January
Newsfile

Newsfile Archive

The notes of significance over the weekend started on Friday. The Echo produced a couple of stories. One regarding Steve Borley's offer to resign in the wake of the takeover collapse and a second article which gives a bit more detail about the shares prices etc of the deal. Both reports are below.

On the field action was the concern of City's relegation rivals. The way the results turned out has left City in 22nd position, 4 points off the safe area of 20th place. That means a win on Tuesday is more important thean ever. Even though it will not lift us out of the releagation zone it will keep us close to safety. Bottom of the table Chesterfield were beaten at Oxford. Oxford are now 4 points clear of us. The other relegation battle between Cambridge and Blackpool saw the tangerines win 2 - 0 at Cambridge. Cambridge are second to bottom with 24 points, 3 behind us after the same number of games. Blackpool are now a place and a point ahead but having played two games more. Scunthorpe, Wrexham and Oxford occupy 18th, 19th and 20th place respectively will 31 points. 4 ahead of City but we have a game in hand on all of them. That game is on Tuesday v Bristol City, see just how important it is not drop too far behind.

Reports from Fridays Echo. (1).
STEVE Borley revealed today that he offered to resign as chairman of Cardiff City over the failure of the Bluebirds’ £2.5m investment bid. The Cardiff-born businessman has been hit hard by the breakdown of talks with the consortium led by Clive Sullivan and said: “I offered to stand down, but I was persuaded that it wasn’t in the best interests of Cardiff City right now.

“It is obvious that there is a personality clash between myself and Samesh Kumar and I did seriously consider whether offering to resign would diffuse the situation.

‘‘Colleagues persuaded me that it wasn’t the best course of action, but if standing down would allow the deal to go ahead I would willingly do that. I even talked about that with Clive Sullivan, but he argued with me that I should stay.

“All I am interested in is the football club. What happens to me really doesn’t matter.

“Everybody who loves Cardiff City wanted this deal to go ahead.

“We’ve done everything in our power to get the guy (Samesh Kumar) to the table for talks.

“Since he resigned as chairman he has found it tough to handle the fact that I am now the chairman and he isn’t. But I did not ask him to stand down.

“That was his decision and his decision alone. I believe he did not expect us to accept that resignation.”

Borley and vice-chairman Paul Guy both insist that despite the breakdown of the investment talks - the proposed deal by Clive Sullivan’s consortium is now effectively dead - Cardiff City’s future remains in safe hands.

Talks with potential new investors will start immediately and Borley said: “We were approached by other interested parties while we were talking to Clive Sullivan.

“While we were in serious negotiations with one group, we could not open discussions with others.

“Now, though, we are back in contact and we’ll be having a number of meetings next week.

“It’s impossible to say how they will go, but we will keep working to bring new investment into this club.”

The current directors have pledged to safeguard the future of Cardiff City and manager Ayre should be able to strengthen his squad next week.

He hopes to bring in the Premiership striker he has earmarked for a loan deal.

There will not be money available for any big permanent signings until new investment comes in, but Borley said today: “It’s true things are tight and that the club would go into administration if the current directors did not keep putting money in.

‘‘But we will do that, we will press on with our task of taking this club forward. Even under the proposed deal with Clive Sullivan’s consortium the current directors would have been putting up between 15 and 20 per cent of the money.

“Clive Sullivan wasn’t doing it on his own and he did not want to do it on his own.

“It was a partnership and we were playing our part fully.

“We are going to continue to drive Cardiff City forward through every means at our disposal.

“We will talk to potential investors in private and give Billy Ayre as much support as possible.

“He accepts the situation is tight and is up for the job.

‘‘He’s a realist and a good man to work with.

“Billy can lead Cardiff City away from relegation danger, I really believe that. I personally am bitterly disappointed with the way things have gone over the investment, it’s been a difficult time mentally and physically.

“But Cardiff City is worth the effort and I won’t stop trying until somebody else comes in who can do a better job.

“When that happens I will willingly step aside.”

Bluebirds 2000, the fans club raising money to buy shares in Cardiff City, will continue with their drive - in the hope they can buy a striker for the club.

“None of the money has been touched, not a cheque cashed,” said Borley, “It is a club formed by fans for fans, but I will write to everybody who has invested and give them the opportunity to withdraw their money.

“Those who still want to buy shares will be welcome to do so. More than £70,000 has apparently been raised and that is a magnificent effort.”

Report 2.
CARDIFF-born Clive Sullivan and his consortium walked away from their proposed investment in Cardiff City yesterday, saying: “Everything had been agreed all members of the board except one. Those in favour went even further by commiting themselves to taking part of the consortium’s proposed extra shares - and investing more money themselves.

“There was no question of buying the club on the cheap as the investment level would have been maintained. However, Samesh Kumar, who had a blocking vote, indicated he was not prepared to accept the rescue plan.”

Former chairman Kumar’s concerns surrounded the share price of 25 pence - a 50 per cent drop from the previous deal of 50 pence.

The resulting investment, though, would still have ensured £2.5m going into the football club with the promise of more to follow.

Sullivan said: “The loyal fans have been magnificent in their support. I am very upset that one individual has prevented a lot of dreams from becoming reality.

“The rest of the Board, and, in particular, Steve Borley, have invested a lot of time, effort and money in trying to ensure the survival of the club and I would like to thank them for all their efforts.”

He added that he felt that the chances of being able to revive a similar proposal in the future were likely to be limited.

Sullivan said: “Mr Kumar refused offers to meet Steve Borley and I. He then made the situation public.

“Despite his protestations to be acting in the interests of the shareholders, very soon afterwards he offered to sell his shares - not at the 25p valuation agreed by the rest of the board, not even at the 50p that he had accepted as part of the initial option, but he demanded the price of £1.04.

‘‘My attitude from the start has been that we did not wish to buy out existing shareholders. Every penny that could have gone into Mr Kumar’s pocket would have been a penny less into Cardiff City.

‘‘A total sum of over £1.1m!. “In the end it became impossible to resolve the matter.”

Sullivan loaned Cardiff City £165,00 as an act of faith at the start of negotiations last November, but he has said: “It is not my intention to seek an early repayment.”