It takes a scary kind of ineptitude to run a small community club into the enormous financial peril Lewes FC is in.
Rather than cut costs to a sustainable level, the Board of 2022/3 decided to try and sell a majority stake in the Lewes FC Women to Mercury13. Thereby intending to: 1) smash our privilege of 100% fan ownership, 2) destroying the one thing all fans and members are proud of, Equality FC, 3) doing it with such wrecking ball etiquette you manage to split a community football club in two, and 4) dump on nearly ALL of the core values of our Fan Owned Constitution. The bid fell through, but the intent of the previous Board was to sell out before the bizarre screeching U-turn. This was a failed rescue mission to save the club from what some of us have consistently warned against and highlighted – the systemic mismanagement of Lewes FC.
Systemic mismanagement means the recurrent or frequent mismanagement of a resource that is known or accepted within an organization, or that is built into an organisation’s structure, policies or practices.
This in a nutshell describes the enormous overspending on budgets when the Board have been perfectly aware it is unaffordable, and recklessly relied on the financial support of benefactors that is now seemingly being withdrawn, working under the illogical assumption everybody in the sponsorship world were desperate to be associated with the wonderful alternative Lewes FC monster they had created. The 2022/3 Board are not the only culprits. Many directors over the last few years have allowed this to spiral out of control and are just as guilty of basic irresponsibility and a disdain for the principles of sound management. Dangerously embedded within the culture of leadership at Lewes FC is an almost de facto narcissism by believing we are so much better and attractive to everyone than we actually are. Believing your own press never ends well. The fact is that after six years of using fan ownership, Equality FC and our ‘values’ to attract sponsors etc to ensure financial sustainability, and failing to do so, the leadership carry on regardless, seemingly incapable of mastering the necessity of turning the ship before it hits the land.
Mismanagement had left the club with apparently no choice but to hop into the sack with Mercury 13. Of course, there are and were plenty of alternatives to the bleak picture the Board painted during their hilarious one-sided online presentation of complete and utter bollocks at the start of the takeover process. The Board’s position was painting a doom and gloom picture, almost desperation, if we didn’t take up the Mercury13 offer, and three months later and apparently with no change to the ‘dire’ finances, hey presto the offer was unnecessary. Go figure that one! The Lewes FC board go down as magicians who can pull a real rabbit out of a hat.
We were told, at the start, that Mercury13 aligned with our values which many of us called out as rubbish from the outset and after 3 months of ridiculous upheaval at the club the board suddenly agreed with us. You couldn’t make it up.
A large chunk of supporters opposed selling 51% of the Lewes FC Women to people we knew nothing about. This would end the precious (?) pure fan ownership model at Lewes FC. Jettisoning Equality FC undoubtedly the major significant legacy of community ownership. Absolutely no guarantee whatsoever to back up the spurious claims of a trickle-down effect of extra funds for the men’s squad, amongst many other things. Nothing stacked up.
Let us remember right until the deal was jettisoned the Board vociferously supported the Mercury 13 deal whilst clearly Mercury 13 were getting the jitters; at no point did the Board share any detail of the progress; by securing a ‘yes’ vote I think many owners felt that the takeover was a done deal. However, I seemingly knew it was over before the board did. I started a Twitter (X) betting book spoof after the owner’s vote, on the chances of it falling through, but a personal techno meltdown, customary with middle aged people, saw a bit of lampooning prematurely ended! My hunch came from when the TV interviews were carried out before the vote, and Mercury 13 refused to comment, citing due diligence… Some would have expected some sort of positive commentary from them or did they already have cold feet and the process was already over?
And what a debacle it all was.
The Board were not expecting the backlash to the proposed investment. They assumed a normally placid membership who have been so conformist and compliant for so long, always would be. Most of the 2022/3 Board did not live in Lewes (I think Trevor always has) and have little or no history with the town or club and therefore did not know the whopping back-bone Lewes has. So out of touch are the Board that they assumed breaking up Lewes’ fan owned club would simply be accepted. But a vast chunk of the club, mainly local and long-term supporters vociferously opposed the deal and went, for us, pretty ballistic as the club split into a YES and NO camps. The Board proposal essentially killed off the fan harmony that has been prevalent for so long. At a community club, that is a sacred bond broken. Clever stuff!
Until I see proof to the contrary, the Board had no initial intention of holding a vote and were treading water on whether to have one or not for some time. The backlash was huge from fans and members, from both the YES and NO camp disappointed a vote was not included in the early club mutterings about the investment. The Board originally decided not to write off or commit to a vote and by the time some of us had finished with the Football Supporters Association, our governance supervisor, they were letting it be known to their half a million members Lewes FC should call a vote. To be fair, with hindsight it had earlier been decided by the Board that a vote would proceed at the time of the FSA intervention. But by now they had crossed a line in the eyes of many fans and members of credulity regarding the vote.
