We were exceptionally disappointed to read an article that received such prominence on the front page of the BBC Sport website given the lack of factual accuracy throughout and that lack of research that had taken place.
So, that the Dale Trust position is clear: No email has ever been received from Simon Stone to the Dale Trust requesting our contribution to any article.
On publication, we expressed our disappointment to the journalist via Twitter over the article, stating that we would have been more than happy to provide input into the piece before it was published.
We later invited Simon Stone to email us so that we could address the many inaccuracies within the article. 48 hours later, we have not received any response whatsoever from him. However, he was asked on Twitter if he had contacted the Club or Trust for the article and he claimed that he had done. No such contact has been received by the Trust.
The vast majority of the reporting that has covered the attempted hostile takeover over the Summer has been balanced, with many journalists taking the time to speak to the Trust for the views of the fanbase.
Publications including the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Athletic, BBC Radio Manchester, Price of Football amongst others, many of whom stated to us that they would also have to speak to those involved in Morton House in interest of balance. No such balance took place with the reporting this week on the BBC.
As well as replying to the journalist on Tuesday evening, we have joined the Club in making an official complaint to the BBC over this coverage that have portrayed a false sense of the actual events following the 1 June 2021 EGM where resolutions proposed by the Dale Trust saw the removal of David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson following a legal and democratic shareholder vote.
As things stand, we still remain open to speaking to Simon Stone and we hope that a retraction can be made of a similar profile to the original article.
In light of the article still remaining online, we felt it necessary to highlight aspects of the article that were not true and provide some context to others:
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 1:
The club’s board felt the financial position was unsustainable. They had made it a priority to seek outside investment. They were not, it has been stressed, looking for someone to plough money into the first-team squad.
Their focus was more on a decent training facilities. The club do not own a training ground and their academy, on which so much importance rests in terms of generating revenue, use local school pitches and an external indoor facility.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
We had held many discussions with the club regarding their wishes to attract an investor to the Club. We were sceptical about such a move, as the biggest issue with any investor is that they would be wanting a return on that investment – we saw that any money being taken out of the Club would only be detrimental to the Club.
The Club were adamant that it was essential to bring one in. Fleetwood was offered cited as an example, with suggestions that their Chairman was subsidising them at around £2m per season. This had led to them having first class training facilities which generated around £500,000 per season for them in additional income. It was recently reported that Fleetwood Town have made losses of £20m and owe their owner a figure of £21m.
Our concerns revolved around the reliance of the Club on one individual. We had seen so many horror stories in Football, where that reliance on one individual had led to the downfall of the Club. Sometimes this had been through incompetence on the part of the Club, sometimes with dishonourable intentions, and sometimes through no fault of any individual other than that over-reliance on one individual.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 2:
It is estimated that between 2018 and 2021, between 15 and 25 non-disclosure agreements were issued to interested parties. The board thought they had found the right man in entrepreneur and motorbike team owner Martin Halsall. Another businessman Andrew Curran had been identified as “a very useful backstop”.
After Halsall had been given a presentation by the club, he was introduced to the Rochdale Supporters’ Trust (Dale Trust). They were unimpressed at Halsall’s view he should have a charge on the club in exchange for putting his money in.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
This is false. We met had one meeting with Martin Halsall, and a second meeting with his partner Ian Bridge. Following the signing of an NDA at that second meeting, we had a further meeting cancelled at two hours’ notice, and three subsequent requests for a meeting were ignored. We had made it clear to Halsall from day one that we would have issues with anything that put the ownership of the ground at risk, but Halsall had never stated any views to us that a charge was to be put on the ground. It is our belief that Halsall withdrew his interest rather than respond to requests from others to explain his funding of the Club.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 3:
When Halsall backed away, Curran and his Morton House group became the board’s number one choice.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
We learned in July 2021 that Curran had attended the home game with Swindon Town on 13th April 2021 along with a number of other potential investors. However, Halsall had already been deemed to be the preferred bidder by the Club on this date, as the Trust actually had their one and only meeting with Halsall before the home game with Swindon Town.
