We were delighted to find out on Friday evening that our legal battle with Morton House has finally finished. The shares are back in the hands of the Club and there will be no High Court action facing the Trust and the Club’s Directors.
This has been a war that has lasted around 18 months, and whilst many a battle has been won along the way, the most important thing of all is that the war has been won. Our Club is in safe hands and significant steps have been taken to ensure we will never be in this position again. The Club is 100% owned by those who have its best interests at heart, with the Trust holding the largest shareholding of all.
The list of thanks is limitless. The number of people who have supported this Club over the past six months goes on and on and on. This is what makes this Club different. Collectively we have looked adversity in the face and told them firmly – this doesn’t happen at our Club. What has happened is an overriding support for everything contained within the Fan Led Review. Clubs are not and should never be looked upon as cashcows by cartoon characters with pound signs where their eyes should be. Clubs are the very fabric of communities within this country and should be protected at all costs.
It has been amazing that in a town where the people already face their own personal challenges that over sixty thousand pounds has been raised in just six months to fight this off. This has not been achieved by the actions of a handful of people. The success story is our success story. Our community, football’s community, people who’ll travel hundreds of miles in midweek fully expectant of defeat, people who’ll just keep an eye out on Soccer Saturday at 5pm to see how we’ve done, people who love this Club, even people who can’t stand this Club. We’ve stood firm and said no.
And that list of people who have contributed to this includes those who have donated game after game into our buckets, those who have volunteered to shake those buckets, those who have donated pieces of Dale history to us to sell off, those who have bought those pieces of Dale history, those who have donated once, those who have donated month after month after month, those who have purchased t-shirts, the wonderful Cemetery Pub with their Dale Ale, those who attended our events, the fans’ coach to Carlisle, those who purchase Hendo raffle tickets (and we’ve still not got a winner), Kieron Maguire and Kevin Day at the excellent Price of Football podcast, Mike Minay at BBC Radio Manchester for giving us the platform to raise our worries to a bigger audience, those who have sent us individual donations that have been genuinely eye watering, and those who have given us a few pence because that’s all they could afford. It’s been a cast of thousands.
And of course, let us not forget good old Moggy who just five days before his passing was rallying the troops in the Dale Bar with a bucket in a way that only he could.
And its not just been Dale supporters. Special mention must be made to supporters of Oldham, Leyton Orient, Swindon and many, many others who have stood with us. Can you imagine how humbling it is where supporters of Derby County have donated to our cause whilst their own Club was undergoing the last rites?
It has been a collective response where people have done their bit, and everyone of us can sit back and say that we did it. Inevitably, we will have missed out those who are deserving of our thanks, and whilst it might not be said, there will always be a place in our hearts for you.
Without question, tributes must also be paid to the members of the Board that have been individually targeted through this legal action. Every one of them has joined the Board of our fantastic Club as a volunteer. We’re not talking a group of multi-millionaires for whom this was a case of loose change down the side of the sofa. Every one of them has paid substantial funds to volunteer at our Club because they support our Club and in doing so have faced a legal challenge that has threatened them and their families. This resolution could not have been achieved without them.
The bad news is that we still have a shortfall of around £2,500. The fact that we haven’t gone to the High Court doesn’t mean that we have escaped all legal bills. Our legal team have worked tirelessly over these past few months and at a rate that has been beneficial to the Club but despite all the brilliant efforts from everyone to raise money over the past few months, we still have not raised what it is needed.
Our plan to recoup the rest of that money is as follows:
- Bucket collections at the games against Crawley, Salford and Leyton Orient
- We will be running shirt auctions on Ebay over the next 4/5 weeks
- Easyfundraising will continue to raise funds
- We have a fundraising concert at the Ratcliffe Arms on October 22nd
- We will be writing to all of those who donate monthly over this weekend
- We are still taking donations through http://upthedalenotforsale.co.uk
And moving forward, we should never ever forget the fighting spirit that has ensured that this Club lives to fight another day. If our club is to be successful, this is the spirit that we need in our fanbase forever more. Let’s not reflect on those months between 2021 and 2022 where we came together, let’s make this the benchmark for moving forward. We aren’t a Club that is owned by Oil Barons or philanthropists, this is our Club and nobody is ever going to take it away from us. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Up The Dale, Not For Sale. Last Year, This Year and Forever More.