Trouble at the top - Luton Town FC (merged threads)

[Seagulltonian]

I thought he looked like the Wrexham chairman in disguise. Big Oaf in a suit that was very ill-fitting

It just goes to show, never try to mess with any football club, as the supporters can come up with many ingenous was to oust any chairman who's out to make a quick buck out of their club.

Well done the Club secretary as well, she saw a rat immediately she met him

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

He had a whole London Luton range planned!

London Luton FC (Football)
London Luton Hatters (American Football/Basketball)
London Luton Irish RFC (Rugby)

You can read his reports at:

http://www.lutonfc.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1055276899,76943

and

http://www.lutonfc.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1055195089,80727

The first one is his first report on the club and includes some great stuff slagging off Joe Kinnear and the playing staff. The second one has all the genius stuff about the Formula 1 track.

 

[Albion Rob]

The club secretary was great, got her points across really well without coming over as a troublemaker or a battleaxe.

One of the supporters also made a very good point. He said that these people come to take football clubs over and think they're just dealing with a load of lager louts who can be steamrollered into believing anything. They fail to recognise that the cross-section of society that follows football means there will be some very talented people who are willing to get involved and will make life extremely uncomfortable for them.

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

I wish we'd had a programme like that when A&B were in charge. That would have helped show the nation what twats they were and exactly what they were doing to our club.

Instead we got "Goodbye Goldstone".

 

[Nobby Lawton]

John Gurney

Allegedly acquired Bedford Rugby Club fo £1, and then tried to sell the Div 1 club to Coventry. As far as I am aware, he never put more than that into the club - benefactors and supporters paid the players and staff. The supporters managed to buy him out but are still trying to pay off his legacy.

Then a couple of years later acquired Luton Town (according to the programme for £4). Same thing happened to Luton- mystery consortium and no investment whatever - players were paid by club reserves etc and supporters got him out by managing to acquire shares in the major creditor, which forced the club into administration thus forcing Gurney out.

The thing that amazes me is that any individual has the ability to do this.

As far as I can make out, Mr Gurney piad £5 for a major rugby club and a Div 1 League fottball club- never spent a penny and was eventually forced out by the supporters.

There were two common themes

A) Both clubs were sold to Gurney by individuals wishing to get out of the game and who had little real interest in the respective clubs,

B) Both governing bodies did very little to intervene on the takeovers (although the rugby authorities did eventually block the sale of Bedford to Coventry)


Amazing stuff - just watching the programme made you feel that if you have the front you can achieve these takeovers.


Now - who can we go for next? Mmmm - how about ...........

 

[fatbadger]

Last night's programme is a very good expose of the shit that goes on regarding ownership in way too many clubs. The rugby team I support is Bedford, so I knew about his background. Luton did well to get rid of him. Lucky them. Not every club manages to rid themselves of scum like this.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I missed it.

Can someone summarise what happened for me?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I missed it.

Can someone summarise what happened for me?

The three NSC threads on this have now been merged.

Can someone now re-read all posts and produce the summary that Richie has asked for?

Alternatively, Richie could read them himself.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

No need for the sarcasm Lord B, I just had not see the other threads thats all.

 

[Soton Seagull]

My flatmate is a Luton fan. He reckons they have the worst ground in the league and despairs of the mess they keep getting themselves in to. Gurney was a prize pr*ck.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Gurney is a complete knob of the highest order. Never really realised what the Luton Town fans went through over the past couple of years. He was only interested in doing one thing, and that was developing land to make himself loads of money. The football club was just going to be the lever to get permission to do it.

Does this remind you of a piece of land on the road between Shoreham and Brighton (they even helpfully named it the Old Shoreham Road), where there was once a football ground opposite a park?

 

[beorhthelm]

sad to say, im not sure theres alot that the FA/FL can do about who owns and runs a football club. At the end of the day, the club and their assets are held by a Limited company and follow the laws and regulations that companies are bound by.

Is suppose they could instigate some set of rules regarding previous/relevent experience of running clubs or sports organisations. They might be able to create a black list of directors who they deem not fit. But, unless they disbanded the existing leagues and re-established them, any club whose directors failed to meet the standards would likly be able to sue for restraint of trade or some other such legal detail.