Written evidence submitted by Chris Vasper,
ex Chair TEAM, Mansfield Supporters Trust
1. Until August 2009 I was the chairman of Stags
Fans United (formerly Team Mansfield) which is the Supporters
Trust of Mansfield Town FC. TEAM Mansfield was formed in 1999.
I had held the position of Chairman for about three years though
I had been actively involved with the trust as its spokesperson
for about 3 years prior to that. I was approached by the Trust
in 2004 to raise the profile of the Trust locally and nationally,
specifically addressing the difficulties the club was having with
its owner Keith Haslam. Mansfield Town has in the view of its
supporters been let down by the footballing authorities, both
the FA and the Football League, and those in authority who should
have stepped in when it was clear there were real misgivings about
the conduct of Mr Haslam in the running of Mansfield Town.
2. Its this well documented evidence of poor
governance the FA and FL should had acted upon and because they
didn't address clear breaches of company law by Mr Haslam it allowed
him to eventually remove the stadium from the clubs ownership
and we are now fighting for its very existence. It is important
to document the road to the situation we find ourselves in.
3. On 4 June 1993, Abacus sold their majority
shareholding in MTFC Ltd to Wakeco (64) Ltd for £1. Wakeco
(64) Ltd was a new "off the shelf" company owned by
Keith Haslam and his wife, Meena. Initially, Meena Haslam owned
99 out of the 100 issued shares in Wakeco (64) Ltd. Keith Haslam
is the son of former Luton Town and Sheffield United manager,
Harry Haslam. It was reported that he had business involvements
with property and sports marketing in Sheffield.
4. The terms of the deal reached between Abacus
and Keith Haslam were as follows:
— Abacus
sold their majority shareholding in MTFC Ltd to Keith Haslam for
£1.
— Field
Mill was transferred to Abacus to pay off the debt of £1.63
million owed by MTFC Ltd to Abacus.
— Abacus
paid off the money owed by MTFC Ltd to Barclays Bank which amounted
to £499,199.09 plus interest and charges of £10,806.58.
It was agreed that MTFC Ltd would repay this money to Abacus from
any monies received by MTFC Ltd in respect of Colin Calderwood.
(MTFC Ltd eventually received around £575,000 for Colin Calderwood
so most of this money would have been used to repay the debt owed
to Abacus).
— Abacus
agreed to lend MTFC Ltd £32,000 to enable MTFC Ltd to repay
their creditors as at 4th June 1993. This loan was to be repaid
when MTFC Ltd sold any players in the future. MTFC Ltd agreed
to use 50% of any transfer monies received to repay this debt
to Abacus.
— Abacus
agreed to give a ten year lease to MTFC Ltd to use Field Mill
with the first two years being rent free. The annual rent would
then be £50,000 per annum subject to review in 1998.
— Abacus
gave MTFC Ltd an option to buy back Field Mill for £1.63
million provided that this option was exercised in the first five
years of the lease.
Therefore, Keith Haslam started off with a clean
slate when it came to debts and liabilities, although the football
club no longer owned its main asset, Field Mill.
5. In November 1993, a dispute developed between
Abacus and Keith Haslam regarding the money received by MTFC Ltd
for Colin Calderwood. However, this matter appeared to be resolved
in February 1994 when a shareholders' meeting was held to retrospectively
approve the sale of MTFC Ltd to Keith Haslam. Furthermore, this
meeting also approved the adoption of new articles of association
for MTFC Ltd. One of the main changes made to the articles was
that full time working directors of the football club could be
paid a salary provided that the terms of their appointment were
notified to and approved by The Football Association and The Football
League
6. Mr Haslam was the subject of an Individual
Voluntary Arrangement in November 1995 (Sheffield Reference No:
VA28021-Court Reference Number No 220 of 1995)
7. In September 1996, Keith Haslam had to fend
off angry questions from shareholders at the football club's first
annual general meeting for three years. No annual general meetings
had been held in 1994 and 1995 as required by company law for
which Keith Haslam said the club had "no excuses". He
promised such a delay would not happen again. However, no annual
general meeting was held the following year.
