Southend United fan letter: It's time for a complete forensic examination of the club's finances

Evening Echo · Dec 2, 2020

ANOTHER frustrated Southend United fan has contacted Echosport to have his say.

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ms brush · May 1, 2021

Just re-read this again, on the back of today's heartbreaking fall into oblivion.

I believe that this fan is right, we do need a forensic investigation into the accounts, going right back to when a certain Mr Martin came riding in as our saviour from the darkest days of Vic Jobson and co.

I can't believe that the historic debts of the club were bad enough for the chairman to systemically change the ownership of the clubs assets, including the stadium, which was funded and built by the fans in the 1950s, to come under the control of a web of companies with seemingly no other assets, despite the appearance of wealth. Seems to me that the business practices are interesting at best, and certainly not transparent.

Even if the ground was used to leverage a loan to pay off debts and the club has been paying this back, it has been a 20 year long repayment that appears to have got us further into a hole - with the gamble on future developments to get the club out of trouble. Seems more like a house of cards, where a long game of Russian Roulette has been going on to me, and tonight, we lost the gamble!

I know these are private limited companies, but even so... interesting that our turnover was approx £6m, and since the last accounts were filed, player salaries and staff costs have plummeted, but i bet the cost of the lease to use RH and RMs "consulting" costs make up a fairly chunky percentage of turnover.

I just find it interesting that a successful property developer has a need for a myriad of companies that file accounts late consistently, fail to pay tax bills on time, and which seemingly doesn't actually build or develop anything (at least publically)! I know there is still a pandemic going on, but that has only been the last 15 months. Meanwhile, there is a construction boom going on across the country and the housing market is going berserk, so you would expect some other focus rather than the obsession with FF. At the same time, our club is on the brink, and we have just witnessed the darkest moments in our history, so I think it is time to plan and look forward. To understand where we need to focus to get back into the EFL, i think we also need to understand what went so horribly wrong.

I believe that this starts with the financial situation, which our esteemed chairman has sole sight of. There is a moral responsibility to the fans here, and I think we need some answers.