Trust News 01

CAS Trust News www.castrust.org

SPECIAL COMMERATIVE ISSUE 5TH DECEMBER 2012 NO: 1 SUGGESTED DONATION: £1

On 5th December 1992 Charlton Athletic Football Club came home. Help us celebrate this at Bartram’s 5th December 2012 with special guests including Club Hero Mark Kinsella. To register your interest email events@castrust. org

PHOTO : PHIL WEBSTER

20 YEARS BACK AT THE VALLEYY

Please give us your support today by registering as a Trust Supporter.

Email your details to subscribe@castrust.org.

CAS Trust giving fans a voice.

PHOTO : TOM MORRIS

CAS Trust will mark this occasion not only with an event but also by coinciding our official launch and this special 1st edition of our newsletter.

We hope you enjoy it.

20 years ago next month, Charlton played its’ first game back at a revived Valley - the ancestral home that was soon to become once more the envy of many other clubs, for its modern but still traditional appeal.

This event marked the culmination of effort from a whole community, who stood up for what they believed in. That Charlton Athletic belonged in SE7 where its roots and fans come from.

Mark Kinsella Back to the Valley @ the Trust Event Bartram’s 5.12.12 Trust Launches with over 1000 interested Back to the Valley memories Inside: Trusts in UK & Abroad eResults of CAS Trust Survey + Much more....

2

News

subscribe@castrust.org 20 years on: celebrate this and Trust Launch Bartrams @ the Valley Wednesday

News Supporters’ Trusts Supporters Direct (SD) is an organisation that helps and advises on “supporter community ownership at spectator sports clubs, and aims to create the conditions in which they can secure influence and ownership at their clubs.”

On their website, www.supporters-direct.org/ supporters’ trust are defined as a democratic, not-for-profit organisation of supporters, committed to strengthening the voice of supporters in the decision making process at their clubs, and strengthening the links between clubs and the communities they serve.

SD have supported and advised CAS Trust at every step. Their guidance has been critical in getting us to the brink of being established.

Many football clubs have trusts, Charlton are relative latecomers.

Each trust has its own objectives and ambitions. We are working with you to develop ours.

Valley Party remembered – 20 years on CAS TRUST LAUNCH EVENT 20 years back at the Valley BARTRAM’s 5.12.12 Mark Kinsella and very special guests places are limited so please register your interest on events@castrust.org *July; Trust steering group began with a meeting at the beehive pub in new Eltham in a small (non smokey) back room. The group selected an interim chairman and vice chair, and voted to try and set up a trust, that would be open, democratic and inclusive. *August: Over the summer more public meetings were held and other interim positions were filled, and aims and objectives were drafted, all minutes and agendas available via Trust website *September: Another well publicised public Endorsement meeting voted overwhelmingly to form a trust in the presence of Supporters Direct. Trust attends CADSA and Bromley CASC *October: Forms were submitted to create an Industrial Provident Society and open a bank account. Trust attended Eltham supporters group. *November: Interest over all channels reaches in excess of 1000 fans, Trust members due to attend North West Kent CASC, Trust legally formed with Bank Account. *December: 5.12.12 back to the valley launch event with special guests including Mark Kinsella, £5 full membership available in advance of AGM to elect a full Board (early 2013) Compiled by Craig Sloman Interim Board Chairman - Barnie Razzell Vice-chairman - Craig Sloman Secretary - Kevin Messere Treasurer - Geoff Doyle

Press Officer - Math Morrison Liaison - Ken Sinyard Membership - Richard Hicks Elections officer - Nigel Pamment Web designer - David Hall

Interim steering group: Pam and Rachel King, Peter and Alex Flynn, Richard Wiseman, Jonathan Bangs Editorial - Barnie Razzell, Geoff Doyle Concept, Design, and Back to the Valley spread - Geoff Doyle Design, Layout, photos - Ken Sinyard Additonal photos - Tom Morris Except where indicated copywright CAS Trust 2012

3

“ WHY IS NOW THE TIME FOR A CHARLTON SUPPORTER’S TRUST?’’

