April 2022 (Page 2)

Yeovil Town chairman and owner Scott Priestnall has said the club had been “put up for sale without my knowledge” whilst talking about his relationship with supporters’ groups.

In the fifth (and final?) video update from an address he gave in the Alec Stock Lounge at Huish Park ahead of Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Stockport County, he spoke about his absence from meetings held by club’s Supporters’ Alliance.

The Alliance, also known as the Achieve by Unity Supporters Consortium, is made up of the Green & Whites Supporters Club, Disabled Supporters Association (DSA), Glovers Trust, Cary Glovers, Junior Glovers, Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust and the Bridport Glovers.

Priestnall said he had attended meetings following his takeover of the club from Norman Hayward and John Fry, the latter who established the Alliance in 2016 and attended meetings.

But, it appears the decision of the the Glovers’ Trust to activate its Asset of Community Value – see more here if you’ve forgotten what that is – and backing an offer from the Simul Sports consortium led to him not longer attending.

The chairman said: “I wanted to be in touch with supporters’ groups, I wanted them to be aware of things that were happening and I quite liked the people on the board.

“When it got to the club being put up for sale without my knowledge, that was the first issue I had, and then the second issue was one of that group was supporting a bid without knowing if they had any money and I had a real problem with that.

“When Alliance meetings are being misled, I felt like I was having to correct everything that happened in the meeting.

“I had a conversation with Rich (Rendell, chairman of the Alliance) but let’s send by next two (in command), Mark (Robinson, Commercial Manager) or James (Hillier, Stadium Manager) to attend meetings. That is where it’s been.”

Asked whether he would like to attend Alliance meetings again, the owner said he felt that it needed to come up with “some objectives” to enable him to engage.

He added: “I have spoken to Rich about trying to bring the Alliance together as one supporters’ group. It’s very unusual to have so many supporters’ groups coming in to one meeting and all having different views.

“It’s very difficult to speak to so many different groups at any one time, when they have so many different aims and objectives and I find that difficult.

“It would be great if the Alliance could be more inclusive for me or try and set out some objectives about how it wants to be communicated with by the football club rather than being sat in a meeting.”

You can read more about the Supporters’ Alliance on the club’s official website – here.

Yeovil Town owner Scott Priestnall has said he will hopes that Sports Minister Nigel Huddlestone will cancel the almost £1m of loans the club has taken out from Sport England.

The club presently owes £998,538 after taking a series of loans from a fund created to support non-League clubs during the COVID-19 pandemic when the chairman said the club “lost £1.25m in revenue overnight.”

Initially the National League, of which Priestnall is a board member, told clubs the money was in the form of grants which did not need to be paid back, but the Government’s Department of Culture, Media & Sport disagreed.

In the fourth (or is it fifth?!) instalment of video updates from an address the chairman made to supporters in the Alec Stock Lounge ahead of Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Stockport, he said: “We have taken Government funds, I have been criticised for that, I have no shame in that, nearly all National League clubs have taken grants and loans from the Government and I sit here and go – show me a different way. Quite frankly there was not another way.

“We’ve taken not as much as some other clubs and only what we needed and we have been promised as a league by the Sports Minister that over the next four years, he is working towards getting those loans written off.

“So, in hindsight, we could have done what other clubs did and took a much as we could and used it for playing squads, but I didn’t want to do that in case we get to the point where we do get to the point where we have to start paying it back over the next 20 years. Money still had to be put in to fund last season.”

Other clubs in the National League have also taken significant sums of money from Sport England with promotion-chasing Chesterfield taking £1m in loans last March, whereas others including now-relegated Dover Athletic decided not to fulfil their fixtures.

Speaking about the future plans, the chairman returned to his point about trying to secure further investment with “local business people” reportedly being lined up to join the club’s board – see more here.

He said he understood fans’ frustration him “for not being more transparent, for not talking about takeover rumours” but said he believed a takeover of the club would have been finalised by Christmas.

In Saturday’s address to fans, the chairman said that no group seeking to complete a takeover had every “put money on the table.”

He said: “Putting my cards on the table I thought there would be a new owner in place by Christmas.

“That’s not been the case, so when you look at our accounts, we have lost money again and that has had to be found and put in to the club and that will be an ongoing situation.

“The balance I need to find over the next few weeks and months with other partners to see where we are going to be in terms of a playing budget. I know now that our playing budget is going to be similar to what it has been this season.

“I would like it to be more, but that will need further investment or a way of generating revenue by increasing attendances. No-one wants to put prices up.

“I am not going to sit here and say that our long-term vision is to have a new ground with a hotel in it, our goal is short-term to stabilise a new board, so it’s not just one voice, it’s a collective approach, bringing investment to the club.

“Between us we will work on what that plan looks like; we could have that plan in a month, it could be two months, but I would like to think this summer we do have a long-term vision in place.”

Yeovil Town owner Scott Priestnall has said the the club’s financial position is “pretty healthy” and he is looking at bringing new investors in to the club.

In the third video update from an address the chairman gave a group of supporters in the Alec Stock Lounge at Huish Park on Friday – see in full here – he dismissed speculation the club could go out of business.

