A decent result..but the nonsense continues

The AGM yesterday, much less well attended than the EGM in October, obviously proved no less emotive. What was clear is that too many fans see the business of the company as an extension of a fans lobby which proved incredibly frustrating for the board answering questions. The mood was overtly confrontational from all but a very few and questions were repeated time and again. It helps if people listen to the answers.

The outcome was a pretty good one we feel. There is now a board, one that clearly seems willing to listen to legitimate concerns whilst not pandering to the more absurd ones. It was a very clever move, we feel, for Frankham to agree to suspend share sales until an EGM. It was probably, on reflection and given the recent attempt at a board coup, that the expansion of the board to seven was defeated. This is a view taken with hindsight of course. At least now there will not be endless diversions about individuals who would or would not have been invited onto the board for voting at the next AGM. What the defeat of certain resolutions also proved was that the now established "fact" of "2500" questionable shares is a nonsense. We cannot even be bothered to discuss some of the wilder conspiracy theories being bandied about. We also note that our blog of yesterday was entirely borne out by the almost pathological inability of those at the meeting to even countenance the existence of other shareholders who did not attend. It gives us no pleasure to be proven right on this matter.

The EGM will no doubt be as equally intimidating for the board with the Sayno activists who shout and bawl and emote, dominating the floor, meaning that circular conversations continue for too long. This is something that has to be dealt with if a proper discussion is to ever take place at meetings. Even Smith, whose election to the board we oppose became exasperated with the repetition of basic company law.

The issues to be discussed at EGM will be controlled, as they should be, by the board. One can imagine a hundred and one resolutions being put forward. But certain issues will be discussed there and we would welcome them; like expanding membership to season ticket holders, enabling people to pay in instalments for their shares, limiting certain voting rights for new shareholders, vetting all applications for shares etc. CPO still retains a responsibility to sell shares and it has an even more important role in doing so now as we feel it is vital to bring in the entire constituency of Chelsea fans, old and new, so that they can have their say. We suspect many sayno supporters would prefer it to now remain a closed shop, figuring that they can always attain the 25% of No votes, aided by spurious articles in the Sun, from alarmed and anxious fans. In fact, we know they would. This must not be allowed to happen and orderly, expanded sales must resume as soon as possible. On the subject of Dan King of the Sun, who attended the meeting and challenged the board for a statement, we would be very interested to know how he came about his share....we suspect a transfer from a certain well known Sayno activist. This sort of divisive anti-club behaviour simply has to cease.

Overall, we think the board, under Frankham, is a decent one. Amid all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, it would be sensible for people to actually see what is before their eyes and realise that Frankham clearly intends to ensure probity. But he is also apparently determined that the agenda is not entirely dominated by a very small minority and this can only be a good thing.

Our advice to sayno is to stop trying to bully and coerce people into your way of thinking. You would have far greater influence on the process of the ultimate destination of Chelsea FC if you didn't think you were the only "real" fans involved in this. Yesterday did not show you in a good light. We also suggest that more of you should a)read the companies act b) read the articles of association of CPO c) LISTEN because when you are flapping and whining and screeching you are in danger of drowning out the very things that you want to hear.

All in the room?

What fascinates us most about the Sun revelations (the spurious ones about people legally buying shares in CPO) is the timing. It reveals a great deal about the mindset of the SAYNOCPO stalwarts who have been encouraging this sort of club bashing. You might think that it is obvious; that today is the AGM and that the stories, designed as they are to ridicule and add fuel to their conspiracy theories, are timed to influence fans attending the AGM, to make them mistrust the club and buy into the idea that a grand larceny is being committed by Roman Abramovich.

Well, that may be true and it is possible there will be many people at the AGM in person. Likely in fact. But the majority of shareholders won't be and they made their voting decisions some while ago, before these ridiculously childish and frustration-fuelled attacks appeared. What it reveals to us is the delusion SAYNOCPO are suffering from, the one that makes them think the only people that matter, as with the EGM, are SAYNOCPO and their proxies - the people actually in the room. It is why their secret, unannounced and ill fated attempt to take over the board was planned to take place using only those votes in the room. And then, using proxies they had asked for, even though those shareholders may not have approved of such a move.

That they will have encouraged people to attend is undoubted. But it is obvious that they have so cast themselves in the role of guardians of something or other, that they probably don't even consider the wider constituency of CPO, let alone the tens of thousands of season ticket holders and beyond. Getting their name in the papers, regardless of whether that is on the back of scantily clad, virulently anti Chelsea stories has totally consumed them. We doubt they have even considered the votes of those not in attendance and probably believe everybody there will agree with them. Their frequently cringe-making, teenage PR junior press releases, full of haughty cliches and indignation and which almost always reveal an alarming lack of knowledge of almost everything they comment upon (Stamford Bridge planning permission is a good example) are great at provoking a one dimensional opportunity to attack the club - tabloid journos must think their Christmases have all come at once - but they also give us a good insight into their objectives, even though SAYNOCPO seem unaware that they are doing so.

