1976_Child

ermmm? care to expand on this?

I hate the idea of boycott. Southampton FC is not like StarBucks coffee shops. If you don't like the way they do their coffee then fine, boycott. But my support of my football club is not for sale, neither to greedy sods like Lowe nor to consumerist trends in football. That all said, if push came to shove then I would back a boycott, but only under the following terms: 1. All those boycotting, and any organizing body, should make it absolutely clear that the boycott is in protest of the incompetence and greed of the idiots running the club and that the footballing staff and players still have our full support and backing. This would be absolutely paramount and without which, i would still go through the turnstile and give my support. 2. All boycotters should still make the effort to get to SMS on match days. We would then gather outside the stadium and make our protest known. There is no point in organizing a boycott if the picket line is your own front room.. 3. That we have a credible plan to take the club forward. My earlier posts above suggest how this might be done. There is no point in boycotting or protesting against anything unless one has an alternative. All said: UP THE SAINTS!!

Sorry mate but you have the wrong end of the stick. Speaking for myself, I am still and always will be a solid SFC man. The thing I detest is the very principle that our football CLUB is owned and run by a Public Limited Company whose one and only motive is to make profit, and whose shares are traded on the stock market as though the history and passion which has seen our club through these last 124 years can be bought and sold like just any other commodity. As far as football and community is concerned greed and profiteering can take a back seat. I will continue to 'turn up and support the team'. I always have, and always will. I just bloody wish that nasty profiteers like Lowe and his God awful PLC weren't around to **** us up in the process. People, we can be better than this. We can organize our selves. We can beat the greed. We can bring our club back - indeed, if we acted along with other football clubs the length and breadth of the land we could return the game to its Beautifully intended purpose. Rather than suck us all dry and line the pockets of profiteers like Lowe.

eh? don't get it. My point is that when Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC goes bankrupt a newly formed Industrial and Provident Society could, if adequately funded, pick up the only assets that are - or should be - of importance to us fans for a knock-down price: the club name and other trade marks such as the badge. Then we can start a new period in our club's history continuing the 124 years worth of history without having to start from scratch. eh?

The only way we are ever going to win a game of football is if we start shooting at the goal. Doesn't matter how much they want to win the game, if the boys up front keep on trying to walk the ball over the line then we are doomed. It is a scientific fact that if you give the football a mighty great big crack and aim it at the goal mouth then you dramatically increase your chances of winning. (Saga knows all about this, so my spirits have been lifted on the news he is back)

This makes for very interesting reading. It is the constitution of the Dons' Trust which is the legal owner of AFC Wimbledon. http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/dtdocs/dt_constitution_-_version_post_jan_2008_agm.pdf If you have a spare half-hour and you are keen to know how an IPS-owned club would work then read it. The difference between a PLC-owned club could not be starker where the only priority of the PLC is to make characters like Lowe, Wilde et al richer.

we wouldn't need to moan on a forum! As equal members/owners of the club our voice would be genuinely heard at the IPS meetings and crucially our votes would be equal and would count. So we wouldn't need to moan! We could take action!

So long as Saga starts I will be happy!

indeed, but the 'A' does not stand for 'Association' as it usually does. If memory serves when they set up AFC Wimbledon for some perculiar reason they actively decided not to use the word 'Association'

