Complaints, Caley and constructive feedback
Wednesday round up: Do people linked to firms trying to buy football clubs really deserve privacy?
Club complaint unlocked!
Not even a month into the new season and I have my first complaint.
An email arrived last week from a club I shall not name (I’ve written about a fair few in recent weeks so you won’t be able to guess) saying I published “false” information that “paints the club in a bad light.”
I called them for a chat and cited conclusive proof my claim was correct.
It ended on a positive note
I also told them I could have gone further with what I revealed, but didn’t so they should be happy.
Don’t get me wrong - club staff have a hard job keeping top brass happy and are fiercely protective of their clubs, which they are passionate about.
They’re used to dealing with media more interested in on-field matters and so it can feel a bit foreign handling off-field issues.
Anyway, it all ended on a positive, professional note with the club (at the second attempt) approaching the issue in a reasonable way and I’m confident things will be good in future.
Naming names
Okay, I can sense your disappointment that I didn’t name names, so here’s one - Ketan Makwana.
He also took exception to something I wrote last week.
‘More red flags than a Ferrari F1 race victory’
Only it wasn’t anything I wrote in the newsletter.
For the uninitiated, Mr Makwana is an English businessman who is in the process of trying to invest in Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
He is director of Berkshire-based Seventy7 Ventures, which makes all kind of grand claims on its website about being “on a mission to increase the digital and technology capabilities of ventures in the creative industries”.
But he’s yet to say how that will help Caley.
In fact, respected football finance expert Kieran Maguire has crunched the numbers and, in his view: “This has more red flags than when Ferrari win an F1 race” - a point Mr Makwana firmly disagrees with.
I too have done some digging.
The Companies House record shows just one serving ‘officer’ of the firm (Mr Mawkana) but the company’s website has five other faces on it.
I contacted a couple of them - to check they were real and that they were involved with Seventy7 Ventures (I never thought they weren’t, but you have to check everything these days).
I didn’t hear back from any of them - but I did hear from….Ketan Makwana.
He asked me to leave them be, citing their privacy.
This made me laugh because all of the people I contacted have gone out of their way to court publicity. They proactively want to be contacted.
And, besides, none of them contacted me directly to give a ‘no comment’ - after which, journalists will leave them alone.
This from Mr Makwana who says he isn’t ready for a press interview, despite giving one to the Inverness Courier and rejoicing about it all over his LinkedIn page last week (before jetting off to Dubai).
He knows where I am if he wants to be interviewed
Fair play to the IC for getting the scoop, but a cynic would argue it wasn’t exactly a Paxmanesque grilling that many of the Caley fans I’ve spoken to are crying out for.
Mr Makwana may turn out to be the club’s saviour (we all hope he does - for the good of the club).
But - and I told him all of this - we’ve seen this rodeo before.
He spent weeks waxing lyrical on his LinkedIn page about being in control of Hayes and Yeading FC before his takeover bid unceremoniously collapsed.
So fans have every right to be wary about whether Mr Makwana’s Caley experience will be the same - and journalists have every right to scrutinise his firm on behalf of supporters.
Mr Makwana knows where I am. I’ll sit down with him anytime. He just won’t like my questions.
A word of praise
When I was working on the away-ticket-price investigation last week, I emailed Hearts for info and they replied with an answer within two minutes. Not bad!
Other clubs take note. (Thanks also to St Johnstone for their help).
Feedback
Speaking of the away-fans investigation, thank you for all your feedback - all of which was constructive.
Easy wins are possible
A lot of people pointed out the differences between finances in England and Scotland, particularly in terms of the TV deal.
And others made the point that some clubs charge Rangers and Celtic fans more because they have to pay for police officers in the ground for those games.
I still think there are easy wins to be had - particularly with price points for pensioners and children - and I’ll be doing some work on that as the season progresses.
Dundee FC - new stadium (non) update
In the post about the new stadium and training ground bid, I mentioned the stadium plan could potentially be heard by Dundee City Council’s planning committee on August 12.
There was no sign of the application making the agenda, which means the earliest it can be considered is September 9..
Holiday time
I’m away for the next week, but I’ve prepared two posts for you in my absence.
I would say this, but both of them are really interesting.
I’ll post one on Sunday and one on Wednesday.
The second one in particular is something I think fans of all Scottish clubs will find fascinating (except for maybe three, but we’ll get to that next week).
Some excellent work has been done by a third party to pull it all together and I’m sure it’ll create many talking points, which I shall explore.
Thanks for reading, as usual. Please subscribe - and see you when I get back from my break.