The future of TUST

Good of AJ to highlight the horrendous position that Hartlepool supporters have been pushed into by reckless owners and to highlight the wonderful work that Supporters Direct has done in so many places to save or to resurrect football clubs that would otherwise have been lost.

So many clubs owe their existence to the expertise that Supporters Direct has brought to the table in assisting local trusts. As far as I know, not one of these clubs has relocated to Stalingrad or Pyongyang and no members of the bourgeoisie have been found hanging from the floodlight pylons at these clubs.

I am sure that many appreciate the wonderful work that our TUST board do and their selfless dedication to preserving the long-term future of professional football in Torquay, but some might question whether this small band of enthusiasts has sufficient knowledge or experience to know what to do when a crisis strikes. Fortunately, for just a small annual subscription, they have access to a central body that has a huge wealth of experience in these matters. Of course, a local trust has every right to refuse to learn from others' mistakes and is at liberty to refuse to take expert advice on board, but what reasonable person refuses to listen to sound advice from experts?

Hartlepool, Newport and Torquay have a hell of a lot in common. All three traditionally struggled for support in the Football League for years.

All three have been extremely fortunate to have had the backing of benevolent benefactors who possibly lulled fans into expecting more than they should expect. Lottery winners at Newport and Torquay and a Norwegian tax dodger at Hartlepool.

All three saw their benefactors back away at around the same time.

Newport grasped the nettle. The owner told the supporters the truth of the situation and, with the help of Supporters Direct, the fans united to save the club - raising capital through a community share issue and drawing on the expertise available to draw up a sustainable business plan.

How proud their fans must be of what they have achieved. How they must have enjoyed that FA Cup win over Leeds and pulling out Spurs in the next round. Look what fans can achieve when outgoing owners seek to unite them rather than seeking to divide them.

Hartlepool fans were not so fortunate. They were told to shut up, not rock the boat and leave things to those who know best. Those who said they were headed for trouble were branded as troublemakers by those who were happy with the assurances that all was well.

Then the fans, who had been told all was well, were suddenly presented with a horrible ultimatum. Hand over £200k within a few weeks or the club dies.

A nightmare scenario that I have been keen to avoid for Torquay United but I fear will come to pass.

The reflex reaction is to hand over the cash. Heart rules the head. Handing over the cash means we have a club, not handing over the cash means we don't.

But this is a far different scenario from the Newport one. This is not a case of raising capital to underwrite a long-term business plan. It is a blind panic to throw cash into a black hole. It will see the club past the next pay day, but not past the next one after that.

And those who blindly panic will accuse those who try to keep a clear head of betraying the club. Things can get very nasty.

Supporters' Direct is clearly helping by warning of the hole that the trust would have dug itself into by paying the staff their net wages and not thinking beyond that , but the kind of supporter that AJ so remorselessly parodies may struggle to keep a clear enough head to take the advice on board.

Of course, paying the staff their pay is picking up only part of the payroll tab. Roughly half as much again will be payable to HMRC - the tax and NI deducted from employees plus the employer NI contribution. A trust paying off £200k in wages in a panic would incur an HMRC liability of around £100k payable some three weeks later.

Newport, Hartlepool and Torquay are very similar sized clubs. People might say they are all small, unloved clubs but that is far from true. All have played a major part in their local communities for generations and the wider football community cares about all of them.

Hartlepool fans could raise the cash to pay off the £200k, I am sure of that. Could they raise enough to pay off the following tax bill that Supporters' Direct has so sensibly reminded them of? Maybe.

But by then the well would be dry and what would happen next? There obviously would not be enough money to pay the following month's wages. So a one-off opportunity to refloat the club would have been thrown away in order to keep the owners who got them into the mess going for another month.

What a waste of all that goodwill, all that enthusiasm and all that hard-earned cash. No wonder that Supporters' Direct pragmatically recommends that trusts "see the books" before committing cash.

How Hartlepool fans must wish that their owners had been honest with supporters in the way that Newport's had.

We have been through this one already Alpine - quoted again below.

With a local business man deciding, after looking at the books, that his proposed £1.5million cash injection would be throwing money into a black hole, it is even more important for Hartlepool United supporters to understand that it is best not to throw their money into a black hole.

Well done to HUST for being the voice of reason. Good luck to them in preserving football in Hartlepool. At least the council has not done anything daft with the freehold, so there is still some hope.

Cracking game - made a lot of money from the match plus the replay. Not sure why, but always have a soft spot for Newport.

Yeovil, how many times have they played Manchester Utd (3 times).

Exeter always seems to get a decent club.

The benefits of winning FA Cup matches...

You certainly have a good imagination Alpine. Think of it like a hustings meeting where you can talk to your elected representative about the direction of travel that you wish to take. One chap did travel down from the other side of Taunton after picking up a TUST leaflet so at least someone read it!

There came a time when the Marxists accepted that the Free Market had just made the working class too well off, too well fed, and too comfortable with an abundance of consumer goods, and that the old ‘Class War’ rallying cry to ‘oppressed ‘workers was just never going to make an impact in the prosperous West.

