A very murky affair indeed

There is an excellant piece in the Guardian today about Notts County and having read it I am even more happy that we beat them and that they are so narked about it.

First of all the football leauge and FA are still unhappy about who ultimately owns the club and whether they pass the "fit and proper test". That's small stuff compared to the take over itself though.

In 2003 the club was saved by a chap called Haydn Green who ploughed £3million of his own money into the club. In 2007 Green sold his 49% stake in the club to the newly founded supporters trust who themselves owned 20% in order to give them the controlling stakee. Both the club and the trust were still skint so he gave them the shares on the basis that he only had to be paid the £75K that his shares were worth should they ever be sold. Green sadly died 4 months later.

When the current mob turned up it seems that it was agreed that the supporters trust would "gift" the shares to the new owners in order to avoid having to pay anything to Green's estate. There are suggestions that this was done under pressure from the new owners. Hence Green's relatives never got anything for the shares.

Whole thing stinks to me and if it all goes wrong then all involved will have got exactly what they deserved.