It would be great to set up a club along purely non-profit lines as an 'Industrial and Provident Society'. One man, one vote and that 'share' can never be sold or proxied in anyway. In effect the club could never be taken over by greedy business men like Lowe. However, in order to make absolutely certain that this could not happen the level of debt that the club would have must be kept to an absolute minimum - preferrably zero. Why? Because if it ever came to the point that the AFC became insolvent and couldn't pay its debt then the lure of a White Knight might be too much. Debt is in effect bondage to someone else's will. Of course if SLH does go bust - which in my opinion is highly likely - then its assets, including the brand name 'Southampton Football Club' and the club badge, could be sold off to a newly formed Industrial and Provident Society. The stadium could then be sold off to some one else like a property company who the new IPS could enter into a lease agreement. The club would then, in effect still be called SFC - may be rename to AFC Southampton to show complete change - and crucially the badge and ground would remain. Fans would then pay an annual membership with optional donation. And crucialy, it would still be one man one vote. So if the membership fee was £20 and someone decided to pay £1000 then he would still only get one vote and nothing more. This has got to be the way forward. The more I think about it the more it makes sense. A proper club, run by the members for the members and with a squad of players drawn predominately from the surrounding community who would be paid sensible wages and who would crucially have to first be fully paid up members of the club before they could try out for the team. I am genuinely excited about this idea! In fact the silver lining in this whole credit crunch depression we are in might just be the end of money-grabbing greed-based capitalism across a lot of areas of society. If it could happen at OUR football club then I would be over the moon. Seriously: who would be up for meeting for a pint in Southampton sometime and just chewing over this. Totally informal, no minutes or action-plans. Just the tentative toe-dipping over a pint? After all, SLH could be bankrupt by the summer. A final tought. We the fans really do hold the fate of the club in our hands. If we really wanted to - and I am not at the moment actually advocating it - we could drive SLH into bankruptcy by non-attendance. Once in bankruptcy it would be the administrator who we would talk to, not Lowe. He would be out of the picture completely as ordinary shareholders are the last in line to get paid out. Friday afternoon musings, but even Lenin had to start some where!

ticket prices must not exceed one groat. That is groat with an 'r'. Goats will not be accepted. Except as sacrifice to the footballing gods.

I'm in. I'll do the oranges at half time. My whippet can be the club mascot.

cum! ahhh that has made my week. Easily pleased I know but we all need a bit of good cheer as the rest of the world goes tits up.

nice lad that wayne. well done.

Naturally. Although i would hang the board. One gibbet in each corner. Before the game starts the criminals would be marched out and strung up. They would remain swinging in the wind during the game as a reminder of my omnipotence. Also, after each game the worst performing player would be tied to the statue and the fans could whip him on their way home. If we lose three games in a row then one player, drawn at random, would also be shot. You just see how quickly we would get back into the Prem.

Come the revolution my friend! Come the revolution!

I would take a leaf out of Stalin's book. I would have a giant portrait of me hanging either side of the big screens. I would issue all the Stewards with pistols. Any fan who dissents in any way or chants anti-me songs will be shot at half time. Instead of the flybe penalty competition there would be a fan-shooting session in the center circle. You see just how popular I would be! No one would slag me off!

me. I'd be a bloody good chairman... but seriously. almost anyone. Just clear out all the nasty, petty, vindictive bad air and start over. One man - or woman! - and once voice and no board room arguments and childish back-stabbing. If that one individual has a bit of cash then all the better.

fair point. tragic timing. red k nap. aaaaagggghhhhhh

I said Lowe. Not SFC. Chrikee, don't be so literal!

Now if only this could happen to Lowe... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7818118.stm

you're right. I wasn't. Its just that there is a recession on, nay a depression, the Russians are starting to throw their weight around again and everything about life is sh!t at the moment. I'm just sentimental for the Dell and the memories that's all. SMS is nice enough. Just got limited good memories.

yeah, i get your point. Because now we are in a nice shiny new stadium we are at the top of the premiership and have been playing in Europe as well. New Stadium does not equal success. As the fact that we are shortly to be in the third division of english footy with the likes of Brighton who don't even have a stadium.

Nice. Just one thing though. Why were you cooking naked? Still, chilli on your balls would not be pleasant. I remember aged about 9 or 10, an older boy sprayed Deep Heat on my pre-pubescent nuts. **** me it hurt. That wasn't the half of it. The PE teacher walked into the changing room at the exact moment that I started to kick the crap out of him. I ended up getting six strokes of the cane as well. Sore balls and a sore arse. Those were the days! Kids these days don't know what they're missing.

eh? Woolworths was a company who's one and only purpose was to make profit. Hence the reason why they should have adapted. Football clubs, as I said in an earlier post, are not about making money. Staying at the Dell would not have hindered our ability to win football games one jot.