And we all know what tactic they turned to, yep that’s right….’Identity Politics’. They switched their more general 'the workers are oppressed' line of attack, and spread the message that, for instance, if you were Gay you should identify as a community oppressed by straight people, if you were a woman you should identify as a Feminist, as you were part of a group oppressed by men. If you had dark skin you were part of a black community oppressed by whites etc etc.

Identity Politics has knocked Class War into the very back seats, as the Left work hard on stoking up the grievance culture. Every Corbynista is well versed in this, and they push it relentlessly.

But this Hard Left doctrine isn’t confined to Labour Party branch meetings in Abbott or Corbyn’s constituencies, or among the Supporters Direct rulers also unsurprisingly are to be found up in London.

No, it can be seen far closer to home, just up the road in fact….and is just waiting for the chance to infect and then take over our football club as well. Here’s a little insight into last Thursday’s gathering of a politically correct Corbynista branch meeting.....oops no it's not, it's actually last week's Exeter City Supporters Trust meeting....Identity politics leading the way as you'd expect:






link- Exeteremists - Clearly Dyed In The Wool Cobynistas



It’s perfectly possible that many within the Trust/Corbynista movement do have a passing interest in football. But we must open our eyes to their primary motivation. While so many ordinary fans would and do avoid Trust meetings because they have no wish to indulge in discussions dripping with Left wing politics, this is the very reason that the Militants gain control and are able to get their Hard Left politics dominating Trusts up and down the country. It’s not just the Exeteremists, as they’re no exception to the rule. It’s clear to anyone who cares to look: Trusts attract Corbynistas like moths to a flame.


You don’t have to support Osborne, you can prefer different owners, but don’t believe anyone who tells you that there is only one alternative to Osborne, and that you should therefore help finance their Marxist/Corbynista takeover with your monthly membership fees. If you don’t support Osborne then root for a sensible alternative instead, rather than surrender to the all pervading political correctness that Brent Putin-ick is also now pushing on behalf of you know who.

By all means remain sceptical of Osborne, but do that without advocating the extreme alternative of consigning us to life under the jackboot of Community Communism.


#ResistCorbynism   #ResistTrust 

Alpine – not sure where to start with that post. Equating a question about diversity to an all white male board that represents the fans, to a hard left political hotbed is one hell of a jump to make?

I think you miss the point of TUST- it is only there to provide an option to keep the club going where the alternative is much worse.

All aboard the Trust bus !  We've not given it a spin for a few weeks, so today's as good as any, particularly as it'll be colder at the weekend. We're getting near that time of year where the Trusts are gearing themselves up to complain about upcoming season ticket prices. Bristol City Trust have been one of the first out of the blocks, and a special mention to the Spurs Trust who are up in arms about season ticket price proposals at the new ground before it's even been built !

But if we survey things down nearer our level and take the bus up North, it's more a case of things soon to happen, one way or another, than anything that's been resolved. The Hartlepool situation rumbles on. HUST hoping to raise funds to join a consortium mainly financed by Jeff Stelling and Raj Singh (the former Darlington Chairman), should it get off the ground. No guarantee that it will and more bills are looming.

Another episode in the fun and games at York City is due next week. On Thursday York's Trust vote on whether to hand over their 25% shareholding in the club to Chairman Jason McGill. However, with the vote getting nearer, speculation regarding Corbynite infiltration gains ground. Trust membership suddenly growing 36%, from 666 to 910 just since the end of January. Have the extreme Left been mobilised ? The result of the ballot might provide the answer.

At Community owned Chester FC things remain dire. As the local paper reported on 12th March:

'For the first time when asked if Chester would be plying their trade in the league below next season, Bignot (Chester FC's Manager) nodded in agreement and admitted high-earning players must now be moved on between now and May in order to safeguard the future of the cash-strapped club. 

Three more first-team players left Chester last week by mutual consent, with Bignot praising Jordan Chapell, Liam Davies and Paul Turnbull - who has since joined Stockport County - for their professionalism. "It's never easy for the players," he continued. "It's never easy when players want to stay and they're told they are no longer wanted'.

But let's finish with something more upbeat, and congratulate dear old Bradford Park Avenue for, in their words, deciding to 'face reality', and ditching the broken model  of ownership:


'Two years ago the club became a Community Benefit Society (a “CBS”), intending that its ownership should be spread amongst the local and regional community. However, very few new members have joined. As a CBS the club is entitled to issue Community Shares to potential investors, but the law provides for a maximum of £100,000 in community shares for any individual, which is not enough to make a crucial difference. In addition the CBS is heavily indebted to its current benefactor, and as an investment opportunity the club in its current form is unattractive'.

'The directors have decided to face reality, and they propose to change the structure of the club so that it becomes a privately owned enterprise, from which investors can potentially earn dividends or at least look to recover their investment at some point in time'.

link- Park Avenues Experiment With Communism Ends In Failure



Tickets on sale for another Trust tour again soon