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I played golf with a Southend fan yesterday and spent 4 hours talking mainly about dodgy football club owners.
I mentioned that they were in the high court on Wednesday and he announced that he'd been to the hearing. Turns out that Wednesday was their 18th winding up hearing and although HMRC were the main sponsor, a couple of other companies jumped on the bandwagon, one of whom were the club sponsor. He described the court as more of a room full of barristers and the court had one hour allocated to deal with 50 cases, most of which took 30 seconds. In a typical case, barrister stands up states this company owes £220k haven't answered any letters for 18 months and the judge says "granted, next case"
He reckons there are a tangled web of 14 companies involved in or linked to the ownership of Southend Utd and Roots Hall, but all roads lead back to a guy called Ron Martin, a property developer. Seems a lot of people are lined up to make money when Roots Hall is redeveloped for housing but the saving grace is a covenant which specifically states that this can't happen until a new ground is built
Seems our Ron is actually a Southend fan who has bankrolled the club but wants his money back through future property opportunities. Any bells ringing??
I know we have things to gripe about occasionally, but I can't believe how lucky we were to be taken over by the current owners and escape the national league at the first attempt

Quoted from buckstown

I played golf with a Southend fan yesterday and spent 4 hours talking mainly about dodgy football club owners.
I mentioned that they were in the high court on Wednesday and he announced that he'd been to the hearing. Turns out that Wednesday was their 18th winding up hearing and although HMRC were the main sponsor, a couple of other companies jumped on the bandwagon, one of whom were the club sponsor. He described the court as more of a room full of barristers and the court had one hour allocated to deal with 50 cases, most of which took 30 seconds. In a typical case, barrister stands up states this company owes £220k haven't answered any letters for 18 months and the judge says "granted, next case"
He reckons there are a tangled web of 14 companies involved in or linked to the ownership of Southend Utd and Roots Hall, but all roads lead back to a guy called Ron Martin, a property developer. Seems a lot of people are lined up to make money when Roots Hall is redeveloped for housing but the saving grace is a covenant which specifically states that this can't happen until a new ground is built
Seems our Ron is actually a Southend fan who has bankrolled the club but wants his money back through future property opportunities. Any bells ringing??
I know we have things to gripe about occasionally, but I can't believe how lucky we were to be taken over by the current owners and escape the national league at the first attempt

Even Scunny did that this season though! ;D

Quoted from Les Brechin

Even Scunny did that this season though! ;D

Ha ;D

The court was "a room full of barristers" - what was he expecting, a mix of brickies, crystal shop owners and a smattering of lion tamers?!

;)

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

The court was "a room full of barristers" - what was he expecting, a mix of brickies, crystal shop owners and a smattering of lion tamers?!

;)

Most mornings I just see a room full of baristas

Kieran Maguire hinted at positive news for Southend fans that couldn’t reveal on this weeks Price of Football news podcast. Given his opinion of Ron Martin it can only point to his exit from Southend.

Quoted from buckstown

I played golf with a Southend fan yesterday and spent 4 hours talking mainly about dodgy football club owners.
I mentioned that they were in the high court on Wednesday and he announced that he'd been to the hearing. Turns out that Wednesday was their 18th winding up hearing and although HMRC were the main sponsor, a couple of other companies jumped on the bandwagon, one of whom were the club sponsor. He described the court as more of a room full of barristers and the court had one hour allocated to deal with 50 cases, most of which took 30 seconds. In a typical case, barrister stands up states this company owes £220k haven't answered any letters for 18 months and the judge says "granted, next case"
He reckons there are a tangled web of 14 companies involved in or linked to the ownership of Southend Utd and Roots Hall, but all roads lead back to a guy called Ron Martin, a property developer. Seems a lot of people are lined up to make money when Roots Hall is redeveloped for housing but the saving grace is a covenant which specifically states that this can't happen until a new ground is built
Seems our Ron is actually a Southend fan who has bankrolled the club but wants his money back through future property opportunities. Any bells ringing??
I know we have things to gripe about occasionally, but I can't believe how lucky we were to be taken over by the current owners and escape the national league at the first attempt

4 hours, that's a slow round...