Club Fine

[Harlow Massive]

I am staggered that Azeem has never asked for your help or advice considering your long-standing connection and ties with ATFC.
Terry, you'd be an absolute asset to any BoD set up at the club , your passion and commitment is unwavering and I'm sure your advice and help would be welcomed by others.

It beggars belief that Terry isn't spoken to by the chairman. It's one of those things you assume must be happening behind the scenes but to hear that it's not makes me (even more) worried about the direction this club is being taken.

It's the Aldershot way remember and please correct me if I'm wrong ,Terry and Graham had their seats taken away from them . Graham was only allowed to sell his book at the front of the ground . A shambolic way to treat 2 people who weren't just people who formed a club ,they are fine Aldershot club men through and through . The trouble was as the club rose we needed more outside business and people who weren't supporters . If only there was a self made multi millionaire shots fan out there . I'm not talking championship or any of that ,but just ensures the club is safe for the future .

I did not know this about Terry and Graham, how on earth can they be treated like this? They are as you say Aldershot club men through and through!

I feel so ashamed about this and it has to change and from what I am reading so does so much more to SAVE OUR club!

[Josh]

I have little confidence in how the club is run and little confidence Azeem will meet any his targets.

In the last month, we've had an issue with a director who had been struck off and it was only due to a conversation at Waterloo that it came to light.

We had the postponement fiasco where we smugly claimed no need for an inspection when it was minus 7.

And now the FA say we failed to provide evidence to several of our claims in the recent fine.

It's embarrassing.

[Aldershot_Rob]

And yet people question why folk take aim at the BoD. They don't exactly make it hard for themselves to come under criticism.

[shotsboy66]

It's a great pity that fans like yourself feel so deflated.

I'm of the opinion that the club missed a trick in not maintaining the momentum from last season. It feels like the club are happy to just accept the current malaise.

You can't have ambition without ammunition ,which is sadly lacking

[Ex Attendant]

Be interesting to see if Celtic get fined, as videos of their supporters walking the streets in Birmingham of all places chanting IRA songs emerge.

[Aldershot_Rob]

Be interesting to see if Celtic get fined, as videos of their supporters walking the streets in Birmingham of all places chanting IRA songs emerge.

I doubt it, they seem to be one of these untouchable clubs which chant whatever bile they like yet are loved by the press. Similar to Liverpool, whose former defender literally spat hatred at a child and is still one of the highest paid presenters on Sky.

[FloridaPhil]

As an ex-serviceman who served near 3 years in Londonderry with the UDR, these imbeciles need a history lesson. Sick to the back teeth, not that I have many, with my season ticket money being spent on these fines.

Thank you for your service.

However, I’m puzzled. You fought against the IRA and the chant in question contains anti-IRA words, so what do you object to?

Putting it simply, what happened in the late 60's to 90's happened. I object to the chants against Catholics and the Pope; and I am not Roman Catholic. Believe me I have seen enough personally with the Troubles in Northern Ireland; time to move on. We do not need youngsters chanting about things that they have no experience of. Now let it rest FloridaPhil.

Blimey! I thank you for your service, then get chastised!

I agree that the people chanting probably don’t know what they’re chanting about. I don’t get the attack on the pope, but there’s nothing wrong with demeaning the IRA.

Anyway, I’ll say no more!

[Roger D]

Be interesting to see if Celtic get fined, as videos of their supporters walking the streets in Birmingham of all places chanting IRA songs emerge.

I doubt it, they seem to be one of these untouchable clubs which chant whatever bile they like yet are loved by the press. Similar to Liverpool, whose former defender literally spat hatred at a child and is still one of the highest paid presenters on Sky.

Factually incorrect. UEFA have fined Celtic £200k, and counting, for fan behaviour in the past two seasons. Another fine will probably follow next week after Villa away - though they are unlikely to be held responsible for fan behaviour away from the ground in the specific incident mentioned.

[HackJowarth]

I have little confidence in how the club is run and little confidence Azeem will meet any his targets.

In the last month, we've had an issue with a director who had been struck off and it was only due to a conversation at Waterloo that it came to light.

We had the postponement fiasco where we smugly claimed no need for an inspection when it was minus 7.

And now the FA say we failed to provide evidence to several of our claims in the recent fine.

It's embarrassing.

There was also the misnaming of Braintree Town and advertising the kick off for the Braintree game as 15.00 hours. The latter was corrected.

[Ex Attendant]

Be interesting to see if Celtic get fined, as videos of their supporters walking the streets in Birmingham of all places chanting IRA songs emerge.

I doubt it, they seem to be one of these untouchable clubs which chant whatever bile they like yet are loved by the press. Similar to Liverpool, whose former defender literally spat hatred at a child and is still one of the highest paid presenters on Sky.

Factually incorrect. UEFA have fined Celtic £200k, and counting, for fan behaviour in the past two seasons. Another fine will probably follow next week after Villa away - though they are unlikely to be held responsible for fan behaviour away from the ground in the specific incident mentioned.

I expect they will do the same in the ground, I wonder if Celtic will make any mention of their followers behaviour and request they behave in a more sensitive manner.

[Rba]

I had hoped back in October 2016- May 2017 that a small group of us including then current and former directors could have perhaps achieved something but we’ll never know and I won’t die wondering.

I have some (but not too much) sympathy with the current Aldershot board. Running a football club is not easy. I was asked to join the Brentford board in November 2007 as the club was in the bottom four League Two and the finances were in a mess. My 2005 loan entitled me to a seat on the Brentford board anyway back in January 2006 which I declined as I had an overseas job and was a non-UK resident for tax purposes. My position in November 2007 was that I’d help but that I didn’t want to be on the board. However it was put to me that if I was introduced to the staff as a ‘supporter who is here to help’ then they wouldn’t understand what I had to do and I’d never easily get anything done whereas if I went in as the sole Executive Director then that would give me more clout to drive things.

