Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:41 pm
Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters trust as relations sour
• Fans group complains US takeover has left them ‘bypassed’
• Huw Jenkins under fire after profiting from selling Swansea stake
Huw Jenkins
Huw Jenkins bought a stake in Swansea in 2002 when shares were being sold for £1 each.
Guardian
David Conn
Thursday 20 October 2016 20.59
The supporters’ trust at Swansea City, for years praised as a model club run as a partnership with fans, has angrily criticised the chairman, Huw Jenkins, and other former shareholders for making millions of pounds by selling to US investors.
The trust owns 21% of the club and worked with Jenkins and a small group of other shareholders to rescue Swansea from crisis in 2002. The trust’s board complains that they were “bypassed” when the sale happened in June.
Now, they say, they are being sidelined by the new US owners, Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, whom they accuse of failing to circulate in advance proposed changes to the club’s articles of association.
Swansea City: five things Bob Bradley needs to address to make progress
Read more
In a speech written for a members’ meeting on Thursday night, Phil Sumbler, the trust’s chairman, accused the selling shareholders, who made £75m personally from selling their shares to Kaplan and Levien, of acting “purely from a position of self-interest with little regard for the future of the football club”.
Swansea have started the season badly and are 19th in the Premier League, having sacked the manager Francesco Guidolin this month and appointed the American Bob Bradley, who said on Thursday that the club are in a relegation fight.
Back in 2002 Jenkins, with the Swansea hotelier Martin Morgan, a South African businessman, Brian Katzen, and other small shareholders, bought stakes in the club alongside the supporters’ trust, for £1 each, valuing the club at £1m, and the relationship with fans was celebrated through the Swans’ remarkable rise from League Two to the Premier League. Then, earlier this year, it emerged that the shareholders were seeking to make a 110-times gain on their initial investments, with a sale to Kaplan and Levien valuing the club at £110m.
The trust and its long-term elected director on the board, Huw Cooze, complained that they had been deliberately kept out of the discussions, and ultimately all the shareholders sold, except the trust. That has left it with a 21% shareholding that carries no substantial influence on votes and no security for continued involvement in the club.
Levien and Kaplan, whose plan is to promote and grow Swansea commercially, particularly in the US, have expressed an intention to work with the trust and not to dilute its shareholding from 21% for a year, but Cooze, who is still a director, describes communication as “lacking”. He complained that he was not consulted on the sacking of Guidolin and the appointment of Bradley as was previously standard for years, and Cooze was sent a letter of apology for that. Sumbler says in his speech that the trust does want to work with Levien and Kaplan on a solid basis, and describes the current relationship as “unacceptable”.
In August the club adopted new articles of association, effectively a new constitution, which included elements the trust objects to, including that all shareholders have to sell if Levien and Kaplan do. Sumbler says they were not circulated the proposed new articles.
Jenkins is understood to have made £7.7m from selling a 7% stake in the club to Kaplan and Levien; Morgan and his wife, Louisa, almost £20m; the former trust chairman, Leigh Dineen, who sold 4%, made £4.4m, Katzen made £22m, Rob Davies £12m and John van Zweden, who has talked in his native Netherlands about his role saving Swansea, made £5.5m selling his 5% stake.
Levien and Kaplan are understood to be waiting for the outcome of the trust meeting before formulating a response. Jenkins, asked about the trust’s complaints, declined to talk about them, saying: “In the best interests of the club, delicate issues should be discussed in-house and around a table, in the right way, not in public and in the media.”
Sumbler said that the trust’s concerns had been fully raised in private first, but that he had a duty to inform members of the trust, as it is a democratic, mutual organisation of supporters formed for the benefit of Swansea City.
• Fans group complains US takeover has left them ‘bypassed’
• Huw Jenkins under fire after profiting from selling Swansea stake
Huw Jenkins
Huw Jenkins bought a stake in Swansea in 2002 when shares were being sold for £1 each.