Of course, they know they are in a minority but the really alarming thing is that they don't believe, for a single moment, that the majority cares and most damningly, that the majority matters. They believe that anybody voting Yes or against anything they belileve in is not a real fan. And the only real fans who bought 100 shares after October 3rd are their friends and supporters. Further, their desire to have voting rights curtailed to small packges reveals another assumption on their part; that people able to afford more shares than ten (whilst they busily parcel out and try to reassign ownerships in packets of ten or less to their friends and family) are either in the pay of the club or not real fans. One SAYNOCPO activist even said on Twitter yesterday that people will be "leant on by the club". She said that, whilst furiously denying SAYNOCPO had anything to do with the Sun story, whilst denying a board takeover had been attempted, even though she had been one of the proposed nominees and whilst another SAYNO activist joked with an Independent journalist about having "missed" the Sun story. What was that we said about losing touch with reality?

What has to happen today is that a board is confirmed and then increased. Then that board can get on with bringing the agenda back to what matters - which is how we move ahead. To do that there has to be dialogue and cooperation with the club. Those who wish to remain in the past must be left there with their tactics of generating hatred, fear and mistrust.
Fans who care about the long term good of Chelsea must have reasonable, sensible, moderate proposals put by people of logic and sense with a very healthy dollop of realism, to vote upon.

Another tantrum

No doubt frustrated by their recent failure to secretly nominate, at the very last minute, three board members for the AGM vote, SAYNO have been at it again. The "story" in the Sun and their own article on their website relating to shares purchased after the 3rd October is yet another demonstration that this group merely wants to attack and smear the club they profess to care so much about. We continue to insist - and these articles do more than anything to prove our point - that these legally purchased shares are a complete and utter irrelevance to the future of CPO and Stamford Bridge.

Lets us ignore the very many that were purchased in order to vote "No" and the shares bought by original SAYNO committee members who never even owned one before 3rd October. Let us just look at why they continue to drone on about this matter. To them, a person buying a share in order to vote yes, whether "connected" to the club itself or not, is not genuine. They don't apparently REALLY believe the club should move or should have the ability to move, they are merely doing what the club have told or asked them to do. A good illustration of how "yes" voters are seen by some people was the "wall of shame" website set up by a certain individual before the EGM to abuse and "expose" "Yes" voters. You see, despite their protestations, what we have here is a group of people who simply consider everybody who would countenance a move away from Stamford Bridge as the enemy. It is as simple as that.

The issue of these purchased shares is grinding on because in the minds of SayNo it proves one thing; that Abramovich wishes to rape and pillage Chelsea FC for his own ends. They accuse him of "gerrymandering" (the latest in a long line of abuse and smears). They peddle the idea, repeated in the Sun, that Abramovich stands to make huge profits from the sale of Stamford Bridge. They try to cast him in the role of a Glazer or Gillette, or Marler Estates. That this is the most ludicrous notion of the lot seems not to bother them, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary. They don't even consider the lunacy of suggesting Stamford Bridge would make him £700 million. It is a figure plucked from the sky. They don't even include the costs of a new stadium in the equation. To them, these "questionable" shares prove unequivocally that he is engaged in a "Land Grab".  It is quite breathtaking nonsense.

So why are these shares irrelevant? Well, the club lost the vote so it wasn't a very effective attempt to rig it. We also suggest it is irrelevant because for Chelsea fans with genuine concerns and doubts, the constant focus on something that had no effect on the EGM outcome will prove to be corrosive. And ladies and gentlemen let us tell you what this is really about. Sayno are aware of one thing; that they are in a small minority. The great majority of Chelsea fans, not just CPO shareholders, believe that the club probably needs to move and that despite what anybody thinks of him, Abramovich has only the best interests of CFC at heart. As old fashioned as that whole notion might seem, it is nevertheless true; the evidence is so overwhelming and so obvious we can't even be bothered to list it. Knowing that this is the majority view of Chelsea fans AND shareholders, they must try to find a way to boost their effectiveness. Why not try to smear the club and frighten fans into believing their ridiculous conspiracy theories? They tried a board takeover in what must rank as one of the most sneaky and incompetent coups in history. "Give us your proxies! Bring out your proxies!" Oops. Since that oft denied aim is now on hold, they revert to wild conspiracies and attacks.

