanding the T&Cs.
“Last season we had no cash as such and if we had not taken the EFL loan we would have been in administration and relegated through points deduction then, or this season. So I had to decide, and try to give us a chance this season. However, the embargo attached to the loan put us at a huge disadvantage – one we have been unable to overcome.” – I read this as “I took out a loan without understanding the T&Cs.”.
“Although I have not actively been looking for a new owner, I have been talking to several groups who have an interest in the club and having stepped down I can spend more time now working toward finding a new owner for the club and securing its future.” – I read this as “I’m not actually in any active negotiations with any party as I cannot tell you an accurate number of people who I am ‘in conversations with’.
“I am delighted that Lee Turnbull has agreed to come in and oversee the operational side of the football club as we focus fully on planning for next season. Lee will be welcomed onto the board in the coming weeks and join Neil Wright in what will be representatives both for fans and the community, I wish them all the best going forward.” – I read that as “I am a master of misdirection and I’m giving you the illusion that something has changed.”.
“Nothing changes regarding the manager or our work to integrate young players into the squad, moving towards a footballing model where we can utilise our academy and not only see them flourish in the first team but also move on and create a future career at the highest level. I am delighted that Keith wants to stay and help the club achieve this and we are fully focused on a positive and robust pre-season, to give us the best chance of bouncing back at the first time of asking. We can’t however do that if we don’t raise enough income from all of our income streams, so again I can only emphasise how important it is for the fans to return and support your club.” – I read that as “I hope Keith doesn’t leave otherwise I wil have to appoint Will as the manager. Oh and don’t forget, if you don’t bankroll the club all failures to sign quality players will be YOUR fault.”.
“It’s a real shame that all the good work done in the first five years (the financial investment, and the hard work behind the scenes to get us to a point where we could have challenged the top end of League One and even return to the Championship), will be overshadowed by what is a few poor seasons of football.” – I read that as “It is a shame that i gambled the future of the club on my ‘Championship Chairman vanity project’, and now the club is reaping what I sowed.”.
“I have given everything, I know I have come up short, but I will not risk the financial future of the club by borrowing monies and although we may well find ourselves out of the league, we will be financially sustainable. That, in itself, means we offer something substantial to a new owner and I’m convinced we can find the right person for the club. By stepping down I can concentrate on doing just that.” – I read this as “I am not putting any of my personal fortune into the club to rectify the mess I created. And whatever you do, do not mention the fact that I asset stripped the club, and will be set to make a tidy profit from property development if the club was no longer trading.”.
To sum it up in one sentence “It is COVID’s fault we’re in this mess, and YOUR fault we can’t sign quality players.”
In my 40 years of supporting the Iron I have never expected to be served up Premier League football, or even Championship football. However I was always proud that despite our small fan base, we could compete with most clubs in League One and League Two.
I really cannot blame Simon. He is an honest man, with honest intentions and a high level of integrity. Him walking away saying “He cannot work with the current regime” tells us all we need to know, and I fear for the clubs future.
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VIZ – it could be, after all we are ran by Terry F*ckwitt
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If I remember correctly, initially Swann told us that the ground was transferred to Coolsilk to repay the £11,000,000 gambling debt he amassed chasing his vanity project of being a Championship chairman. This then changed in a later statement to “we did it so we could gain investment for the development projects, and when complete would be transferred back into club ownership.”.
As we’re not seeing any news or action in the way of investment / development it would appear to me that Swann has zero intention of actually following through on the second statement, thus the transfer of ownership is nothing more than a land grab (IMO).
We have to also consider the fact that despite the severe cost cutting measures, the club is likely running at a loss again this season, and will likely do the same again next season. If the losses continue unabated there will be a time in the not so distant future where the creditors will come knocking for their money, and if the club is unable to pay, Scunthorpe United could be forced into insolvency. If / when that happens Coolsilk / Mr Swann will be left with the stadium and surrounding land, and with no football club to drain his resources,he would be free to develop the land in whatever way he sees fit.
In short, I fear we a royally screwed.
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National League North will likely be our destination in 23/24 season.
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Expect nothing from Swann…he can’t even be bothered to fix the scoreboard in the ground he owns!
#SwannOut
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Never mind 9 wins, I can’t see us scoring 9 goals in the remaining games. In fact, we’ll be lucky if we score more than 4!
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Swann has abso-ducking-lutely ruined this once proud club! In my 40 plus years of supporting the Iron I have never felt so worried about the future of the club as I do right now!
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He’s the first of Manny… :-)
Sorry, bad joke, I’ll get my coat…
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We were always destined for relegation this season. At the end of last season we avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth, and there was nothing done to better the team for the next season. Even if we do the unlikely and stay-up (which we won’t), we would be in the same battle next season, and the season after, ad infinitum.
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I’ve heard Will Swann has offered OG a 2 year contract.
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Complaining that a football match was paused whilst medical staff tried to save a supporters life! Jesus ‘H’ Christ I’ve heard it all now!
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The ground work for this relegation started pre-season. Since then Swann has just been shuffling the deckchairs around on the Titanic to appease the revolting fans!
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The end of season statement from Swann will go along the lines of:
“We got relegated and it was the fault of the supporters, the council, and COVID.”
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Don’t worry, I am sure he will be back when he wants to convert the land into housing or some other ‘non-football’ use.
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The issues are not down to ‘stay away fans’ though. We are in the mess as a direct consequence of the way that Swann has ran the football club.
Constantly blaming stay away fans for our current plight does not cut it, especially when there are five other clubs in League 2 who currently have a lower average attendance than us for this season, and there were eight in 2019/20 season.
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@MK Iron – I’m with you on this.
I’ve been supporting Scunthorpe United since the days of John Duncan. I bought a season ticket last season, and sponsored home, away and 3rd kits for JB. This season I have bought a season ticket despite knowing that I will only be able to attend a handful of matches, along with this I also have an iFollow season ticket, and always purchase a ticket for any live streams.
Like most supporters, I get annoyed at being told that the current plight is somehow the fault of the supporters.
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As has been said many times on many threads…Swann IS the root cause of all the ills at the club.
Swann decided he wanted to pursue the vanity project of becoming a the owner of a Championship club. HE told us not to panic as the ground redevelopment would make it all sustainable. HE loaned money to HIS club so HE could spend more money than HIS club had. When HIS vanity project fell through, HE chose to take HIS clubs ground as payment for the loans HE had loaned to HIMSELF.
Despite saying the ground transfer was a ‘temporary’ thing (which goes against his previous statement), the ground and surrounding land are still owned by Coolsilk, and it appears that Coolsilk are doing nothing with it; i.e. not fixing the broken scoreboard, not doing any development of the ground / surrounding land etc.
Disclaimer: All the above is just a stated opinion based on the information I have. It is not intended to cause harm, distress, or defame Peter Swann, or his business dealings.
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No – the word from Swann is that the club is sustainable. Swann’s words carry as much credibility as a fat kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar saying I haven’t eaten the biscuits.
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