8. The accounts for the years ended 30 June 1994
and 30 June 1995 showed that Mansfield Town had made a net profit
of £167,166 in 1994 and £196,546 in 1995. Net transfer
fees receivable amounted to £282,612 in 1994 and £178,500
in 1995.
9. Keith Haslam confirmed that his wife and himself
were .the only directors of the company and that they received
no remuneration from the football club or its holding company,
Wakeco (64) Limited. However, a letter published in the CHAD on
11 September 1986 alleged that Keith Haslam was being paid "a
substantial salary", and when the accounts were eventually
published for the year ended 30 June 1996 in August 1998, they
revealed that Keith Haslam had received a salary of £30,000
from the football club during this period.
10. However, Keith Haslam still had one strong
supporter in the form of Alan Meale, Labour MP for Mansfield who
said in March 1997 "Keith Haslam has done more for the club
in the last few years than anyone." Mr Meale would rise to
Mr Haslams defence on numerous occasions throughout the following
years in spite of all the evidence that there was clear breaches
by Mr Haslam in his duties as a director.
11. The financial position of the club went downhill
during the 1997-98 season and fans were shocked in March 1998
when they learnt that the club had been forced to borrow money
from the PFA to pay the players wages with the result that a transfer
embargo was placed on the club until this loan had been repaid.
Keith Haslam stated that "[Transfer] Embargoes are a common
thing. Basically, if you have to borrow money from the PFA, the
Football League obviously stops you spending any until it is paid
back. Supporters are well aware that things are quite tight here
financially. The manager has been well aware of the embargo and
our financial position for a couple of months now. But it's not
a major difficulty and hopefully it will be lifted within a month".
12. In May 1998, a proposal was put forward by
Douglas Craig, the then Chairman of York City, demanding the resignation
of Keith Haslam from the Football's League board of directors
for "obvious reasons".
13. In July 1998, Keith Haslam appeared in Sheffield
Crown Court to answer charges that he had obtained a cheque for
£29,900 from Cornhill Insurance by deception. The case involved
Keith Haslam's BMW 328I Cabriolet car which had been stolen from
outside his house in April 1997. The car belonged to the football
club but was used by Keith Haslam and his wife. The car was found
by the police at Taggs garage in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire
and the prosecution alleged that Keith Haslam had asked Stags
coach driver, Andrew Moran, to store the car as a favour. The
defence countered that Andrew Moran had stolen the car and intended
to sell it on or break it up for parts. The case eventually ended
by Judge Peter Hunt directing the jury to find Keith Haslam not
guilty because of inconsistencies in the evidence given by prosecution
witnesses, and because it was unfair that a verdict in the court
should be based in any degree on speculation.
14. Yet again Mr Meale leapt to Haslams defence,
writing to then Director of Public Prosecutions, Barbara Mills,
requesting they drop all charges against Haslam. Meale failed
to disclose two material facts to the Police that he was actually
a close friend of Haslams and that he would be providing the main
alibi in the case. The lead investigating officer at the time
DC Malcolm Moss Ward wrote to the Speaker to make a complaint
about Meales actions. (Source : Sunday Times Insight Article)
15. Also during 1998 during the clubs AGM (again
Haslam failed to hold the 1997 AGM) Haslam refused to answer any
questions about the clubs finances. Another major concern was
that the accounts revealed that Keith Haslam had borrowed money
from the company. They showed that he owed £45,998 in June
1996 and this had increased to £77,484 by June 1997. The
maximum loan allowed by a company to a director under company
law is £5,000.
16. The financial problems continued to mount
up. Winding up proceedings had been issued against the club earlier
in the season by the Mayer Brown Partnership, a firm of highway
traffic consultants based in Woking, in respect of an unpaid debt
of around £10-12,000, and now it was reported that the Inland
Revenue had also issued winding up proceedings in respect of unpaid
tax.
17. In July 1999 a group of fans decided to form
a company to try and raise money to help buy out Keith Haslam.