As one of the driving forces behind CAS Trust, Barnie explains the background to setting up the Trust: Last season was a truly amazing and memorable affair. To finally get promoted as League One Champions on record points, and the spectacle of the Trophy winning game, made very special day for all associated with Charlton Athletic. The Board did a magnificent job turning around the fortunes of the club, and with a Charlton hero Chris Powell at the helm. It really couldn’t have gone any better.

Towards the end of the season there had been a lot of interest in the goings on at Portsmouth who were in administration and an ownership battle between fans and a former owner. Elsewhere Swansea - now owned by a consortium of local businesses and a strong supporters’ group, were enjoying spectacular success in the Premiership. Come back to South London and fan formed and owned AFC Wimbledon were quietly climbing the leagues. Meanwhile back in SE7, The Addicks once been a model club for fan participation no longer enjoyed any such privilege. Where once the Valley Party had stood shoulder to shoulder with players and directors; and various initiatives had seen the emergence of a fans Director, fan participation was now back to low levels not seen in a generation.

Rumours were circulating about the financial state of the club. While these were hard to ignore true or otherwise - this was not the motivation for forming a trust. It was the sense of helplessness, the unknown, and the strong desire to do something to help the club - to act positively, rather than sit behind a keyboard hand wringing. It was common knowledge that there were severe financial difficulties before the recent sale of the club, property was sold off that could affect East stand expansion - Yet there was not a supporter’s trust on hand to try and help as they had in the past. The fan base was no longer organised as a positive force to help the club, had it forgotten the hard lessons of the past?

It was around that time that I and others felt it was time to try once more to form a trust and hoped there were enough other people who felt the same. The idea would be to be form a network, an independent democratic voice for fans, to represent the many generations of loyal supporters who invested as much as they could afford to year on year supporting our team; but importantly to engage them in a way that could make a difference and contribute in some way to our common goal. A trust that would be there for the long haul to ensure our football club stayed in existence should the worst ever happen, but also to act as a positive force in the good times that could help mobilise our fan base and contribute to the success of our club.

I firmly believe there is a role for an organised network of fans to benefit the football club. We all know football is a business, but what business would not benefit from an engaged, active, loyal customer base?

On the 5th of December we will formally launch CAS Trust with endorsement from many of the fans (over a thousand showing interest so far), and Supporters Direct. I hope the membership will continue to grow, and we can get on with the hard work ahead.

Barnie Razzell – interim chair CAS Trust

5th 2012: Be quick for more details see the trust website: www. castrust.org

4

News

PHOTO : KIND PERMISSION OF THE SUPPORTERS DIRECT

Ben Shave of Supporters Direct gives an overview of supporters’ trusts in our increasingly financially unstable national game.

Football may be the UK’s national game, but despite being followed by millions of people every weekend, the sport is currently experiencing a major governance and financial crisis.

Since 1992, there have been 92 instances of insolvencies in the top five divisions of the English football pyramid (from the Premier League down to the Conference Premier).

According to Deloitte’s latest Annual Review of Football Finance (published in June 2012), the net debt of the 20 clubs competing in the Premier League stood at £2.4 billion, and around two-thirds of the clubs competing in the Championship had a net debt of £10 million or more.

Recent history is littered with examples of unsustainable spending, reckless (mis) management, and lack of regard for the importance of football clubs to their local communities.

A disconnect between supporters and clubs is an almost inevitable result [of reckless financial mismanagement].

There are no simple solutions to these problems, but since 2000 Supporters Direct has been working to counter football’s most rampant excesses. With a mission “to promote sustainable spectator sports based on supporters’ involvement and community ownership”, SD promotes the value of supporter ownership to sports fans, empowering them to set up Supporters’ Trusts, which, like

“Trusts in SD, are registered as Community Benefit Societies, regulated by the Financial Services Authority, and owned by their members. Over 300,000 people in the UK are members of a Supporters’ Trust, of which there are over 170.

The Supporters’ Trust movement has made inroads at all levels of the game, as well as in both codes of Rugby and Ice Hockey.

