Those of you who follow our social media channels will have seen a couple of posts about a MailOnline story this week.
The story is pretty concerning, not least because it levels several accusations against our (former?) owner and puts our club – the club we love – in comparison with Bury, Southend and a whole host of football league clubs who have been through the financial wringer over the last 15 years.
It’s been bothering us enough that we thought we’d come here and expand a little bit on why we’re so worried – and why it’s pushed us to a pretty drastic conclusion. More on that later.
Firstly, the article is incredibly long. This isn’t some gutter rag hit piece. We thought the journalist had put time into the article – and he said as much on Twitter.
The basis of the story comes from a brief which is currently sat with political advisors in the government department responsible for bringing forward the new football regulator.
Now the brief alleges that the Dr Al-Humaidi may have used club for “improper means”.
That’s a fairly vague but substantial allegation. Clearly, we’re not operating some type of underground murder syndicate – so you’ve got to assume it’ll be some type of financial issue.
Now the Dr has issued a statement to the paper: ‘It is wholly false to suggest that I have supported any unlawful behaviour or activities, and I am confident that any enquiries into these matters would reach the same conclusion.’
That sounds a little bit like a politician’s answer. We really don’t like the implication that there may need to be “enquiries into matters” or the choice of “unlawful” when the accusation was “improper”. That sounds like trying to get out of something on a technicality, rather than flat-out being able to say that the club, or anyone around it, has had not engaged in any improper behaviour.
Fans will remember that we abruptly moved on from the Dr to one of his family members following the Dr’s bankruptcy last year, something you would assume would insulate the club from any potential wrongdoing.
But the article casts doubt on that fact, stating “The secret dossier seen by MailOnline levelled serious accusations at Dr Al-Humaidi, claimed he is the subject of an international arrest warrant and said he remains the ultimate owner of Ebbsfleet United, despite his bankruptcy.”
Now at this point the piece starts to turn towards the political ramifications of the Dr’s involvement with the club given the Governments imminent establishment of a new football regulator.
This regulator has been long touted, and has the support of both political parties, so it seems likely that it will come through quite soon and have significant power.
The regulator is designed to help protect fans and community assets from a rogue owner – basically stopping situations like Bury found themselves in.
The government will want an early win on this – and now they have this brief on Fleet, we’re quite worried that we’re going to end up as the test case.
And those are some hefty hefty charges.
The last thing we need is the government meddling around with the club while we’re in such a dire position in the table.
Whilst the Dr might refute the details, it is still extremely concerning to hear these kinds of things levelled at his ownership and our club. And you have to admit that transferring Fleet to his cousin, with next to no scrutiny and fan engagement, looks more than a little suspicious.
This is the second or third story in the last year that has begun to link the Dr’s ownership to the financial mess caused by the failed London Resort – and as long as that saga persists, it looks like there are going to be serious questions about the club.
So right here, with the club set to fall out of the National League, we’re calling for a change.
It’s time for a new era at the club. We need to strip out everyone at the top and find a new owner more concerned with stable ownership and progressive squad building than theme parks and apartment blocks. Let’s get back to the basics of what a football club should be.
The last decade has been a rollercoaster. When we’ve been up, we’ve had a lot to thank the owner for. But we look set to head down again now, and it’s time to shed the grey cloud that’s sat over us for too long and get our priorities right.