This group called themselves "Team Mansfield". They
held a public meeting at Mansfield Civic Centre on Monday 2nd
August which was attended by 600 fans. They initially set up a
company called Team Mansfield Limited. They then later joined
the growing Supporters Trust movement to set up an industrial
and provident society called "Team Mansfield Supporters Society
Limited".
18. The accounts for the year ended 30 June 1998
were eventually sent out late to shareholders in October 1999.
They showed that Mansfield Town had made a loss of £208,704
for the year ended June 1998, and that its liabilities exceeded
its assets by £232,805. The total amount owed to creditors
was £776,174. Transfer fees receivable were stated to be
£155,063 in 1997 and £129,875 in 1998.
19. The accounts also revealed that the amount
Keith Haslam had borrowed from the football club had increased
from £74,747 to £108,077 on top of his salary of £37,986.
20. The accounts also confirmed that Mansfield
Town had exercised its option to buy back Field Mill from Abacus
for £1.63 million, and that the funds for this had been provided
by a property development company, Peveril Securities Limited,
a subsidiary company of Bowmer & Kirkland Limited. The accounts
stated that Field Mill had subsequently been revalued at £345,000
and this value had been included in the accounts. However, it
was pointed out that there was a potential tax liability of £379,938
plus interest if the Inland Revenue did not accept the revaluation.
It's important to note that Peveril Securities provided the funds
as part of its ambitions to develop land adjacent to Field Mill
so that an out of town development of stores could be built.
21. Keith Haslam responded to criticism from
shareholders at the AGM in October 1999 by promising to pay the
money he owed to the club. He stated "I will have paid back
all I owe the club over the next three months. I felt at the time
it was better to borrow the money I needed off the club than taking
it out in salary as it would then have not been repayable. I've
only taken a salary the last three years and it is a salary I
can very easily justify. I am definitely the lowest paid Chief
Executive in the Football League. I admit it doesn't look too
healthy having a director's loan account".
22. The accounts also showed that Barclays Bank
demanded immediate repayment of a £207,723 overdraft. Haslam
said "The bank got very nervy. I don't know if it was with
Mansfield Town or with football in general. We were asked to clear
our overdraft which obviously caused us problems".
23. MTFC Ltd had been perpetually behind with
accounts and annual general meetings since Keith Haslam had taken
over. There had been no AGM in 1994, 1995 and 1997. Mr Haslam
promised to improve the situation.
24. In July 2000, it was announced that Keith
Haslam had agreed to TEAM Mansfield purchasing a small shareholding
in Mansfield Town. A deal was being brokered by Trevor Watkins,
the chairman of AFC Bournemouth and would be discussed at a public
meeting in September. The deal with Haslam was finalised a meeting
with supporters in November 2000. The agreement has been held
up as a template for other Trusts to follow.
25. Key to the agreement was a pledge by Haslam
to repay all the outstanding loans owed to the club at the earliest
opportunity. To ensure no further loans were taken out by him
and to appoint a supporter director onto the board at the club.
It's important to note that in the 8 years since Haslam took over
the club, it did not have a properly constituted board and in
fact Haslam was in reality its sole director . Team Mansfield
purchased £33,000 Community shares in the club (a 3.3% stake).
26. On a positive note. The new stadium built
on monies given to the club by the Football Stadium Improvement
fund and Peveril securities opened. It was a 3 sided stadium but
it was new and Mansfield also announced ambitious plans for an
exciting £7 million Centre of Excellence between Beck Lane
and Mansfield Lane at Skegby, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts. (February
2001).
27. However the joy was short-lived as it was
revealed on 22 August 2001 that Ellenby Construction Ltd had issued
legal proceedings against the football club for £309,000.
Keith Haslam said that the matter would not get as far as the
High Court and that the club would be settling the matter. He
said the payment wrangle was because the club was not happy with
Ellenby's delays in completing the new stadium. He said that monies
"were quite rightly withheld from Ellenby under the contract.
Work was delayed for 11 weeks which affected us at times when
we should have opened the stands".
