Marilyn Knatchbull Hugessen answers questions (5 Viewers)

[Ian1779]

Yes a purpose built stadium built for our football club and not by our football club. You keep having a go at Higgs. So what have they done wrong other than to help our club? SISU have made many allegations against them and not had a shread of evidence once. Higgs have tried to deal with them a few times. They even offered their share for 1m less than they paid for it. You admitted that SISU have been a disaster for our club but expect everyone to treat all sides the same.

To be fair I've mostly had a go at ACL and CCC.

You say that Higgs and SISU have tried to do dealings a few times, so clearly they feel there is some shared vision between them. But it falls apart every time CCC get involved.

I get that SISU are hated, they've fucked up royally. But they still pay the wages for players and Pressley. They have given both him and Robins a reasonable competitive squad for League 1, and both managers have been supported sensibly. I would love it if we had different owners, but the same issues will remain until the club have control of it's financial destiny. You can blame SISU for lots of things - but they are dead right about that.

 

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[James Smith]

When Sisu came in and acquired us I was supportive because they had money and I thought knew what they were doing. I assumed that they would buy back the Higgs share at a cheap price thanks to a formula I never knew existed at the time. Then we'd have 2 seats on the ACL board, a chance to change the lease terms, lower the rent, get more of the matchday revenues etc. Now I don't class myself as a financial wizz (I hoped Sisu, RR and Onye were) but it seemed obvious to me that we needed to get the fixed costs down first. Then we could turn our attention to the pitch and the team. If you don't fix the foundations then whatever you build on top is at risk.

After a few seasons and having proved ourselves as suitable custodians of half of ACL we could have made an offer for the other half. With everything else the Ricoh had going on we could have been self sufficient. Sisu decided that they were going to do something different and look where that got us. Yes the rent was too high but CCFC never had serious negotiations about the rent or the Higgs share before starting the boycott. They also considered closing the Academy and got us booted out of the only Category 2 facilities available in the area that were built for us by the Higgs. All for the cost of fixing a specialist lawnmower. We're lucky that the Higgs Centre agreed to take us back.

 

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So basically Higgs are at fault because they did not offer the club their share at a reduced rate despite their being a formula in place. Also they are at fault because the Ricoh does not let the public play their for free. Finally they are to blame as they have only gifted the club a certain amount of money - it should have been more than any other investor ever.

You've certainly won me over with your arguments. Which side of the 50p coin are we going to discredit next? Ron the groundsman had a part to play in all of this. Did you know he actually got paid a wage to cut the grass taking valuable cash streams away from the club. He invested zero into the club but took out tens of thousands.

At least SISU still pay the boys wages. Lets all look forward to a reasonably competitive division 3 team for next season made up of loans and kids with price tags on their heads.

Some will believe anything that anyone connected to the club tells them and call it support. It's a good job we can trust the owners to tell us the real facts.