Currently there are 24 football clubs owned or controlled by their Supporters’ Trust, including AFC Wimbledon.

Formed by supporters after the original Wimbledon FC was relocated to Milton Keynes in 2002.

Within nine years the club had won five promotions and returned to the Football League.

The Pompey Supporters’ Trust have recently been named preferred bidders for their club by administrators PKF, and will shortly launch a share prospectus aimed at making Pompey the country’s largest community owned club.

In addition to ownership, Supporters’ Trusts have also been able to leverage influence via minority shareholdings and directorships. In 2001, the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust was formed, with assistance from Supporters Direct, in response to the club’s financial crisis.

As well as raising an initial £50,000, the Swans Trust convened the consortium that would eventually purchase the club.

Today they retain a 20%

shareholding and a director on the board – just one of over 60 Trusts to play a key role the decisionmaking process at their club.

The views of Arsenal Supporters’ Trust members are represented at the club’s AGM every year, thanks to the Fanshare investment scheme developed by the Trust alongside Supporters Direct.

In total, Supporters’ Trusts have raised over £30 million since 2000, a significant return on the £4.5 million’ worth of funding that SD has received.

As well as having an unrivalled understanding of football’s social and community value, supporter involvement and ownership has a number of business advantages too, according to SDs research Greater Financial regulation of football is around the corner.

Since 2000, many of the arguments raised by SD and the Supporters’ Trust movement have become part of the mainstream debate – with the need for financial stability and the involvement of supporters at their clubs now a widely-accepted premise.

It is now a question of when, not if. The latest example of this was the recent vote by Football League clubs to introduce Financial Fair Play regulations – a long-overdue attempt to change the financial landscape, and to make clubs more sustainable. Clubs sometimes

chose to raise finance through share issues, but a more sustainable game will reduce the need for this – simply put, clubs will have to live within their means, and the playing field will be levelled for all.

This is the case at Swansea: the club’s success and sensible financial planning means that the Trust’s shareholding has remained undiluted, and the club has become a profitable operation.

In helping supporters towards influence and ownership, it’s become clear to SD that football is about far more than results, relegation, or what happens on the pitch. The Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust, which will be formally launched on December 5th, aims to act as “a positive force to preserve Charlton Athletic Football Club for its fans and community.” This is at the heart of what supporters’ trusts do.

It’s vital to us that every supporters’ trust in the UK and those that we are working with in Europe have a role to play at their club, whether that’s taking ownership, sitting on the board, holding a minority share, or participating in the day-to-day process – the things that you can’t always see on a Saturday afternoon. To find out more about how we hope to achieve that goal, visit our new website: www.supporters-direct.coop

20 years on: celebrate this and Trust Launch Bartrams @ the Valley Wednesday

News

5

Nobody seriously doubts that without the Valley Party, Charlton would not have returned home to the Valley, and that in turn means that the club as we know it would not exist today. It is equally true that we would not have returned to the Valley without the financial commitment of Roger Alwen and later Richard Murray, Martin Simons. Neither element on its own would have been enough.

That indeed is why messrs Murray, Simons and Mike Stevens, another substantial investor in the 90s, were so ready to embrace members of the Valley Party and bring them into Club roles. These directors could see that such supporters understood the ‘customer base’ and were ready to work tirelessly to build up active support and encourage greater expenditure by fans.

When the cash was not available for the final push home from Upton Park, it was the Valley Party team who developed and endorsed the VIP scheme. Many of the same group of supporters endorsed the later idea of fans owning shares in the Club and having a supporter on the Board representing that share-owning bloc. The club rose to the Premier League and all the time in the background there was this constant dialogue between Board and fans which brought forward initiatives like Valley Express and helped us keep the faith with hardly a murmur when we were relegated again in 1999.

And then somewhere along the line in the Premiership years we all became complacent. The club was taken private again, the old guard of directors gradually left, and the Supporters Director was replaced by a Fans Forum which had no clout because it had no financial stake in the club. Despite relegation and the failure of the Pardew regime we fans were so transfixed by the on-field tragedy that we failed to notice what was going on behind the scenes.

