You'd think a vote would be easy enough to sort out these days, but not if you're MyFC. Since Carlos Karani Kabir became interested in EUFC a few weeks ago, Fleet fans have been pleading with their owners to put a vote up and move the Club on. After many discussions on the MyFC forum, a vote was put up two to three weeks later, but none of the options involved selling/giving the club to Carlos. Their were three options on the vote, and these were:
Option 1. Offer 50% of our of our 75% share ownership to the Fleet Trust supporters group with a view to the fans being allowed to accept the proposal by Carlos Kabir and passing them on to him. The remainder of our shares we will offer to MYFC member and ex club chair Phil Sonsara who has loaned in excess of £200k to the club. The purpose of this is to enable him to have some leverage at the club so that he may be in a position to retrieve some or all of his loans in the future and as an acknowledgement to his support for the club over the last three years.
Option 2. Offer for sale sufficient number of shares at a price that is sufficient to clear the immediate debt of the club while maintaining our majority share ownership and therefore continuing as majority owners of Ebbsfleet United as detailed in the club meeting of Monday 15 April.
Option 3. Instruct the club Chair to put the club into administration with immediate effect.
Option one was as it says. MyFC would pass 50% of their shares to the Fleet Trust and the other 25% to director and former Chairman Phil Sonsara. The Fleet Trust would then be able to give their 1% stake to Carlos along with the 50%, meaning the Spaniard would then be the majority owner of the Fleet.
Option two is a little delusional in my opinion. MyFC cannot fund the Club with their low numbers and seem to be dragging the Club down even more yet they want to continue as majority owners and sell a small percentage?
Option three is ludicrous. Why would you choose to put the club into administration?
Anyway, the vote was put up on Friday 19 April and lasted until Monday 22 April at 11:00am. A total of 615 people voted and the results were as follows:
Option 1. 430 votes. (69.92%)
Option 2. 106 votes. (17.24%)
Option 3. 68 votes. (11.06%)
I am undecided or abstain. 11 votes. (1.79%)
It was clear from the beginning that option 1 would win the vote and it was also clear that it would be the best way forward for the Club.
After the vote, there was a post on the MyFC forum saying that the majority needed to be "75% for a vote of this magnitude". I'm not saying it's wrong, as it may well be right, but it should have been made clear before the vote what the majority needed to be.
Another thing wrong with the vote. Why would 68 people want to voluntarily put the Club into administration? It just doesn't make sense. The amount of people who have claimed that they "care about the club" is unreal. By voting to put the Club into administration is showing you do not care. There are other options and avenues that can be explored before administration. I feel those who voted this option should feel a little embarrassed. To be honest, it should never have been an option in the first place!
Fleet Against MyFC (FAMyFC) the supporters group against the owners released the following statement this afternoon:
"We are delighted that 70% of My Football Club members saw fit to realise that their model of ownership does not work.
We now call upon the members of My Football Club to relinquish their shares as per the wishes of their members, so that the club can both negotiate with their potential investor & avoid administration.
We will, however, highlight that in voting to hand them to the Fleet Trust, that they have ignored the vote of the Fleet Trust members.
Although not ideal we hope that the Fleet Trust can seek a solution and work with the club to end the hopeless ownership of My Football Club and that a swift agreement with Carlos Kabir Kurani can be arranged. Failing this we believe the Fleet Trust are better placed to resolve the issues the club is facing, and in finding genuine investment, than My Football Club.
We now await the outcomes of the meetings that the Fleet Trust plan to have this week & will make no further statements without additional information.
We hope that the Trust can reach agreement with our potential investor & act quickly to remedy the situation we find our club in.
We urge My Football Club to issue an unequivocal statement that this vote is now binding and will not be subject to vetoes or other complications that would cause further delay when time is of the essence for the continued existence of our football club."
The Fleet Trust released the following:
"The Fleet Trust Board note the result of the vote taken by MyFC members which was published earlier today. Representatives of the Trust Board will be attending meetings this week to discuss the outcome of the vote. No further comment will be made by the Fleet Trust until those meetings have taken place."
Before releasing another statement on Monday night:
"Representatives of the Fleet Trust Board met this evening (Monday 22 April) with the EUFC Directors - Jessica McQueen (Chairman) & Phil Sonsara - as a result of the MyFC vote to transfer two-thirds of their EUFC shares (50% of the club) to the Fleet Trust and their remaining EUFC shares (25% of the club) to the previous Chairman, Phil Sonsara.
Any process to potentially transfer shareholdings will clearly take a period of time to accomplish. In the meantime, the Fleet Trust would welcome financial donations from all Fleet fans to enable the Trust to continue working on their behalf. These can be made via our website: http://www.fleet-trust.co.uk/donate-now.php
Meetings have also been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, and a further statement will be issued in due course."
The two supporter groups have released statements, yet there is nothing from MyFC regarding a statement. You can make your own judgements on that, but to me it is clear they are nowhere near organised enough and are certainly no good to the future of Ebbsfleet United Football Club. Have they not released a statement yet because they know their time is up? Or will they take three weeks to organise one like the vote? Who knows, but I am sure we'll find out soon enough. It will be good to know what they are thinking at MyFC and if they will go through with what the members have spoken for.
FAMyFC are continuing their campaign and you can back us!
We have three Twitter accounts: @famyfc @OURfootballclub and @our_fleet
Find us on Facebook at "Fleet against MyFC"
Visit our website/blog on http://fleetagainstmyfc.moonfruit.com/ and join our forum at http://famyfc.boards.net/
We thank you for your support so far, and hope you continue do to just that. Although FAMyFC has only been around for ten days, we've done a hell of a lot in that short period of time. Perhaps MyFC could take a leaf out of our book.
We all want MyFC out...
FAMyFC.
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