Having been abroad for the past three weeks, I’ve followed events from a distance, and have to admit that I’ve been surprised with the general response once it was finally clear the stalling tactics were coming to an end.
Rather than look at ways to help those individuals and small businesses who have lost out, people seem to be saying we need to “move on” with great haste. Perhaps the most appropriate thread on here was the one started by "001", which had an aim of helping creditors in mind, but it doesn’t seem to have ended up with any tangible activities being kicked off as a result.
The various creditors, many of whom are fellow fans, and others who provided invaluable service to the club, surely deserve better than to feel they have been left to fend for themselves without any assistance from those who once supported their club.
Rather than make this a really long post, I’ll perhaps give a few headline ways I think these creditors could be helped, and then expand on them in separate threads so others can comment.
At first glance some of these might look unlikely to help the creditors get anything from what might be an empty pot, but they might result in either the pot getting bigger, or alternative financial or other assistance being given. If we accept that those responsible for the demise of R&DFC are keen for all the attention about what has gone on to die down, or for focus to switch to other enterprises such as AFC R&DFC, ensuring the plight of the creditors is not “forgotten” by the rest of us might just make those responsible either soften the blow for some of them, or help the administrator find some extra funds as they go about their job.
1. Publicity of Creditors Plight
2. Clarification on legal entities / responsibilities
3. Support from Fellow Fans with appropriate skills
4. Working With The Administrators.
5. Pressure from Irthlingborough Council
6. Pressure from other councils / institutions
7. Pressure on / from Grant Providers (e.g Youth Funding)
8. Pressure on major creditors
9. Pressure on the FA
10. Pressure on the Conference / Other Clubs
11. Pressure on the Landlord / Lease Holders / Covenant Holders
12. Pressure via the RDFC Trust
13. Raising money to help creditors
14. Longer term commitments to compensation
15. Raising awareness of what went on – and what went wrong - to facilitate / assist other investigations.
Hung Out To Dry?
Re: Hung Out To Dry?
Excellent, Formic. We all want to look forward and move on with AFCR&D but we should not forget or forgive. Many people lost money. Some lost a lot of money. We all lost hopes and dreams. Max's admirable vision was hijacked and perverted by the cohorts of the Essex mafia. We should not allow them to slip away quietly into obscurity, still less allow them to resurface and cause untold pain and damage to any other club and its supporters - and I even include our rival Northamptonshire teams in that. We must keep on asking questions and even pursue them with the full power of the law so that those who suffered most are duly recompensed.
Re: Hung Out To Dry?
Thank you Formic for the time you spent on these threads. The plot thickens, and personally I hope what goes around comes around to those responsible for killing our club.