This was not surprising because we had no body which brought us together to discuss this with the Board. And so today we are one of the minority of League clubs which do not have a Trust - and we are left to argue among ourselves about the true state of affairs and our club’s destiny.

Yet most of us were either part of the 90s rise, or know about the history of it. We were part of that Charlton Athletic described in David Conn’s book “The Beautiful Game” in 2004 as being “one of the few clubs generally agreed to be excellently run”. We were considered to be a special club with special fans. We didn’t go away. We are still here. If we want to be special again we just have to re-organise, re-set, and be ready to do it all again. We need to persuade the Board that the previous success was built on the directors and the fanbase acting in synergy, since 1991. We’ve done it before. We can do it again.

PHOTO : TOM MORRIS

The Trust has its roots in the Valley Party

RichardHunt

5th 2012: Be quick for more details see the trust website: www. castrust.org

6

News

PHOTOS REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF PUBLICATIONS FEATURED.

it was

20 years

Saturday 5th December 19 ‘...and it becomes the perfect start’ commentator Brian Moore announces the start of twenty glorious years.

ago

Above: Colin Walsh’s historic goal

Former player and groundsman Colin Powell remembers:“At nine pm on the Friday night we had no goals to put out.” “Saturday morning, no tarmac. Who is going to fix the f***ing tarmac?”

“5th December 1992, 3pm. Thank f***.” “5th December 1992, 3.05pm. Christ, one of my mates still hasn’t got his ticket!” “5th December 1993, 4.50pm. That was the best day ever!”

20 years on: celebrate this and Trust Launch Bartrams @ the Valley Wednesday

News

992, 3:07 pm

7

Steve Reader felt that “this was something that had to be done, nobody else was going to bring the Club back to the Valley. I still feel very proud to have played a part in the return of the Club. Without the Valley Party would we still have a Club, would we have this ground and would we have this support? I believe this is a big part of Charlton history to people who have supported the club before the move to Sellout Park and the return, but with many new fans they probably don’t know the history.”

Perry Bartlett, then a 25-year old paper merchant, told us “I had started to follow the Addicks while they were at Selhurst. I managed to persuade my Charltonbased company to take up an executive box, and therefore got to meet a lot of the people behind the scenes at the club. I soon realised how important it was to get back where we belonged. I was also an avid reader of Voice of the Valley (the main Charlton fanzine at the time) and when I found out about the campaign it seemed such a unique and worthwhile idea. I couldn’t not get involved".

PHOTO : KIND PERMISSION OF TOM MORRIS

on CAFC’s return to the Valley on the 5th December 1992 As Photographed by Tom Morris.

5th 2012: Be quick for more details see the trust website: www. castrust.org

8

it was

20 years

News

I was 11 at the time.

By Ian Cartwright Football had become a social pariah, a national disgrace, etc…, the ID cards at Luton debacle being the ultimate patronisation of fundamentally decent people. Punk was the initial catalyst for the fanzine and if one were to look at those that became involved in this particular element of this culture, they haven’t done too badly and proved that there is a bit of intelligence there, united by a movement.

So football decided to set about proving that it was not necessarily a knuckle-dragging bunch of troglodytes, but in fact its followers were not bad people and despite being of a variety of social, cultural, political and ethic backgrounds, were united by a love of the seemingly sub-cultural game that dates back to Edward III wasn’t to keen on.

But this is where our bit of history begins…

As fans entered he Valley on September 7th 1985, as well so many will know, they were handed a piece of paper, effectively evacuating them to Croydon to enable them to watch their team, their hurts seemingly disregarded by “the you.”

Punch drunk for a while, the people decided that it was a tad unacceptable, war was over and the evacuees should be returned to their rightful home. It wasn’t just about physical protest, but using a weapon called the word that galvanised our people.

It does not take me to tell you the impact that “Voice of The

ago

Valley” had on Charlton Athletic’s return to The Valley, but just think about what led up to the glorious day. The proposed boycott of the Oxford game (Carl Leaburn’s debut!). The public meetings, the confrontations with council and the board, the people with a variety of skill sets that became involved and utilised them behind one common cause – the survival, longevity and well being of their united passion.