He said: “As well as people taking to task and criticising me, which you are entitled too because I am the decision maker, but I think you have to bring other people to task when they make statements.

“How are they backing it up? I had the accounts sent to me saying we have lost money again and blah, blah, blah.

“Yes, my goal is to get the club in to a sustainable position, it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s been losing money, but if you look at our accounts they are pretty healthy.”

The most recent accounts for Yeovil Football & Athletic Club covering the 12 months to June 30, 2021, showed that during the 12 months to June 30, 2021, the club lost just under £400,000 which takes the overall losses of £2.22m.

In the nine months which have passed since the end of last June, we know the club has taken on an additional £309,000 of loans from Sport England, bringing the total it owes that lender up to £998,538 – see more here.

In an attempt to provide an impartial view on the balance sheets, the Gloverscast spoke with football finance expert Kieran Maguire earlier this month and he said its future is secure – if the owner has a long-term interest.

He pointed out that a large part of the club’s debt is to its parent company Yeovil Town Holdings, which Priestnall also owns, and therefore if it did not call in its debts, the future was secure. You can read more about our chat with Kieran – here , or listen to him – here.

Over the weekend, the club announced the chairman was looking to “assemble a new board” with “local business people” among those interested which he reiterated in this latest video update.

He said: “I have had a number of conversations with people to join the board, from an investment point of view, to invest in the football club going forward.

“Both from a sponsorship point of view and to make funds available for the playing budget.

“I am pleased to say there has been some positive conversations on that part and I’m hoping to have a concrete framework around the board by the end of the season, so we are not in limbo during the summer. I do appreciate there has been a lot of limbo during the next few months.

“How that looks is still under discussion. Whether that means I am chairman next season has been a discussion point, how the board is formulated and how many people has been another discussion, and that is a wider discussion depending on whether they are putting money in.

“From my point of view, I am trying to relinquish control and bring others in, so it is not just one person accountable, there are others that share a common goal to work on getting this club out of this league.

“That is the main focus because there is no money in this league from a commercial point of view. I sit on the National League board and revenues are improving, but it’s a million pound per club difference in League Two.

“That just shows the difference and, in terms of playing squad budget, there’s not that much difference.”

One assumes that the discussions with these potential new directors must be at an advanced stage to enable the required fit and proper person checks to be undertaken by the National League to confirm their appointments.

However, it sounds like we will be an update on this at some point in the near future.

Contract extension offers have been made to members of the Yeovil Town squad to keep them at the club beyond the end of this season.

In the latest instalment of an update by Scott Priestnall from the Alec Stock Lounge on Saturday (unless you were lucky enough to be there), the chairman spoke about the situation with players’ contracts. Watch the update in full – here.

He said that “people forget we have players in the squad that we have options in their contracts” to extend for next season; a fact which has never been communicated by the club – but nevertheless it is reassuring to know Morgan Williams won’t have to fill all 11 positions come August.

Priestnall added: “Over the last two weeks I have met with certain players discuss the manager’s position and their position and how they feel it has gone this season and how development of the younger players has been.

“I have made contract extension (offers) to a lot of the squad that we are looking to retain and those negotiations I would expect to go on until the end of the season.

“It is not unusual to wait until the end of the season, players rarely commit before the end of the season anyway unless they are really settled, like we did with (Luke Wilkinson) when he and Lee (Collins) both signed extensions to carry on. When you have a settled way of playing, it is very important to get that commitment.”

Having added that he has “no problem with criticism“, the owner added that he felt there was improvement needed in the playing squad with a second mid-table finish on the cards in the National League.

He said: “It is my decision when it comes to player and managers, I decided with having a squad that has been exciting at times this season, we have had many plus points but it’s still not competed for promotion.

“It was also for me to see what players were potentially available and compare that to what we have got.

“I have made contract offers to a lot of players over the last couple of weeks and now I can only update when we start to announce them, but a lot of that depends on who the manager is.

“That has been a lot of conversation about who the manager is going to be and I have even asked a few of them for their advice in terms of recommendations and those who have applied.

Priestnall denied rumours that the club was going part-time next season, insisting the offers he had made to players were for full-time contracts.

He is targeting a team capable of challenging for promotion in the National League next season, but added that we will not be able to draw on the financial riches of the likes of Wrexham, Stockport County or Chesterfield.

The chairman added: “There’s been a lot of money spent in this league and no team can compete with that and has an owner that has a lot more money than I do.

“What this league has proven is it’s not always about money, it’s about having a way that works in this league. Halifax are doing unbelievably and spend substantially less than a lot of other teams and still compete.

“We have beaten big teams but we have let ourselves down against teams we should have beaten.

“That is where I have to make improvements in the squad. We haven’t had one or two that will put the ball in the back of the net and that’s been apparent all season.

“Joe (Quigley) had a good start to the season, got injured and we then sold him to Chesterfield for a lot of money and he has struggled there.

“You just don’t know at this level, but I want to keep what has been good about this year – the youth and athleticism has been great, but we’ve still missed experience and goals.”