The vote was comedy gold democracy. In a nutshell. The Board campaigned for 8 weeks for the YES vote, telling us that to not vote YES would mean catastrophic financial doom and gloom (before handily suddenly it was not). At no point did the Board put in any effort into presenting what the ramifications the NO vote might mean for the club, a fait accompli, and how the club might have to be run in the future, an alternative plan B. But I guess why would you if you have planned plan A to succeed? To not offer an alternative strategy on such a momentous issue was outrageous. Instead, after 6 weeks of offering their vision, they condescended to allow fans to offer a NO vote alternative. The NO group had no access to crucial financial data, relying on ten-month-old accounts and no access to the fullest details of the proposed acquisition. A small group of NO supporters met and kicked off a NO campaign and had only 2 weeks, compared to the 8 of the Board, to prepare a message. A NO manifesto was written by 2 ex-Board members. Eight former directors also released a separate statement condemning the proposed acquisition. The NO campaign was able to prepare a semblance of a message – nothing like what could have been prepared if another 6 weeks had been given. This was disgusting and whoever oversaw this shambles and banana republic democracy should hang their head in shame.
The club’s amateur presentation of the deal was an unmitigated disgrace too, important meetings not set-up properly, information not consistently put on club social media. Do you ever read the weekly email? I don’t. I look to the website, fans forum and social media for information, in this case when there was any, it was erratic. One major part of the process was announced on a small Lewes Town forum and LinkedIn and no proper social club media and normal outlets. Insufficient time was given to owners to feedback and parts of the process were rushed. Critical details of how it would all work in practice were not included. How can you get it so wrong?
Of course, YES won 68% to 32%. At this level, a membership will always err on the side of Board recommendations. A good margin? Definitely not, when you see just how unfair the campaign timelines were. Fighting the club PR machine, many like me abstaining, others disinterested and the club having a 50 or 60 block vote of paid staff voting in favour. On a turnout of about 1,000, 320 NO 680 YES. I’d say in reality it was much closer.
In the end it mattered not a jot with the announcement a few weeks later after the vote that read along the lines that a mutual cessation of the deal had been agreed.
“Through our discussions, we found that whilst we shared a common belief in the future growth prospects of women’s football, the structure needed to make this specific opportunity work would be too disruptive to other values that we hold dear.
After a mutual diligence process, the parties have agreed that the club’s foundational principles diverge considerably from Mercury/13’s operating priorities, which makes a partnership challenging at this time.’’
I’m confused here. The club’s foundational principles self-sustainability, transparency, financial prudence, pure fan ownership and accountability were all totally ignored by the Board when pushing for the deal, and they signalled clear as day they were happy to drop them for money. Only one was respected by the Board, to play at the highest level possible and even then you could not do that without ignoring the major core aims which is to do that within your own financial resources. The fact is the Board signed up for a deal knowing full well our foundational principles were to be compromised it was in black and white when they announced the rough details of the proposal.
So, the club gets ripped apart and enormous time and resources have been wasted because the fundamental principles of the deal were not ironed out and agreed before we embarked on this mess. This is just ridiculous and does not stack up. Nobody with an iota of common sense would surely not iron out all of the principles and main financial agreements before presenting the deal for approval. The new Board need to action an enquiry into what has gone on here.
At the end of the day maybe it will come out in the wash. It may well just be the case that the fierce opposition and a period of reflection on how stupid the deal was made the Board come to their senses. Mercury 13, why would they withdraw? Well loads of good reasons. Let’s face it, they thought they were taking over a consistent mid-table team in the Championship, but we had tanked to the bottom during the whole ‘consultation’ process. They would have realised the task in hand was not so exciting, signing up for a relegation scrap rather than their misdirected belief of Super League glory. Realising a large chunk of the club simply did not want them and maybe a good look at the accounts during the due diligence process meant too many red flags were being waved. Probably more importantly, the rejigging of the overall structure at the top of women’s football pretty much precluded the Lewes FC Women from ever getting into the WSL, certainly with the limited funding Mercury13 were offering which a year ago would maybe have left them with a shout to achieve their aims, but with the new changes? Not a hope.
This is the crux of this article though. Did the NO campaign that opposed the deal lose the battle, the vote, but win the war? It seems to me that if it is the case the Board pulled out because our values did not align, but they felt at the start of the campaign they did; then two months of remorseless criticism and numerous members highlighting the hypocrisy of the deal, it would seem churlish to assume the Board were not swayed by the forceful opposition. It may be the case that a small group who only had those two weeks to make the case did so with such effectiveness the Board bottled it. Certainly had it gone through, the club would be a divided and angry club so maybe the board felt it best to leave well alone.
My own view is Mercury 13 were instrumental in pulling the deal, but Lewes FC Board had maybe weighed it up and were wavering too. I am exercising my right of a point of view here and speculating and not stating a fact or challenging the truth. Bottom line is, and until I see evidence to contrary, I believe financial security for three years and some real professionals involved in running the club outweighed the negatives of misaligned values, and my own view is Mercury 13 were the ones to pull the deal. But that the Lewes FC leadership were probably not that aggrieved as it presented so many contradictions and problems too. Importantly too, Lewes FC have said all along there were other financing options that we do not know about and although these were dismissed at the time of pushing the Mercury 13 deal to owners, maybe those not so good options were beginning to be considered less controversial and better options than Mercury 13.
Either way, huge energy, time and finances were invested in this deal, and it was seemingly just ended by both sides over issues that should have been dealt with during preliminary talks. Mercury13 are minted and can afford to run up costs, we are not and there has to come a point when the Board get to grips with the club finances and start running it like a proper business. You simply have no moral authority to have such a high-profile spectacle of the Mercury13 deal fall through without a thorough explanation.
It was an industrial cock-up from the start and the new Board if they are serious about running this club properly at last, need to investigate what went on and let the 2500 club owners know what happened. Isn’t that what fan ownership is about?
The Rights of Fans. 