lost that loving feeling - Save the Board

Last week I was rather scolding about those who sang ‘sack the board’ at the City Ground during Forest’s game with Gillingham. However, this is forgivable. During the heat of a match it is easy to lose your senses. You don’t have time to sit down and consider every aspect of this complicated situation and reach a reasonable conclusion. Sometimes you have to vent your frustration. It isn’t right, but it is forgivable.

On the other hand, a calculated attempt by some fans to over-turn the current regime at the club is not. Last week a campaign named ‘Save Our Club’ was launched by three fans whose overall aim is to take control of the club and allow the supporters to run it. So far they have appeared on Century 106 and released a website.

Now I am sure that they are acting with the best intentions, but I personally find their methods and the reasoning behind them totally ill-conceived. As I stated in last week’s article, re-building the club is going to take time and patience and the board are doing their best to reach that goal. Not only that, but most of the members of the Forest board are in fact fans of the club and have been all their lives. That is why they were willing to invest money in the first place. So in effect, we already have a club run by the fans.

The current situation is far from desirable and I’ll admit that mistakes have been made by the club’s management. However, charging in at the first sign of trouble, armed with little more than good intentions, is not going to solve anything.

And that appears to be all the ‘Save Our Club’ campaigners have - good intentions. On the other hand, good ideas are running pretty dry. The master plan is for the campaign to raise the ‘modest’ total of £100m with which they will buy the club and provide transfer funds for Paul Hart or whoever is manager at the time.

Sounds good until you realise that the way they plan to raise this money is by getting Forest fans to donate £100 each. Assuming there are 1,000,000 Forest fans (which there aren’t) and assuming they are all willing to donate £100 to the cause (which they wouldn’t be), you then have the problem of a board made up of a million people.

It is hard enough to get two Forest fans to agree on any issue, so I’m not sure how they expect to ever get anything done if there’s a million of them all with different opinions and equal right to a say.

I agree that there should be a Supporters Trust which has representatives at board meetings, but this should be done through the existing Supporters Club. Any more influence from supporters would be a disaster. The reason the board members are the board is because they have money to invest into the club which gives them the right to sit. The reason they have money is because they are all very successful business men. What makes the ‘Save Our Club’ team think they are any better?

As I said, if they wanted to do something sensible and set up a trust then they need to do it through the official channels. I see no evidence on their site to suggest they have contacted either Forest or the Supporters Club about their proposals so I don’t know how the expect to be taken seriously.

I also notice that they haven’t registered as a charity. In other words, there is nothing to assure me that, should I send in my £100, it will not go straight to their pockets. They do not even give their full names or contact details. And would you trust anyone who attempts to win you over to their business plan with quips like “it sounds easy if you say it quickly”?

Because of this, I have no doubt that this plan is doomed to the failure it deserves. However, it is still a dangerous thing. They have already received publicity from Cretinous 106 and this is just the kind of thing the tabloids will lap up.

If they really wanted to benefit the club, then they should spend their efforts getting behind the team and offering support, rather than creating idiotic websites that will only serve to make Forest more of a national laughing stock than they already are.

However, not being one to criticise without just cause, I e-mailed the campaigners on Friday to voice my opinions. I basically addressed all the issues I have done here. I was not abusive and left perfect opportunity for reply to see if they could put my concerns at ease or even convince me to join them in their fool-hardy quest. As of yet I have had no reply. They have obviously chosen to ignore my e-mail, suggesting to me that they are not interested in the fans after all.

I wish them the worst of luck with their campaign.