By November 2007 I was working in Paris for a Saudi group when I accepted the Brentford request and my wife alarmed asked how I was going to manage two jobs. I said that I was used to turning round large groups, Brentford was just a twopenny halfpenny business and if I couldn’t knock it over in six months then I was losing my grip. Was I ever wrong………it took three years before I was totally satisfied with how things were off the field and if it wasn’t for Bob Lampert’s input and guidance I would have crashed and burned within weeks. As it happened Bob who had been there for twenty eight years pulled me through and I got to understand how to run a lower level football club, what was required and what had to be done.

We got it turned around at Brentford and Matthew Benham came in. Initially he was adding a very significant £500k pa to whatever income stream we had. I know that Aldershot does not have a current financial saviour but the principles are the same and my view is that like Brentford if you have a couple or several long standing supporters with different skill sets to contribute on the board then the majority of supporters are more relaxed regarding the off the field situation. At Brentford the supporters may have thought that we were all idiots but our screw-ups were accepted because at least we were their idiots!!

The first thing to go when a club is on the way down is communications to staff and supporters when it ought to be top of the ‘get improved’ list.

So having said that I wouldn’t post again on here certainly significantly I have for the past half dozen years just sadly watched from a distance and I do read every Shotsweb post every day. I happily contributed to the fundraising a while back which I see makes me a ‘Co-Owner’ and I guess that’s like being an Associate Director at Brentford……….those two non-appointments plus five quid gets me a coffee in Starbucks.

I truly hope that Shahid, the board and the Team Manager meet all of their targets for this season even if we don’t have a clue what they are and by which I believe they should be judged.

I shall carry on reading Shotsweb even if this post gets me banned for life!

Thank you Sir.
What do you think is the reason The Chairmen and board did not accept you ? Also do you have any idea of why Mr Azeem came to Aldershot in the first place as he did not seem to be at Guildford or Woking long.....then all of a sudden he is Aldershots saviour....it just does not seem right to me..

[Sean Chambers]

A 4k fine seems excessive when compared to those handed out to Chelsea and Shamrock Rovers.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer ... 12479.html

[Wokingham Shot]

Be interesting to see if Celtic get fined, as videos of their supporters walking the streets in Birmingham of all places chanting IRA songs emerge.

I doubt it, they seem to be one of these untouchable clubs which chant whatever bile they like yet are loved by the press. Similar to Liverpool, whose former defender literally spat hatred at a child and is still one of the highest paid presenters on Sky.

Factually incorrect. UEFA have fined Celtic £200k, and counting, for fan behaviour in the past two seasons. Another fine will probably follow next week after Villa away - though they are unlikely to be held responsible for fan behaviour away from the ground in the specific incident mentioned.

They also have a 1 match away ban suspended for 2 years hanging over them for flares in Dortmund.

You can see the sort of actions UEFA take here...

https://disciplinary.uefa.com/

[abee]

Thank you Sir.
What do you think is the reason The Chairmen and board did not accept you ? Also do you have any idea of why Mr Azeem came to Aldershot in the first place as he did not seem to be at Guildford or Woking long.....then all of a sudden he is Aldershots saviour....it just does not seem right to me..

I was always made to feel welcome and don't recognise any statement that I was not accepted personally. It's true that my views on how Aldershot should be run were not always in alignment with those of the board but they were and are the guys in the hotseats and their decisions should be final.

The board took the decision to appoint Laura Smith as CEO who then quite rightly assumed all of the stuff that Bob Lampert and I had been doing. Remember that this was back in 2017 and I was 76 and it was I suppose considered wise to appoint a permanent and much younger CEO. I had no issue with the headline decision although I had my view on the way that it was managed but more importantly when I finally met her I thought that Laura was too inexperienced to be catapulted straight into a senior executive position at a football club and particularly Aldershot. However the decision was taken and announced at a board meeting and that was the first I knew that the board had been interviewing Laura.

The writing I already felt was on the wall because some weeks earlier I had a telephone call at 9am on a Sunday morning from a board director following an away match at I think Eastleigh the day before which I did not attend.

The gist of the conversation was that the directors had spoken at the match and the general consensus was that I was too negative at board meetings and that I should lighten up a bit. I thought that they were confusing negativity with realism but the board were and are the individuals in the hot seat and they have to make the decisions. I always respected that and it was positive I thought that they were now talking about the direction of the club and making decisions for the future.

I repeat that I believed that the decision to appoint Laura as CEO was not wise but my own experiences in my business life have been that if I had been smart enough to have contracts that resulted in me being paid by my mistakes then I could certainly have retired for the first time long before I did at age 50. Sometimes things work out and at others for the very best of reasons they don’t. That’s a lesson both in personal and business lives.

[abee]

Re the above I was asked a question by rba and I answered it but it's old old hat.

The important issue is I believe that the ATFC board needs beefing up and I threw out that Brian Bloomfield and Richard Petty would immediately strengthen the board and provide a badly needed conduit from the board to supporters. Brian I know and have worked with. Richard I met once at a board meeting when he was invited to give some input on something he specialises in. I know how keenly he feels for the club and I have the bruises to prove it!!! . He strikes me as being an excellent communicator and someone who would immediately improve things in that area which is badly lacking in my view.

However it may be that Shahid believes that everything off the field is as efficient as it could be and that he sees no need for further board appointments. I suggested that someone ask him whether he believes the board needs strengthening by the addition of at least two individuals who could immediately make a nonfinancial contribution and at least inject a feeling that the club is taking steps to improve in certain areas.