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Zone Update Shrimpers Trust Statement

Who knows, maybe its all a big show Ron wants to put on.

How good would it look for him if he strode out onto the pitch at half time during the Gills game, grabbed the mic and said... "thank you for all your continued support, just to let you know, i've just TT'd over £660k to HMRC, so lets rest easy, and enjoy the second half"...

or maybe im just being hopeful!
 
Who knows, maybe its all a big show Ron wants to put on.

How good would it look for him if he strode out onto the pitch at half time during the Gills game, grabbed the mic and said... "thank you for all your continued support, just to let you know, i've just TT'd over £660k to HMRC, so lets rest easy, and enjoy the second half"...

or maybe im just being hopeful!

I'd prefer a novelty sized cheque, three Sun page three models and Gaby Roslin announcing it.
 
Should any money raised be used to pay off the tax bill/given to the club, there must be conditions, ie seats on the board to, at least, ensure that the club is run with some degree of transparency in future
 
Should any money raised be used to pay off the tax bill/given to the club, there must be conditions, ie seats on the board to, at least, ensure that the club is run with some degree of transparency in future

RM has stated the fans shouldn't fundraise, anything that is raised will go to the Trust anyway.
 
I to applaud supporters for being proactive and the next few days will determine whether that is needed.

----

Thats the worrying bit right there!
 
How good would it look for him if he strode out onto the pitch at half time during the Gills game, grabbed the mic and said... "thank you for all your continued support, just to let you know, i've just TT'd over £660k to HMRC, so lets rest easy, and enjoy the second half"...

It'd look to me like he was worryingly out of touch with money transfer speak!
 
I'd prefer a novelty sized cheque, three Sun page three models and Gaby Roslin announcing it.

sorted (almost)

rescueron.jpg
 
Just got in and had an opportunity to flick through this thread.

Well done to everybody connected with the Trust. The next few days and weeks should continue to be a case of "hope for the best but prepare for the worst."
 
Statement Update - 28.10.09

Further to the statement issued earlier, the Shrimpers Trust would like to update fans on its current position (Wednesday 28th October, 23:00).

The Chairman of the Football Club, Ron Martin, was contacted early this morning by Trust Chairman Paul FitzGerald and, after some debate, agreed to a daily status call.

At 22:00 on Wednesday, Mr Martin discussed the day's events with Paul. Understandably, Mr Martin has been busy with his lawyers and other interested parties as well as meeting with the potential administrators as a courtesy.

Mr Martin has re-iterated that it is still his intention to pay the outstanding debt and not avoid it by going into Administration. He understands supporters' frustrations but is unable to provide any further information at the present time due to commercial concerns.

As stated before, Mr Martin does not wish supporters to have to donate money but understands their wishes and concerns and therefore will not stand in the way should supporters want to do this.

Both parties have agreed to talk again tomorrow (Thursday).

Many supporters will have seen plenty of activity and progress in the press and other media in the highlighting of our plight and the pledges of support are encouraging. We have welcomed new members today and designed potential merchandise, whilst new Facebook groups have been created, plus an official Twitter account (twitter.com/shrimperstrust) which we will grow with your help over the next period.

We have also received several unusual offers of help and we will try to deal with all of them when we can, although this may take some time. Please bear with us if an e-mail or offer goes unanswered for a while.

As mentioned before, we have a regular dialogue with Supporters Direct who are advising on several issues, one of which is fundraising.

In response to fans' wishes - and after much discussion on the right timing with various parties - we intend to start fundraising tomorrow (Thursday 29th) via our website and then make a decision about Friday’s game after advice from the Police, Council and the Football Club.

The Trust would like to thank all those that have offered help and those that have helped already, and would hope that we can all work together to save our club.


All of the Trust Statements regarding the current financial plight SUFC finds itself in can be found on the Trust Website by clicking here.
 
Other interested parties? Who might that be? Investor/saviour or other creditor?
 
Statement Update - 29.10.09

The night is young as they say – but to be honest it could be younger….The Chairman of the football club has not made contact today - despite assurances that he would and despite several attempts to reach him.

Supporters may choose to draw their own conclusion from this. The Trust finds this disappointing and unlikely to help the situation. One wonders what the other SUFC directors make of all this – tomorrow I guess it’s time to find out.

During last night’s call, Mr Martin asked whether any statement needed to be made. Bearing in mind there are now 4 working days left before the next High Court Hearing, the Trust was in no doubt that there was.

Many rumours have been noted from various sources today and the Trust will not comment on them – but the undeniable fact is, that if Mr Martin does not find 690K by next Tuesday (and then presumably a lot more soon after) that our club will be placed in Administration.

We will attempt to contact Mr Martin again tomorrow (Friday).

On a more positive note - the Trust continues to work with various parties to highlight the plight of the Football Club and to seek advice for planning/funding purposes

The Save Our Southend United Appeal has been successfully launched, it has elicited a good number of donations totalling over £1000 within an eight hour period, this is a tremendous start, for which we are very grateful.

However, sadly as previously stated, any monies raised are unlikely to make a significant difference to the debt owed by our club and will make no difference at all to the HMRC. However, many individuals have contacted the trust with a variety of ideas and practical offers of help - ideas ranging from benefit gigs, football matches, merchandise and auction goods are amongst them - All of these are being progressed

Several more unusual ideas have been proposed and we are considering all of these too.

Supporters Direct are continuing to advise and many individuals, including several celebrities, have offered to help.

After much discussion, we have decided to go ahead with a bucket collection at tomorrow’s game and hope supporters will give generously to this – let’s hope the players appreciate what we are doing and reward us with three points to give us all some temporary respite from the gloom.


All of the Trust Statements regarding the current financial plight SUFC finds itself in can be found on the Trust Website by clicking here.
 
The fact Ron isn't keeping his word can only mean its not good news otherwise he would want to sing it from every rooftop. Silence says a 1000 bad things of which 1 is likely to be right!
 
Statement Update - 31.10.09

The Shrimpers Trust is interested to see that Ron Martin, Chairman of our football club has made another statement regarding an "indebtedness" and the possibility of it being paid. Sadly, once again, Mr Martin has not returned calls, despite initial assurances that communication would be daily.

The Trust considers Mr Martin's failure to speak directly with our own Chairman, Paul FitzGerald, counter-productive and urges him to make contact as soon as his schedule allows. There are a number of questions which remain unanswered and, in particular, we would like to seek clarification on the total indebtedness that Mr Martin aims to pay at this stage.

We continue to hope that a rabbit is pulled out of the hat before Wednesday, but consider that Mr Martin's assertion that HRMC have behaved in a "Machiavellian" way quite extraordinary. The suggestion that they have in some way burdened the Club is completely misleading; HMRC are merely looking to recoup the money that is owed to them and could, if they wished, have wound-up Southend United FC last week.

Talking of last minute miracles, well done to the football team and management last night, for it cannot have been easy or motivating to have the prospect of Administration hanging over them.

Finally, The Trust would like to thank all those who contributed to the collection tonight and a special thanks to all those who helped organise this. Later today we will announce details of the money raised and some of our plans for the coming week.


All of the Trust Statements regarding the current financial plight SUFC finds itself in can be found on the Trust Website by clicking here.
 
I've got no qualms with the trust, I think it's imperative they get involved and I dumped £20 and all the change I had in the buckets last night... but at a time when we really do need to stick together, I have to say I do find the current Trust Trend to question RM within every statement counter-productive.

By all means, if we're in Admin come Wednesday then question him all you like, but to be criticising his handling of an event that has yet to come to pass is slightly odd.
 
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