So our glorious day came, not without a few false starts, but what it did provide was a) an emotional occasion that will never be repeated and b)so many legacies that have been adopted within the game of football. Valley Gold – simple fan involvement. VIP – suited to all pockets and elected fan representation on the Club’s Board of Directors, which ultimately comprised fans predominantly anyway.

And of course The Valley Party.

There are those that had a far greater involvement than this author, but in this humble opinion their names should not be hidden in the corridor of Bartram’s but on the wall of the Covered End as it is the candidates’ legacy as much as any that the edifice exists in the first place. The Valley certainly looked a bit different on December 5th 1992, but that God-given piece of land was always going to be our home.

During the election campaign, I once delivered leaflets on Charlton Lane and was advised by a resident that were I to put a leaflet through his letterbox he would set his dogs on me. I did. He did. I ran. To The Royal Oak. Thankfully there was

one man, but not a dog there.

Yet on the day, it was filled to the rafters, as was the Horse, The Anti, The Rose – it may have been only 8,337 people, but it felt like a million – and a million dollars. To see Charlton home was no doubt the most emotional occasion in football that so many have experienced, be it those were around in 1905, 1921, part of the 75,038, those present in 1946 and 1947, the lost generation that had not experienced The Valley – and those that had seen our home ripped from beneath us. But mores to the point, those that did something about it to ensure our club would not vegetate, or our home become a block of flats.

So what went on after that?

Supporters groups locally and internationally engaged in dialogue proactively with the Club, Valley Express, Football for a Fiver, CADSA, CARE – could go on and on – but primarily the engendering of a genuine unity amongst fans, regardless of their opinions on all other forms of life, also providing the impetus for so many other clubs that have taken up the mantle and listened to its fan base This was no more so epitomised during this season’s home fixture against Cardiff, as the crowd united behind a man that became a fan the moment he walked through the door in 1998 and still can’t stay away, because he recognises the Club’s history, the passion of the fans, the importance of remembering the struggles we have had and not repeating them and just genuinely loving our Club and our game.

20 years on: celebrate this, and Trust Launch Bartrams @ the Valley Wednesday

News What image does Germany conjure up? Dull, boring, robotic?

If you are on the autobahn, desperately pressing the ‘seek’ button on your radio to find something other than Euro-pop, you might come up with those words. But they would definitely not be the right words to describe the Bundesliga. There are goals galore, and while Bayern and Dortmund remain dominant teams, there are an increasing number of others that English teams would rather avoid in Europe.

But if you watch ITV4’s coverage, you will not just be struck by the quality of the football. The big vibrant stadia, nearly all packed to the rafters, are testimony to the fact that German football customers are hugely enjoying what they see.

32 German clubs have stadia bigger than The Valley. Eintracht Frankfurt, newly promoted from Bundesliga 2, and not anywhere near Europe for donkeys’ years, are regularly selling out their 50,000 capacity.

You probably know that in Germany, there is ‘safe standing’ and that the tickets cost far less than in England. The champions, Borussia Dortmund, opened this season watched by 80,645 people, including 24,454 fans in a vast standing area, paying 187 (£148) for their season tickets. They could drink beer while doing so, often served on the terrace by mobile vendors.

But this did not just happen by accident. Germany is a rich country. A BMW is not cheaper there so ..how come a season ticket to the champions’ stadium is 70% cheaper than Englands?

The answer lies in ownership, with just three exceptions all German clubs are at least 51%

Our man in Central Europe Richard Hunt explores why German football has got it right with fan ownership, safe standing, and sensible ticket pricing, and most of all packed out stadia.

owned by the fans.

These are members associations (something like the Co-op or an old mutual building society). Bayern Munich have 185,000 members who own 82% of the football company itself; 9% stakes have been sold for vast sponsorship fortunes to the German corporate giants Audi and Adidas.