A few questionable shares, then, represent almost their entire manifesto. The leaflets shouting that we could move "anywhere" is their other foremost policy.  They aim to try to make it impossible for people in future to purchase shares or to reduce what people can buy despite that being the sole purpose of CPO. Why? Well it is clear; because in their minds, anybody buying a share henceforth is obviously in the pay of Roman Abramovich. None of the shares purchased after 3rd October and cast as "yes" could possibly have been bought by a genuine fan. And none in the future will be either.  No REAL fan would buy a CPO share in order to vote for a stadium move would they? You vote "yes" and you are not a "real" fan at all. That is the inference and that is a very big reason why Sayno ought to stop haranguing people who legally purchased shares in CPO; because with every repeat of their mantra, more and more fans who support the club and who don't enjoy seeing its owner and the club itself abused, smeared and embarrassed by those who declare undying love for it will go out and buy shares in order to do one thing;  Vote Yes on future plans. And that, Sayno ought to be aware, will see them cast completely out of the process altogether

Who are ya?

In recent days, a procession of twitter posts have hit our timeline making much of the fact that CFCTruth carries no names. We have been asked "what we stand for" too.We find this remarkably ironic given recent anonymous attacks on dead men. However, allow us to make some things very clear.

What do CFCTruth represent or stand for? 
That really is very simple. From the moment the EGM was announced, during the meeting itself and the aftermath since, we have seen endless quite outrageously silly, untrue and hysterical pronouncements from both SNCPO and those claiming to represent them. This blog has pointed many of them out. Further, this blog has given some extremely relevant and accurate information and background on what is actually happening with various stadium issues. The very simple inference that you may draw from all of this is that we aim to counterbalance SNCPO's very pernicious and increasingly dishonest statements; statements which with every story relating to club activity become ever more hysterical, even libellous and astonishingly brazen in their dissembling. We now even have letters circulating that actually question the independence of the Electoral Reform Service and inviting people to treat the voting process with suspicion.

Worst of all, as part of their attempt to take over the board of CPO, they use this supposed doubt over the ERC to encourage people to send their proxy votes to them, regardless of the shareholder's view and are thus giving rise to the possibility of the misappropriation of the voting rights of that individual to further SNCPOs aims. A disgraceful and desperate way to behave we think you will agree.

So CFCTruth represents the alternative, sensible, factual view, a resource all fans and shareholders clearly need. And further, we seek to expose and articulate the dangers of allowing an unrepresentative, confrontational and negative group from gaining the sort of authority that would see the club's hands tied. SNCPO have now fully subscribed to the position that the club, in the person of Abramovich, is now revealed as a dishonest, evil, property pirate who has one interest; to steal Stamford Bridge from Chelsea Football Club in order to make a profit. Quite apart from the factual nonsense of that, it is simply no way for a board of CPO to be behaving and thus it must be prevented. Who else is going to provide the other side of the argument when SNCPO have been, for so long, casting the club in such a light? The club simply cannot, when the vulnerable, febrile imaginations of concerned fans have been filled with such nonsense, make a case without suspicion?

Then we have the matter of "who we are". Again, given the practice of SNCPO to vilify anybody with an opposing view to them (we all remember the abusive website set up to 'expose' and intimidate supposed Yes voters, the false Twitter accounts, the libellous statements and then the deeply distasteful accusations against dead men) we feel it is simply best to state the facts in this blog and allow genuine fans and shareholders to see information and news that is based on unimpeachable sources - and to then make their own minds up based on those facts rather than have their attention diverted by childish character assassination of those who are providing them. In short, it is irrelevant who we are.

And so then to our "position" on the stadium move. Again, very, very simple.

• We believe the club has several aims that include satisfying a very pressing need to improve the business model of the club in light of UEFA FFP. This is not new. This is something many fans have discussed for years and understand. 
• We do not believe the club wish to move from Stamford Bridge if there is an option to remain.
• We do not believe in any way that the club wishes to move very far from the SB site. We also understand that the club is working in an extremely difficult and volatile property market in a very congested and politically sensitive part of London. Consequently, we feel they should be given as much flexibility as possible to achieve the best outcome. 
• We also believe, very firmly, that CPO was not ever intended to curtail the club's ability to improve the viability of the business. It was very specifically created to stop the possibility that the club would no longer exist. This very clear principle has been subverted and abused by SNCPO. 
• We do not believe that a stadium move is in any way whatsoever a cover for malicious profiteering by Roman Abramovich or anybody else for that matter. The existence of a spectacular new stadium simply rubbishes that most specious and ridiculous of claims completely. 