It must be pointed out as well that only David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson who have sold their shares to Morton House were the ones removed by shareholders on 1st June.
None of the Directors who remained after the EGM (Tony Pockney, Andrew Kelly or Nick Grindrod) on 1st June have sold their shares to Morton House, despite efforts that have led to complaints to the Police. This would suggest that the Board never had Morton House as the number one choice at any stage despite what is claimed in the article.
Halsall withdrew his bid on Saturday 29th May and the two Directors were removed from the Board on Tuesday 1st June making it almost impossible for Morton House to be the Board’s number one choice, as they still hoped for a deal with Halsall.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 4:
The plan had been for Morton House to take a majority stake in Rochdale through private, independent deals with seven shareholders. But former chairman Andrew Kelly did not complete, which left Morton House with 42%.
Individually, none of the six completed transactions were subject to English Football League approval. However, as a whole, they took Morton House above the 30% threshold required for submission to the EFL’s owners and directors’ test.
It was the club’s responsibility to submit the paperwork. This was not done and an essential element of becoming a significant club shareholder was never completed.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
Andrew Curran stated to us in a meeting that he had already provided this proof directly to the EFL. He wrote an email to the Trust on Monday 5th July stating “I’ve also provided proof of my funds to the EFL evidencing I have the money to support the Club for the next few years”. When we published this claim on our website, the EFL contacted us immediately stating that they “cannot find any evidence of the source and sufficiency of funding on behalf of the potential purchaser having been provided to us.”
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 5:
By now, the Dale Trust had got themselves mobilised. They had seen what had happened to local rivals Bury – who were expelled from the EFL in August 2019 following ongoing financial problems – and were instinctively distrustful of the motives of anyone with no connection to the club offering to invest.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
As was set out clearly at the time, our initial concerns were why someone who lived 200 miles away with history of interest in either the Club or the Town would suddenly want to buy the Club. Those concerns were heightened when investigations into those involved brought no digital footprint. How could someone with no evidence of wealth afford to purchase a Football Club?
As days went past, the concerns grew. We became especially worried following that contact from the EFL that informed us that despite the claims of Curran and Jarvis, they did not have the shareholding that they claimed to have, and they would have broken EFL rules if that was the case. Furthermore, their explicit claims of having provided proof of funding to the EFL were denied by the EFL. At this point, we wrote to Alexander Jarvis to inform him that we would be putting out a statement informing members that the EFL had taken issue with their claims.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 6:
They felt the club had a sustainable model – buy players cheaply and sell at a profit. They want to be fan owned.
The past thirty years have proven that we have an ownership model which works. We had avoided administration unlike many of our peers, and have done so whilst enjoying the most successful spell in the history of the Club. We did not (and still don’t) have any ambitions for the Trust to own the Club. We do feel that the Club owned by a large number of shareholders works, allowing the removal of anyone felt to be detrimental to the running of the Club from the Board.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 7:
If Morton House had been open and transparent, BBC Sport has been told, they would have been welcomed by Rochdale fans. But they were not. The fans did not know where the money was coming from.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
Openness and transparency is both essential and necessary. However, to suggest that this was the only factor that led to supporter concerns about Morton House is extremely misleading. Our research into those behind Morton House brought a large number of concerns, all of which we provided to the EFL, as had their actions in their attempt to acquire further shares. There were questions on how they got hold of the contact information on shareholders and their use of the Powerpoint from the Club’s AGM that its timestamp showed that it was edited by David Bottomley, three days after he was removed from the Board of Directors.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 8:
In June, at a five-hour meeting, Rochdale directors David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson were voted off the board by shareholders. No representatives of Morton House were allowed into the meeting because their purchase had not been recognised.