The way the clubs work in practice varies, but all the member-owned clubs incorporate democracy. Now they are mostly structured like major German companies, with a management board running day-to-day operations, and a supervisory board appointing the directors and overseeing their performance. The members of the supervisory board are elected at an annual general meeting, at which the supporter-members, according to a 50%+1 regulation, have a permanent majority.

So, the supporters exercise direct, democratic control over the great German football clubs. The management board is delegated to run the

9

club, it in turn delegates the football decisions to a coach and their staff, and the fans turn up to watch the fruits of their labours.

There is a link between this kind of ownership and the decisions made about how German football is run. The ticket prices; safe standing; the fair distribution of TV rights money across the top 2 leagues (something Richard Murray and Peter Varney argued for in vain here).

Fans in Germany have a much greater influence over their football because so many of them are real stakeholders.

In the Champions league final last year Chelsea won on the pitch. But in the previous year they ran up losses of £68m, whereas Bayern made a profit of £1.1m. Relegation to Bundesliga 2 doesn’t mean financial Armageddon as it does here.

There are much stricter controls on spending than required by UEFA. Possibly the worst news for those of us who long to beat the Germans is that every Bundesliga club must now have an academy.

Not only are they spending less on transfer fees but they are helping to feed a national side that is probably going to thrash us every time we meet them in the foreseeable future.

The unpalatable truth is that in every respect the Germans have nicked our beautiful game. The best we can do to get it back, is to study and learn from how they did it.

Article on safe standing in Germany: HYPERLINK “http://www.fsf.org.uk/ news/Safe-standing-on-the-up-inGermany.php” http://www.fsf.org.uk/ news/Safe-standing-on-the-up-inGermany.php

5th 2012: Be quick for more details see the trust website: www. castrust.org

10

News

Reason for the Survey How can you claim to want to give people a voice if you haven’t listened to them in the first place? As a trust we were determined to get on the streets and speak to real everyday fans, not just those on internet message boards. It’s all very well sitting in a back room and fixing the world over a pint or three, but there’s not much point if you haven’t asked the people that matter, what matters to them. So the next important question is how to publish the result without sending everyone to sleep.

How do we know the survey is accurate?

Simples.. use scientific research methods, despite our limited time and resources this is what we set out to do.

The target was the basic 16,000 home fans at the Valley every match day. Statistical theory states that you can have 95% confidence in your answers if you can source 266 random, independent answers. In the end our sample size was 554.

Our Sample group was initially face to face outside the Valley, this was to make sure it was random and that the questions were workable, before we went online. It also meant that we had a decent sample to compare to the online answers in case there was any bias…

Conclusions Glory Boys we aint Two thirds were season ticket holders with the rest being made up of occasional fans and regular

walk ups. They sit in all parts of the ground and have been following Charlton for an average of 34 years. Of more interest, we were able to break down the replies into different eras. As you can see from the numbers and diagram below people first started coming to see Charlton at different times though not too many when we were stuck at Selhurst. So you can see that roughly half of the fan base predates the return to the Valley and less than 20% joined us during the Premier League years

Categories % Long term - 40 years

30%

Nelson/Bailey ‘74-’84

12%

Selhurst

8%

Back to the Valley ‘92-’98

18%

Premiership years

18%

Recent

14%

View of the Club On average people rated the running of the club as 3/5 – not much we can say on that as the question was vague – perhaps we ask more later?

View on Trusts Although only 80% had heard of trusts, a whopping 90% said that we should start one here at Charlton Priorities We then asked a series of questions about what was important for the supporters. No surprises that the top two issues were improving the first team squad and improv-

ing the academy. But also high on the list was to establish an independent fans voice. Keeping prices low and improving the gates also seen as key objectives from the fans perspective.

Finding out about the club We found that 75% of fans use the internet to find out about the club and that the two most popular sites were CAFC.co.uk and Charlton Life. This may seem obvious to the diehard fan but the key is that there are many other sites that people use – and that these two sites are not used by all - blogs and other websites appeal to people too. We will most probably explore more in the next survey as well as using findings to develop the newly launched CASTrust site.