 What we are then left with is location. Fans have different views on this of course. But what is absolutely necessary is that the board of CPO and its shareholders are able to make a decision based solely on THAT issue. Not suspicions aroused by SNCPO that it is actually about destroying the club; not based on a blind nostalgia relating to SB; not based on lies and malice about and towards the club. And we believe that the club requires the freedom to make those important planning and development decisions that we firmly feel are, and will be, solely in the interests of making CFC a solvent and successful football club.

CPO AGM - A guide to voting

With the CPO AGM on January 20^th rapidly approaching we thought it was time to tell you how we think you should vote on the various resolutions. Needless to say our advice is somewhat different to that of SayNoCPO (SNCPO).

Resolutions;-

1.       For  -  No logical reason to oppose

2.       For  -  Served CPO well as Chairman in the past and will undoubtedly do so again.

3.       Against  -  Leading SNCPO activist, formerly on steering committee, tainted by SNCPO

                          attacks on Rick Glanvill.

4.       For  -  Former CPO Director and a man many fans will trust.

5.       For  -  Long standing Chelsea fan, author and journalist.

6.       For  -  Long standing and dedicated servant of the CPO.

7.       For  -  No logical reason to oppose.

8.       For  -  Standard business practice.

9.       For  -  Figures show only 12% of CPO shareholders are current members or season ticket

                    holders. We believe shares should go back on sale so the wider Chelsea support

                    can have their say.

10.     For  -  Technical resolution regarding waving requirement to offer existing shareholders 

                    any new shares first.

11.     Against  -  Increasing the number of Directors may result in a disproportionate 

                          representation of SNCPO activists on the CPO board         

Please note that unless you are supporting SNCPO’s desire to oust the current board you SHOULD NOT follow their instructions to send your proxy to Clint Steele, Dave Spring or anyone else supporting SNCPO’s position. Instead simply return your form in the pre-paid envelope supplied with the documents you received. Leave the proxy name blank and the Chairman, Steve Frankham, will act as your proxy for the above and any other resolutions tabled on the day.

PLEASE NOTE:- Proxies need to arrive with the ERS at the latest by 11am on Wednesday 18th Jan so time is getting very short, act now!!

More inaccurate information from our 'friends' at SayNoCPO?

There is a document on the internet that our 'friends' at SayNoCPO (SNCPO) like to direct people towards, it is the one that lists major purchases of shares made after the EGM date was announced last October. Interestingly it only disseminates information on people alleged to be 'yes' voters and ignores the huge number of shares bought by the 'no' voters at the urging of SNCPO.

One of the accusations made is that Richard King's (former chairman of CPO until he resigned in the wake of the EGM) father Philip King bought £10000 worth of CPO shares after the EGM was announced. This is one of the transactions queried in the aforementioned document as being part of the "fraudulent shares" that SNCPO continually harp on about. Well we can report that sadly Richard King's father died when Richard was only 6 years old so this is yet another example of not letting the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy theory!

It makes us here at CFCtruth wonder how many more of the accusations made in this fabled document are also either inaccurate or possibly even made up?

If you care about the future of Chelsea Football Club and are a CPO shareholder either attend the forthcoming AGM in person or support the existing board of CPO by giving your proxy to the Chairman, Steve Frankham. Oh and one more thing, vote against resolution 3 to re-elect SNCPO's Gray Smith.

SayNOCPO are a funny little organisation aren't they?

They whined ahead of the EGM in October that the CPO board was unrepresentative but when offered a place on the board, they turned it down on the premise that they demanded two seats. However, a few days later and after a huge negative backlash, they backtracked and accepted a seat for solicitor and SayNOCPO (SNCPO) committee member Gray Smith. 

Meanwhile, throughout this period we heard constant gripes about a ‘club conspiracy’ to buy CPO shares for votes and the fact that these 'illegitimate votes need to be dealt with' (SNCPO even threatening legal action over the issue). However, when the aforementioned Mr Smith was given the job on the CPO committee of 'dealing with the issue' by the new CPO chairman Steve Frankham, what happens? By all accounts Gray Smith sits on his hands, makes no useful proposals and misses the deadline to submit resolutions for the AGM in January. So much for the 'final discussions' referred to on the SNCPO website.

So if and when SNCPO attempt to allege that Steve Frankham and the rest of the board have failed in their duty to do something about these supposed 'corrupt votes' the rest of us should ask Mr Smith and the rest of the SNCPO hierarchy exactly what they have contributed to resolving the issue? Yet this disparate, directionless bunch would like us to vote that we have no confidence in the existing board and that instead we'd like them to take over?

Be careful for the future of the club and the CPO and don't allow this potentially disastrous outcome to occur.  

Attend the AGM on January 20th 2012 if you can, but if you cannot please ensure that you pass your proxy vote to the CPO chairman.