DALE TRUST:
At this stage, Morton House were not even on the radar. They had not made any deals to purchase shares and therefore would not have been able to attend. We were informed by Andrew Curran in early July 2021 that the CEO David Bottomley had not returned their calls for a number of weeks preceding the EGM, but following the EGM in which he was removed from the Club’s Board of Directors, he telephoned them to instigate a deal. Curran expressed surprise at this as there had been no contact from him for a number of weeks. This again disproves any claims that Curran/Morton House was the Board’s Choice at any stage.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 9:
With the atmosphere turning increasingly toxic, Curran stepped away. The EFL began an investigation.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
As reported in the Daily Telegraph and Manchester Evening News, the EFL had already started their normal checks required investigating those involved in the hostile takeover, and it was the lack of cooperation into that investigation which prompted the withdrawal rather than “the hostility” from supporters. The above line would falsely suggest that the investigation followed Curran’s decision to pull out.
It also fails to take into consideration the Zoom meeting between the EFL and Morton House in which homophobic language, offensive comments and threatening behaviour was used in relation to the Club’s Board of Directors, something ignored when “hostility” is referenced.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 10:
In the meantime, Morton House agreed to sell 25% of the club to Matt Southall, who was formerly chief executive at Charlton and heavily involved in their ownership dispute that attracted so much controversy in 2020.
BBC Sport understands Southall, who has recently moved to Dubai with his family, has no desire to get involved in the day-to-day running of Rochdale.
However, it is also known Southall has an agreement to increase his stake in Dale should Morton House get hold of Kelly’s shares – which are now the subject of a legal dispute – and take its holding over 50%.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
Southall claimed to have an exclusive deal with Morton House to purchase their shareholding. He stated his initial interest was to purchase 25% of the Club’s shares as an investment. He stated that should the Courts rule in favour of Morton House purchasing Kelly’s shares, he would be interested in acquiring that share. We noted to Southall that any transaction would be a breach of EFL rules.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 11:
A number of people associated with the Morton House bid, including Curran and his relatives, were targeted. Online abuse was vicious.
In our Zoom call with Matt Southall, he stated that a Rochdale supporter had acquired the telephone number of Curran’s daughter and had rung her and made threats towards her. We immediately stated that we found this disgusting, before being asked rather bizarrely if we condoned this. Any criminal actions such as this should be reported to the Police.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 12:
Southall feels there is no reason why he would fail the EFL owners and directors’ test. Rochdale’s fans, prompted by Charlton supporters who have highlighted negativity, are keen to make sure it does not get that far and are determined to keep Southall away. A recent virtual meeting between the two parties found no common ground.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
We do not believe “Charlton supporters who have highlighted negativity”. We suggest that supporters visit https://thecharltondossier.com/ and make their own mind up whether they think there is no reason why Southall would fail the EFL owners and director’s test.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 13:
All sides now agree the current picture is one of confusion and legal debate, not helped by the fact there are almost 398,000 ‘golden shares’ lying dormant, which the club could try to raise money by selling.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
All sides do not agree that the current picture is one of confusion and legal debate. The EGM was launched and conducted with full legal approval and was given the backing of a comprehensive majority of shareholders on the night. Despite emails threatening high court acton, no legal challenges were received ahead of the EGM.
SIMON STONE BBC SPORT ARTICLE COMMENT 14:
If, for instance, Morton House bought 42% of the new shares but some of the rest went unsold, that could take them above the overall 50% threshold that might trigger a sale to Southall.
Morton House have refused to cooperate with the EFL inquiry. However, the EFL has already interviewed a number of significant people involved in the situation and their work is on-going. According to their regulations, deals done without seeking prior approval when required are regarded as misconduct, which has the potential to attract fines for individuals depending on who is viewed as being responsible.
DALE TRUST RESPONSE:
Morton House have stated to the EFL that they are withdrawing and are looking to divest their shareholding at the earliest opportunity. They do not have the clearance required by the EFL to buy shares and are currently subject to an ongoing disciplinary investigation.