Meeting at the Sandon from RAWK

this bit of news telling is sourced from http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=209235.0 - big thanks to our brothers at RED and WHITE KOP forum-MyRAWK Admin

Tonight’s Supporters Meeting – Some VERY interesting news

Well, I attended the meeting tonight at the Sandon in Anfield for which there was an excellent turnout of >200 activists and committed Kopites, even The Urchins (our firm for those who don;t know) were well represented (and vocal). I had been invited anyway but at Matt’s request I kinda represented TIA there.

Some very very interesting information came out of this which believe me – you will be DISGUSTED at and if you’re not against Hicks and Gillette already then you will be...just read on.

Background

The meeting followed a secret meeting earlier in town regarding the Share Liverpool proposition.

Most of the fansites, fanzines and supporters groups were represented including us, RAWK, The Urchins, RTK, Liverpool Supporters Network etc. and a VERY important / interesting guest which I will come onto shortly. Notable in their absence were the official supporters club (surprise surprise – scared of banning orders as are many ‘normal’ fans I think) and indeed anyone from Share Liverpool.

The agenda was:

1. Aims & introductions
2. Refinancing package – proper expert explanation of / scrutiny
3. Views from the various supporters clubs / groups
4. Q & A to the floor / general opinion
5. Actions

The Journalist

Firstly, let me say that clearly – there is so much going on behind the scenes that the average fan can only learn about so much – not everything is printed in the papers even by journo’s who know the whole story so at times; fans can be forgiven for (as an example) taking a position of support for Hicks because they have only seen the good PR. There's no excuses now though...

Anyway, for me, this was the most important development of the whole evening. Excuse the cloak and dagger but a very senior journalist from a well known regional top selling newspaper – at great personal risk to his/her own job and connections within LFC – took the time out to attend the meeting and reveal some highly compelling information to the audience and answer some very searching questions. I will not reveal his / her name or paper as requested but I’m sure most of you will have a good idea and appreciate this person’s gravitas as both a journalist and connected person at all levels of LFC.

I’ll cover this persons comments / information by section:

(1) Last Saturday

This disgusted me as did last Saturday anyway:

We were told that naturally, Gillette and Hicks have their own people in our club at all levels who of course feed back to them what’s going on. A club email had been intercepted, forwarded and seen by this journalist TODAY stating to Hicks that after last weeks H&W match "he has nothing to worry about, the fans have calmed down". This was sent directly to Hicks by his moles and as a result, he then took a harder line in his negotiations with DIC (which I will come onto in a minute) because he now thinks the fans have backed down – this has hurt the club as I will explain. I am sickened by this as I was by the so called fans and ooters who very aggressively shouted down those trying to demonstrate on Saturday. If those same people see these facts now, they should hang their heads in shame.

We have gotten complacent people, G&H are a genuine threat and we took our eye off the ball.

(2) Parry, Moores & DIC.

Many people see Beavis and Butthead as the root of many of the clubs problems having sold to G&H in the first place. However, the journalist explained a few fascinating things to us that you will all be keen to learn. Parry & Moores are according to him/her bitterly opposed to G&H (Hicks in particular) but know that if they are removed from the board then ALL of the debt will be signed over onto the club– they are allegedly – according to this journalist – the ones who have thus far stopped that by voting against it. Hicks is trying to find excuses to oust them and they themselves are working hard behind the scenes to get the Americans out – they know they have screwed up. Whether that is enough for fans to forgive them in the long term I doubt it but it sounds like they may actually be on our side in this one.

Parry and Moores (as well as Hicks separately) are still negotiating with DIC hard and according to the journalist, it is a case of when and not if. It has been hinted that the plans for the ground are simply a way of adding value to the sale of the club – it’s like if you have planning permission for an extension on your house; it is worth more without you actually having to build anything. With the stadium plans and loans in place; they think they can get more money for selling the club so the question is do they actually intend to build anything or is this all just a way of them making extra cash? Remember that they have only secured cash to pay for the basic groundworks and the real cost would come out of profits and future new loans held against future stadium revenue. Basically; everything suggests that they’re fully leveraged in terms of what money they can raise so if we don’t get the requisite success on the pitch then what happens? Our best financial year I think was £8m profit after winning the Champions League and it’s often been a significant loss. Worse case though we are not Leeds, we are still a very attractive asset and would be okay but it is still worrying. Foster Gillette - as was always intended actually as he held both jobs - is now back at Montreal Canadians (his wife apparantly hates being in Liverpool).