ILLUSTRATION: JON LAYSELL

9 out of 10 cafs prefer...

A Loaded Question?

We were very keen to be fair in the questions and sampling. One question on the survey which came in for some criticism “Do you care who owns the club” came up with 89% yes! Elsewhere people discuss ownership models and the survey has not looked into the detail – the main thing is that 86% want to hear more about the trust – so we will move on to survey 2, keep asking questions and keep listening.

Kevin Messere

20 years on: celebrate this and Trust Launch Bartrams @ the Valley Wednesday

News

11

In Charlton we trust

The struggle to return our club to its natural home demonstrated just how much a community of people can achieve when they work together for a common goal and refuse to give up. For me it epitomises the struggle of the little guy against adversity that is so ingrained in our culture, and of course naturally football itself.

Arguably the numerous successes of the 20 years since are a continuation of that spirit which propelled us back into the top flight, with a modernised ground, a dedicated rejuvenated and expanded fan community, as well as some wonderful footballing moments for us all to treasure. I believe Mark Kinsella embodies that spirit and look forward to meeting him at the Back to the Valley event.

The interim steering group for CAS Trust firmly believe there is a strong argument for a well run and professional supporters’ trust to contribute to the successes of the next 20 years and beyond. The benefits can be seen elsewhere in this country and beyond in such engagement between club and fan, including numerous benefits such as: helping to expand our fan base, acting as a conduit for ideas and innovations, general communication between club and fans, market research, and even the possibility of some form of ownership stake in the club, in an environment of ever tightening economic restrictions and financial fair play.

Take the newly formed Red Division as an example of this. A group of young fans, who want to make the atmosphere better at the Valley and away games, organise themselves rather than just complaining and are already having an impact. More often than not the young in our society are labelled as trouble, but the reality is they are

the future for us and the fans of this club. We should all encourage them as this club has done for many years through its excellent community work, and give them some identity and a purpose.

Our research has shown that fans want a trust at Charlton and many of them would be willing to play some part in bringing that about. They have also let us know their priorities generally. Although we will have an AGM in the New Year - it is these issues we will focus on, i.e. how we can constructively assist the club in achieving our common goal of bringing about success once more at the Valley.

The team at CAS Trust are fully committed to this ideal, we are not aligned to a particular grouping of any kind, but want to undertake the task of representing all Charlton fans and groups, and assisting them whenever we are able.

Our constitution ensures we will remain independent, open and democratic, but we must There is also proceed with humility and a strong ensure we that at all times we are argument for deserving of any trust bestowed a well run and upon us in representing the fans professional of this club, and also the associasupporters’ tion with the club itself with its trust excellent reputation for fairness, community and hard work.

It is the hope of myself and I believe many others that CAS Trust will grow to its potential in being supported by the fans but also supporting the Football club in whatever way it can. You can do that by subscribing as a CAS Trust supporter via email to subscribe@castrust.org, and also join via our website www.castrust.org which should very soon be accepting paid membership £5 a year at least until our first AGM. Finally I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and effort many have put in to making this supporter’s trust a reality, and those who have supported and encouraged from afar, as well as everyone else who has contributed in all ways possible.

Thanks and all the best Barnie Razzell– interim chair,

5th 2012: Be quick for more details see the trust website: www. castrust.org

PHOTO : KEN SINYARD

We hope you’ve enjoyed our first newsletter. It’s worth saying we feel that not only is the 20 year anniversary of our return to the Valley a very pertinent time to launch a supporter’s trust for Charlton, but it’s also a great opportunity to celebrate that event which was a critical moment in our History – see our publicity for our event at Bartram’s on the 5th of December, and register your interest at events@castrust.org.

CASTrust PRESENTS

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS BACK AT THE VALLEY FEATURING

MARK KINSELLA PLUS OTHERS

FREE ENTRY AT BARTRAMS THE VALLEY DOORS OPEN 7.30

TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT REGISTER YOUR INTEREST TO:

events@castrust.org www.castrust.org

facebook/castrust

@castrust

THE CHARLTON ATHLETIC SUPPORTERS’ TRUST