Fan-owned Toon. Bet your pension on it.

Posted on August 31st, 2009 | 11 Comments |

Barcelona-style Toon via Roberts.
Barcelona-style Toon.
Remember Graham Roberts and his plan to put Newcastle United in the hands of the fans?

I thought that had faded into oblivion. In fact I thought it was a complete non-starter and imposed a reporting embargo on myself about it, but I’ve lifted it in the interests of amusement.

It seems this bid is still simmering away and Sky Sports are reporting that Graham Roberts thinks his chances of turning the Toon into a Barcelona-style club are 75%. Things didn’t get off to a good start though. Roberts said:

There’s a few people who have put some money together, we went to meet the Newcastle board but they didn’t turn up. [Derek] Llambias didn’t show up, we had the financial director and the club secretary.”

That doesn’t sound too promising, although I suppose they could have sent the tea lady.

Roberts goes on:

They think we’re just wasting their time but let me assure them… we’re not.

We want to do a Barcelona. You get the supporters to buy into the football club, they have six or seven proper members on the board, you have a chairman who is voted as President, and the supporters who invest get financial gain back out of it.

We’re not sure how much they would have to invest, maybe between £10,000 and £20,000, but you can do it through your pension scheme and the supporters who have invested gain a dividend each year – plus they get a season ticket out of it.

Well I’m a passionate Toon fan but I’m not so sure I’d risk my pension on it. Anyway, Roberts continues:

The Supporters’ Trust is on board, they think it’s a wonderful idea, I’ve got 2,500 members who are all going to join up to this, one fella phoned us on Friday night and gave us a £1 million donation. “We’ve got some money already [among the founders of the consortium], it’s not the £100 million but we’ve got somewhere near that.

And the way this works is, under our plan, the club becomes very very rich.”

Roberts claims that Newcastle’s debt is more than the debt figures released to the public:

I can’t divulge the club’s current debt, it’s not massive, but there are other things that the football club are not letting out.

The overdraft is what has been released into public domain, but we’ve got accountants working on it, doing due diligence on it, and they’re coming up with other things.

I’m guessing this is the money still owed on outstanding transfers which, if I remember correctly, goes way back to Freddie Shepherd’s tenure.

And of course Shearer would be appointed manager:

I would say there’s a 75 percent chance we could do thisI’ve got a big meeting on Monday, and it’s a chance for the football club to be a wealthy football club.

All we would do is set it up, the fans would then pick their president. They’re talking about Barry Moat taking over but he can’t get the money.
If he wants to have a meeting with us maybe we could all get together and he can be the chairman.

Alan Shearer would be manager because the fans want that.

The money generated by this system would clear anything the club has got. It would give Alan Shearer £20-25 million to spend on players every year.”

So there we have it – easy! I’m reimposing my reporting embargo on this nonsense again now.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:


11 Responses

  1. If he has 2,500 members already will to put at least 10,000 in each. Then would he not already have 250 million?? Is my maths wrong here? This has to be a wind up. Skysports are just looking for site visits with a story like this.

  2. 2,500 x £10,000 = £25 million (Dublintoon check your maths)
    50,000 worldwide averaging £2,500 = £125 million to buy club and provide working capitol and some transfer funds.Many worldwide supporters would invest much more than £2,500 meaning less well off could invest say £500 – £1,000.
    I suspect its pie in the sky and too late but in my opinion of course it could work

  3. Just posted this on the other – This was the real interview with the edited pieces put back in.

    “There’s a few people who have put some money together, we went to meet the Newcastle board but they didn’t turn up. [Derek] Llambias didn’t show up, he wouldnt see me without my shrink, we had the financial director and the club secretary photographs in our hand as we walked around the ground, but we couldnt see them,”

    “They think we’re just wasting their time but let me assure them… we’re not..I have some very good ideas for the colour we can paint our faces at childrens open days.”

    “We want to do a Barcelona because Barcelona rhymes with Newcastle. You get the supporters to buy into the football club – I have a piggy bank, its pink, if everyone empties their piggies we can either buy the club or black bullets, I hope we buy black bullets or a duck or a bike, they have six or seven proper members on the board, they go missing at christmas to play snow white and the seven dwarfs – I wanna be a dwarf, can we play on the swings, you have a chairman who is voted as President, and the supporters who invest get financial gain back out of it because the black bullets can be sold in countries where they dont have them – we will make a lot of money from our bullets.”

    “We’re not sure how much they would have to invest, maybe between £10,000 and £20,000, but you can do it through your pension scheme – please give me your money, I will buy lots of medicine so I dont flip out and spend it, sell you houses and I guarantee to get you a wendy house each in 5 years, and the supporters who have invested gain a dividend each year – plus they get a season ticket out of it – I understand they wont have anything left – but anyone who sold their underpants to invest is guaranteed a 3 pack from poundstretchers of we get promoted . Imagine that 3 pairs of underpants”

    “The Supporters’ Trust is on board, they think it’s a wonderful idea, I’ve got a brand new combine harvester and I’ll give 2,500 members who are all going to join up to this the key, one fella phoned us on Friday night and gave us a £1 million donation. I have invested that in a wind farm on the moon – we will buy kaka and ronaldo and geronimo with that – I have also asked my uncle forrest who is the bestest runner to sign for us, he will if you sell your house for him”

    “We’ve got some money already [among the founders of the consortium], it’s not the £100 million but we’ve got somewhere near that, £5.50 is somewhat near it – I have a big old shrimp I am going to auction it will buy us a great deal.”

    “And the way this works is, under our plan, the club becomes very very rich – if we do this, I intend to set up the first stadium on Mars – imagine that if we get all the support there we will control that world – we will be the biggest club there – Sky will cover us – we will be the biggest club in the solar system”

    Invest in me – you know you want to. Got to go – the vans out looking for me.

  4. Sorry Tadger… was hung over when i did the maths, feeling better now. I want to get involved, how do i give away my 10 grand to this consortium?

  5. Stardust says:
    August 31, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    Stardust, the gadgie’s so radgie anyway, it’s still hard to spot the wind-up bits in there! :-)