A Hereford United supporter and member of HUST has responded in great detail to questions posed by chairman Andy Lonsdale.
Reportedly Lonsdale decided to pose his questions after watching the Hereford United supporter's protest at Kidderminster on Wednesday evening.
To start 'Lexington' outlines his thoughts and then gives his responses to Lonsdale's questions
I am a member of HUST. I decided to join earlier
in the year when things were starting to look very bleak for the club,
around the time of the last HUFC AGM when it became common knowledge via
the accounts of the club that its debt was 1 million pounds plus. I
took a look at the accounts around that time. Just purchased them online
via Companies House and was pretty dismayed by what I saw. When it
became apparent that Mr. Keyte wanted out, I thought things may be
looking up. But over the past 6 months, in my view, the situation at the
club has got progressively worse. I am writing this in response to the
club's current Chairman, Mr. Lonsdale, who is questioning the actions of
HUST with respect to its boycott of the club. I have included Mr.
Lonsdale's questions below and my answers follow.
1. Why do HUST want us out of the club?
To begin with, HUST is a collection of individuals, not a single person. You have to ask that question to each and every member. You lost me on the day you got the club relegated from the conference. You have stated that this was a "business decision" based on the fact that you didn't want to post a 350,000 pound bond. Two questions. Did you have the money to post the bond and could the bond be drawn down to settle football credits? Or did you think that you wouldn't be able to fulfill fixtures for the year, hence ran the risk of losing the bond. I cannot understand how, if you are here for the football, you deliberately relegate the club as one of your first acts. By doing so you alienate a good proportion of the fan base, your revenue stream. You also lose vital revenue because ticket prices in the Southern League are about half what they are in the Conference. But, mysteriously, you decide to run a full time squad. Why not pay the bond, go part time, keep ticket prices up and keep the fans onside. That was the first week. The last 4 months have been little better. A stream of untruths, so many unanswered questions and a total inability to engage fans. You have even resorted to publishing your pieces through Vital Bulls, a site that purports to be independent, rather than get the official club website up and running.
2. Why have they not tried to achieve a reconciliation with the club?
In my view, you should be seeking reconciliation with the supporters. It's your actions that have alienated at least 75% of those that would go (and that is a fairly conservative number based on crowd figures from this and last year, the actual number may be higher). The boycott, which occurred 6 weeks after you took over, was because you hadn't paid football creditors, although you said you had done so on a number of occasions prior to the boycott commencing. It took you the best part of 2 months in the end to pay anyone from last year. So, simple yes no questions. Have you paid all football creditors from last year? Have you paid all your employees this year? Have you paid the council? In the modern world of social media, your answers can be quickly verified.
3. They tried to buy the club and knew the level of debt before we did?
This is actually an embarrassment. You have repeatedly stated that you were the only bidder for the club. Clearly this question is a contradiction of that stance. The question also implies that you did no due diligence. We have been told by various people (yourself, Mr Green, Mr Agombar, Mr Landsman) in the past months that either you did or didn't do due diligence. Which is it? If, as the question would indicate, you didn't, how can you expect anyone to have any sympathy for this position? Publicly available information via Companies House is all HUST had. You could quite easily have got the same information as a bare minimum.
4. When David Keyte was Chairman did they boycott the games knowing the club was in financial trouble then?
The position of Mr. Keyte was that he wouldn't let the club go under. Towards the end of his tenure, as I am sure you are aware, fans successfully raised around 80,000 pounds in a couple of weeks to pay off HMRC. Mr. Keyte then indicated that he was looking to sell the club. This looked like it may be a positive. You tenure has proved otherwise. You have made little or no effort to engage the fans indeed at times it has been the opposite with both yourself and Mr. Nathan getting yourselves banned from Bulls Banter (no mean feat in itself) for calling fans idiots. Nice work. Although you lost my trust when you got the club relegated, you have done nothing since to regain or rebuild trust. You have not set out why you are here. You have not proposed a business plan, other than vague notions of being able to "showcase and sell talent", and to get "blue chip sponsors". I don't know who the directors are. I don't know who the owners are. I don't know what your intentions are. From my point of view, this has moved away from being an issue about nonpayment of creditors to simply what your motives are. Without knowing what they are, how do you expect to get anyone onside. You've managed to lose 50% of the supporters you did have at the start of the season already anyway, and to be frank, this kind of engagement via Vital Bulls to my mind makes you look totally inept.
5. They harp on about the ''leases''. They know the terms of the leases they have been to meetings with the council, and even put the link on Bulls News.
Why did as another of your first acts try to move them from the club? If it's about the football, why don't you let HUST or the council be involved in any redevelopment. Make it totally transparent.
6. If we fold there are no guarantees the council would lease them Edgar Street.
That's true, but then there is a covenant on the land that says it needs to be for sporting use. There is also an ACV in place. And even if HUST aren't able to step in, there may be other interested parties who may. Personally, I don't believe that things could get much worse than they are now.
7. A Phoenix club would start at a much lower level than we are now.
Maybe a couple of leagues. But it would be great to see the club rise. And the job that your current "management team" are doing indicates that relegation this year could be a possibility anyway.
8. Would they have paid any debts, the football creditors figure for instance was close to £200k?
I don't know how much HUST had in pledges, but the fact that they offered Mr. Agombar 60,000 pounds for the club shortly after he took over indicates that was the figure. You paid no one for 2 months. Fans raise 80,000 earlier in the year to pay off HMRC in a couple of weeks. So, it looks distinctly possible. And this doesn't account for the fact that other interested parties such as Mr. Hale's group would have been more predisposed to work with the club. Keep people onside, they are likely to work with you.
9. Would they have paid HMRC the money owed?
See above answer to 3. But have you paid HMRC? The winding up order is in place still.
10. Would they have paid the Water and Electric bills?
See above answer to 3. These would be peanuts compared to other creditors.
11. Would they have taken on the debts all?, they knew about them. They were more aware of the actual level of debt than we were.
Again, this makes you look foolish. If you take over a company those debts become your responsibility. It also indicates you have no idea what you are doing, a position that I don't have any sympathy with.
12. They say we should pay all the debts now. We offered a CVA and they voted against it.
This is grossly misleading. To begin with, were HUST a creditor? Were HUST able to control the outcome of the creditors meeting? The answer is no. The CVA was voted down for one of two reasons. Either, creditors didn't believe your business plan, and judging from what has happened since, rightly so. Or, they thought that if you are going to continue to drip feed cash into the club somehow, so why should they not get their money now
To be honest, I have had enough of this charade. I would like to know why you, as Mr. Agombar's friend and advisor, weren't able to tell him that he wouldn't pass the FA's ODT. I would like to know if you have passed the ODT. I would like to know who the owners are. I would like to know who has put money into the club and at what rate of interest. I would like to know where you see your return coming from on your "investment". I would like to know your motives. You seem either unable or unwilling to supply these answers, but they are at the very core of whether this club can survive. In my view, in four months it's gone beyond a simple issue of your nonpayment of creditors. It's now about trust. And for me, and a lot like me, it's gone and I doubt you can ever win it back