Make shares fair
02/08/05 | by Alex Walker

It probably hasn’t escaped your attention, but Forest were relegated last season. It was their worst campaign for 55 years and saw the club become the first former European Champions to sink to the third league level in their respective country. Joe Kinnear (probably deservedly so) paid the price for his mistakes by losing his job. The players who let us down so badly can say goodbye to any pay-rises for a while and some have even been shown the door. Meanwhile we, the innocent fans, will be forced to endure a season of terrible League One football at the same prices we paid last year for a promotion campaign. And the man who oversaw last year’s drop? Well, he’s just acquired a 100% share in the club…

That Nigel Doughty’s reward for leading the club to their lowest point in over half a century is to become the sole owner is utterly perverse. Whether you hold him directly to blame for what happened last term or not, in the end the responsibility for the club’s fortunes lies with the top man. He set the transfer and wage budgets, he hired the managers – ultimately, then, the buck must stop with him. 

But instead of paying the price of relegation as others have, Doughty seems to be reaping rewards. I’m not for a minute suggesting that he deliberately relegated the club [LTLF’s libel lawyer breaths a sigh of relief], but it’s all turned out rather nicely for him, hasn’t it? He certainly wouldn’t have been able to buy 15% shares in the club for a mere £20,000 if we had still been in the Championship!

This isn't to say that Doughty acquiring complete control will be a bad thing – in fact, it very well may turn out to be a huge positive step forward if he keeps his promises and uses the opportunity to clear our “short term” debts. However, it grates when one remembers the method with which he previously upped his share from 40% to 85% in 2002. Then he was also talking of debt-clearing strategies, investment in the team and, of course, the infamous five-year plan.

Whether or not these things actually happened, it is undeniable that Doughty has categorically failed to deliver since he became chairman. But, despite this failure, he has still benefited by being given the opportunity to buy out the remaining shares at a nominal rate. Where is the justice in that?

I don’t doubt that Nigel really does want Forest to be a success, and this latest move does dispel concerns that he might have been preparing to jump ship. But it is naïve to think that Doughty doesn’t gain from this move. Least of all, the prestige of being the sole proprietor of a world-renowned football club can do no harm to his reputation as an affluent businessman.

If Doughty makes the most of this latest gift to arrive at his door and uses the opportunity to turn Forest’s fortunes around, I will not begrudge him the remaining 15% stake he has just got the go-ahead to purchase. But of course, if he doesn’t deliver and once again fails to live up to his promises, we’ll be screwed – like a child hugging a puppy too hard, Nigel’s love for Forest combined with lack of football know-how has at times made it very hard for the club to breath. Now he could suffocate it. 

But what I find most disheartening about this latest development is that it removes the last real connection supporters had with the way Forest were run. Of course, the shares issued in 1998 were largely symbolic in the first place, and by the time Doughty had taken a controlling interest even more so – but the fact remained that a portion of the club (albeit a small share of a small share) was owned by fans. 

I’ve expressed scepticism in the past about the possibility of a club run by fans, and even a supporters' representative at board level. But so long as that 15% share remained out of Doughty's grasps, even though it meant the loathsome Scholar, Markham and Wray still had a stake in the club, so did the rest of us – a reminder to the suits that us normal folk still matter. This club has ignored its supporters enough in recent years, and now having a totalitarian rule of the club, the temptation to disregard us even further could be too much to resist for Doughty. 

I don’t think there is a case to argue that – on performance so far – Nigel Doughty deserves to take the remaining shares. But there isn’t much that can be done about it and, inevitably, his sympathisers always ask the rhetorical question, who else? In a fair world those shares would belong to the only people who actually do deserve them – the innocents, the fans. As Doughty's position becomes stronger inversely to the club's status, it is clear that this world is far from fair.