Guardian
David Conn
Thursday 20 October 2016 20.59
The supporters’ trust at Swansea City, for years praised as a model club run as a partnership with fans, has angrily criticised the chairman, Huw Jenkins, and other former shareholders for making millions of pounds by selling to US investors.
The trust owns 21% of the club and worked with Jenkins and a small group of other shareholders to rescue Swansea from crisis in 2002. The trust’s board complains that they were “bypassed” when the sale happened in June.
Now, they say, they are being sidelined by the new US owners, Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, whom they accuse of failing to circulate in advance proposed changes to the club’s articles of association.
Swansea City: five things Bob Bradley needs to address to make progress
Read more
In a speech written for a members’ meeting on Thursday night, Phil Sumbler, the trust’s chairman, accused the selling shareholders, who made £75m personally from selling their shares to Kaplan and Levien, of acting “purely from a position of self-interest with little regard for the future of the football club”.
Swansea have started the season badly and are 19th in the Premier League, having sacked the manager Francesco Guidolin this month and appointed the American Bob Bradley, who said on Thursday that the club are in a relegation fight.
Back in 2002 Jenkins, with the Swansea hotelier Martin Morgan, a South African businessman, Brian Katzen, and other small shareholders, bought stakes in the club alongside the supporters’ trust, for £1 each, valuing the club at £1m, and the relationship with fans was celebrated through the Swans’ remarkable rise from League Two to the Premier League. Then, earlier this year, it emerged that the shareholders were seeking to make a 110-times gain on their initial investments, with a sale to Kaplan and Levien valuing the club at £110m.
The trust and its long-term elected director on the board, Huw Cooze, complained that they had been deliberately kept out of the discussions, and ultimately all the shareholders sold, except the trust. That has left it with a 21% shareholding that carries no substantial influence on votes and no security for continued involvement in the club.
Levien and Kaplan, whose plan is to promote and grow Swansea commercially, particularly in the US, have expressed an intention to work with the trust and not to dilute its shareholding from 21% for a year, but Cooze, who is still a director, describes communication as “lacking”. He complained that he was not consulted on the sacking of Guidolin and the appointment of Bradley as was previously standard for years, and Cooze was sent a letter of apology for that. Sumbler says in his speech that the trust does want to work with Levien and Kaplan on a solid basis, and describes the current relationship as “unacceptable”.
In August the club adopted new articles of association, effectively a new constitution, which included elements the trust objects to, including that all shareholders have to sell if Levien and Kaplan do. Sumbler says they were not circulated the proposed new articles.
Jenkins is understood to have made £7.7m from selling a 7% stake in the club to Kaplan and Levien; Morgan and his wife, Louisa, almost £20m; the former trust chairman, Leigh Dineen, who sold 4%, made £4.4m, Katzen made £22m, Rob Davies £12m and John van Zweden, who has talked in his native Netherlands about his role saving Swansea, made £5.5m selling his 5% stake.
Levien and Kaplan are understood to be waiting for the outcome of the trust meeting before formulating a response. Jenkins, asked about the trust’s complaints, declined to talk about them, saying: “In the best interests of the club, delicate issues should be discussed in-house and around a table, in the right way, not in public and in the media.”
Sumbler said that the trust’s concerns had been fully raised in private first, but that he had a duty to inform members of the trust, as it is a democratic, mutual organisation of supporters formed for the benefit of Swansea City.
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:02 pm
I'd ignore those twats
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:44 pm
all going to go Tits up for them 
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:25 pm
Have it !
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:25 pm
Have it !
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:25 pm
Have it !
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
They have had a few seasons of success and now it's coming home to roost.
All those JBS who have been smug, well now is your time to fall back to where you belong and it will happen I am sure
Re: Swansea City accused of ignoring supporters
Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:51 pm
Cry me a F -ing river Swansea, they don't know how lucky they are. Try being us with all the crap we constantly go through as a club