This journalist speaks to DIC on a daily basis and meets with them regularly, including this week although he/she admitted that they may not be knights in shining armour and the answer to all our prayers in the long run, they have though expressed to him/her big financial plans for the club including major backing for stadia and new players. We thus must – unless Share Liverpool turns out to be more than a pipe dream – keep up the pressure for DIC.

Hicks and Gillette are according to him/her hopelessly split, Gillette is at the maximum level of his investment which means he cannot invest more which is in itself worrying. Gillette is apparently ready to get out but he doesn’t want to leave it in Hicks hands – their relationship has come to that bad a level which is perhaps a good thing if what the journo says is true. It does make sense though, Gillette’s silence has been deafening.

(3) Rafa

As he/she does regularly, the journalist spoke to Rafa this morning and asked him about what he thinks of the demonstrations. Rafa’s view is that this is our club and he is behind us but that if we sing his name then he wants us to sing the players names ten times more because it is affecting them as players and he doesn’t think it is fair, he wants us to give our continued support to the players and do what we have to do regarding the rest.

Whatever you think of Rafa, there’s a lot of combining of issues at the moment which is a basic case of divide and rule by the Yanks. The problems with results, Rafa, whatever, are a SIDE ISSUE at the moment and it is not Rafa vs The Americans it is the fans vs The Americans. Let’s not confuse the issues with our ownership with the issues we may have with Rafa and the team. Lets demonstrate but equally, let’s support our players, through the wind, through the rain.

The Rest of The Meeting

I’ve summed the rest of the meeting up into one section because to be honest, in my opinion, there was a lot of passionate support from committed activists at the meeting but quite a poor framework running the show. There were a lot of soundbites and a lot of ‘we need to organise unions and collect dues’ but little in the way of solid actions. That was billed but it became a bit too committe-ish for me and after people starting rambling about pet issues that had nothing to do with the matters in hand, I felt it descended into a mess. The right people were there, the time was right, people were up for it but I think the people chairing it were not up for the task in my opinion, I would have liked to have seen them take control of things early on, suggest actions and drive them forward instead of basically letting every man and his dog have a say about everything they feel is wrong with Liverpool and trying to be all things to all people. We need leadership.

To be fair, if it was a meeting to decide long term goals and aspirations then yes some really good ideas came out of it and colours were nailed to the mast. Some good suggestions were made and I'm confident everything was noted down by the people chairing it. A separate issue perhaps but everyone uttterly pretty fed up with the fans who turn up at the match, spend 90 mins takin photos on their phone and tellin their mates in London on the phone that they’re in Liverpool at Anfield. It’s this type of ‘support’ from daytrippers that we all know is affecting larger campaigns of this nature.

What did come across well was a simple statement that the Americans can buy the stadium etc but they cannot buy the spirit of this club and we are that spirit.

Having been there 2 hours already, I left the meeting after some woman had rambled on about a non related issue for about 10 mins but I will get anything good that came out of it afterwards from the other people I knew there tomorrow including any specific actions they managed to agree for the weekends match.

As I said, the best part of the meeting was hearing what this journalist – who most reds in Liverpool know and respect – had to say about the inner goings on at the moment. The bottom line is Hicks is shafting us, DIC are still very much at the negotiating table, Moores and Parry may have fcuked up but they know it and are trying to fix things and that the fans not supporting the demonstrations on Saturday have hurt the club by making Hicks complacent and making him take a tougher negotiating line with DIC.

We must keep up the pressure, we must tell everyone who will listen that G&H are evil and need to go and we must keep demonstrating be it at the ground or by not buying any LFC products / merchandise.

This was obviously off the top of my head having just come in from this now so I’m sure I’ve forgotten loads of good stuff, any questions or thoughts please let me know