Geoff Dunford has been pretty
vocal on messageboards in the last few days and it's not been easy
to keep up with his productivity levels. To help you out, gasheads.com
has analysed some of his key comments for you below:
| GD (talking about the board statement)
- The statement was not handled by me as I too was on holiday
and like you trying to relax. |
gasheads.com
view – Indeed, it may not have actually
been “handled” by
GD - and instead by his team in Bristol - but we'd guess
that he was the architect of the statement and probably
dictated it from the poolside in Portugal.
|
| GD (talking on rejecting
the Turl proposal) - It was in the interest
of both myself and BRFC. |
gasheads.com view – We’re
glad to see GD gets his order of priorities right on this quote |
| GD- I
will not allow other people to manage my investment without
my involvement. |
gasheads.com view -
Interesting use of words here: Geoff Dunford sees his financial
activity in Rovers as an investment. Mike Turl saw his involvement
as covering operating losses through share purchase and unsecured
loans. |
| GD- MT
did not want my involvement or BB or RC. We put our money
in unconditionally. Why should be accept "terms" from
someone putting in less? |
gasheads.com view – Geoff
Dunford uses the word unconditionally for his loans. He actually
does have conditions - his loans are secured on the home of
Bristol Rovers. |
| GD - Secondly
the 1.3m figure is not all it seems. 300k was already in
the club backed up by two properties. 500k would have purchased
a further two new properties for stadium regeration [sic]
and 240k was against another two club properties. Hardly
money at risk! 200k would have been in new shares. We have
covered all of the above since Mike resigned |
gasheads.com view -
A lot of figures that don’t match up to Mike Turl's proposal.
Turl’s proposal has been clearly stated as 200K in shares,
a 300K unsecured loan, 500K of property purchase. GD says all
of the above is covered, but the figures don’t match
at all, especially the nasty bit – providing 300K of
hard cash unsecured to the club. He also glosses over 300K
already in the club backed up by two properties owned by Colin
Williams and Mike Turl – which are the Alton Road properties
vital for South Stand development.. Does this mean GD has already
bought these properties back from Mike Turl and Colin Williams?
We suspect not. |
| GD (again on the Turl
proposal) Mike's proposals were discussed
at directors meetings and rejected by three directors, as it
affected our position at the club. |
gasheads.com view – A
single sentence that summarises the current battle in the boardroom
at Rovers. It was rejected by the minority three directors
out of the full directorship of seven at the time – but
these three hold 54% of the shareholding. And the reason for
the rejection of the plan? Because “it affected our position”,
not whether it was good for Rovers or not. |
| GD (on democracy) - If
the proposals were pushed through it would have resulted
in an EGM to discuss the plan by all shareholders of the
club. A democratic process. Mike said he would resign if
his plan was not accepted, and did this before the next boardmeeting
[sic] could take place. Some directors who are no longer
on the board said that they would not have allowed our positions
to be affected by Mike's plan, in that case you have to ask
why Mike went down this route in the first place. |
gasheads.com view – Maybe
this was the one mistake from Mike Turl and the other directors,
that they should have forced an EGM? We imagine they didn’t
want to take the chance of damaging the club by going down
that route but now the dirty washing is being laundered in
public anyway. However, one thing seems to be clear from the
events of the past two weeks: the 54% of shares held by Dunford,
Bradshaw and Craig would have been used to block any change
anyway, as this is about position not progress. |
| GD (again on finances)
- The club has not lost Mike's financial
investment as we have replaced it. |
gasheads.com view – We
analysed GD’s view on the finances that Mike Turl were
proposing above. If GD only acts on his version of the finances
then he will not be covering the Turl plan but conveniently
missing out on 300K of unsecured loans that Turl was going
to invest in the club. Instead GD will be using club assets
(properties owned by the football club to the tune of 240K)
to bail the club out in season 2006-2007, selling off the last
of the family silver. And he may have to find another 300K
to buy out Turl and Williams properties in Alton Road. |
| GD (on Bill Smith) - Bill
was appointed by Mike Turl on a salary at the club, not by
me. I and other directors were present at directors meeting
when Kevin's appointment was discussed by Mike and during
those meeting the salary of 50k was mentioned although nothing
was finalised then. Of course kevin [sic] knew of those conversations,
he was sat there! Whether Mike discussed his last proposal
of Kevin being appointed CEO on 20k on two days per week
for the first year and 60k for the following year is another
matter, which I do not know the answer. |
gasheads.com view – This
statement directly contradicts Kevin Spencer’s statement
that recent plans for him to become a Chief Executive were
not discussed. To quote Kevin in the Evening Post: "At
no time was that even discussed. I had been asked to become
the chief executive of the club a number of times in the past,
including by the chairman. I had offered to give two days a
week to the club on a voluntary basis, but I could not do any
more because of my commitments with my own business”.
Interestingly enough in this statement GD
starts to backtrack on the board statement where Barry Bradshaw
said: "Mike advised me he wanted to become chairman and
appoint Kevin Spencer as chief executive at a salary of £60,000
per annum in year two, which is totally out of the question.” |
| GD, now seeming to deny
he personally had any knowledge of this offer,- I
and the other board members can only give the facts as we know
them and we will not nor can we change our view of the events.
To say I am "disappointed" at some of the comments
from people I respected in the past is an understatement. My
reputation is being attacked by people who want to get their
own way by whichever means possible it seems? Why resign if
you believe in something so passionately? I am and will fight
for my business reputation and my honesty. Others I believe
will have difficulty after this sorry affair is brought to
a end and eventually the truth will be known. Hopefully that
will be before too much damage is done to BRFC. You cannot
control a business if you are not a director. No democratic
process at Bristol Rovers has been violated. If it has then
I would love to know how? Also I do not know of any company
directors or shareholders who would allow anyone else to take
over their role from outside that company just because they
have a "plan" |
gasheads.com view – This
seems to be a statement typed out while not breathing, as it
is barely coherent and full of interesting sentences and priceless
business advice such as “you cannot control a business
if you are not a director”. Who is this mystery person
from “outside the company” who had a plan and wanted
to take over their role? Surely Turl was a director of the
company known to all the board members; does GD mean him? |
| GD (in response to the
question – weren’t Williams and Turl both very
busy in the new Mem project) - As for
stadium regeneration, That [sic] is being led by Ed Ware and
Bill Smith. |
gasheads.com view – another
wonderful GD statement, particularly the use of the word “is”.
This conveniently avoids answering the question “was”.
Mike Turl was leading the project on behalf of the
football club, working with Ed Ware and Roger Cooper (who is
not mentioned at all by GD – thanks Roger!). Colin Williams was also
heavily involved but not on a day-to-day basis. Bill Smith
was on the periphery of the project looking at funding options
and potential tenants for the development. After all, he was
employed by Oxford United for two months earlier in 2006. |
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