28. However, an independent adjudicator appointed
to resolve the matter found in favour of Ellenby Construction
in July. Ellenby director, Paul Brett said "The club just
don't want to pay us. We've been through a very drawn out adjudication
process with the club which deals with the delays and disruption
and we have a legal ruling in our favour".
29. The accounts for the years ended 30 June
2000 and 2001 were presented at the AGM in August 2002 They showed
a retained profit for the year ended June 2000 of £231,743
and £525,270 for the year ended June 2001. Mansfield MP Alan
Meale told the meeting: "I think we should thank the director,
staff, accountants and associate directors. This club has come
through a traumatic period of its history, when it very nearly
closed down, and has turned it round. Now we have a new stadium,
a successful team that has moved up to a higher division, and
closer links with the local community. It has been a sterling
effort by all those involved."
30. Shareholders were not impressed with this
statement by Mr Meale as the accounts showed Mr Haslams loans
had risen to over £350,000. Mr Haslam said that under his
new agreement with fans' organisation TEAM Mansfield: "Within
12 months of signing this agreement he will make a significant
reduction to the value of his loan from Mansfield Town, and that
no further loans for personal use will be taken from the football
club."
31. There was concern over a further £487,305
loaned to Stags Ltd, the club's parent company which is controlled
by Mr Haslam who owns 74 per cent of its issued share capital.
But he explained that money was for the development of the Centre
of Excellence and training facilities in Sutton. "The academy
development is a very exciting project and to me is as important
as getting promotion," said Mr Haslam. The Academy has never
been built.
32. In December 2002 at a fans forum Keith Haslam
was reminded that as a director of MTFC Ltd he had a duty to act
in good faith in the best interests of the company/football club.
He was then asked how he could justify using the football club's
money to make an interest free loan of £487,305 to his company
Stags Ltd to enable it to buy land at Skegby that would be used
for the proposed training ground and youth academy. Keith Haslam
could not answer this question. His only answer was that he "had
just decided to do it this way".
33. In early 2003, Mansfield were suspended for
three years from receiving grants from the Football Stadia Improvement
Fund. Concerns had been raise about grant applications made by
the club for construction work and the estimates supplied for
the work to be completed. The FSIF requested original documentation
of the estimates but Mr Haslam failed to supply them.
34. In December 2004 Keith Curle was suspended
as the clubs manager for alleged bullying. This was after an initial
"independent" investigation by Mr Meale who returned
to Mansfield from London within hours so that he might assist
the club. Curle would eventually go on, after a lengthy legal
process to win substantial damages from the club after the judge
at the hearing(Judge Fields) branded the disciplinary process
at the club a "sham" and that the club asked Mr Meale
to take part to give the proceedings a "cloak of authenticity".
35. It was revealed at the club's annual general
meeting in September 2005 that MTFC Ltd had made a profit of £402,193
in the year ending June 2004. In the previous year ending June
2003 the club had made a loss of over £65,000. But 2003/04
proved a much more lucrative season for the Stags, helped greatly
by a trip to the Play-Off final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
36. Chairman Keith Haslam also told the meeting
that he was planning a "restructuring" of the club in
the next three months by which time he intended to pay back all
outstanding loans he had borrowed from the club. The chairman
wrote off personal loans to himself of £239,297 the previous
year which sparked heavy criticism from supporters. The June 2003
accounts revealed he owed another £345,845 in personal loans
which are interest free and repayable on demand. Also, £582,433
was due from Stags Limited, the football club's controlling company
of which Mr Haslam owns 74 per cent of the issued share capital.
Mr Haslam told the meeting: "I am in discussions with my
advisors and I hope within the next two to three months I will
be in a position to repay the loans in full. Then I will be looking
to call an EGM to discuss the restructuring of the football club
and will have proposals to put before the members at that time
for their approval. My aim is to clear the loans and put the football
club on a sound footing at that time."
37. In December 2005 David Conn of the Guardian
wrote the following article about the problems at the club entitled
"The Man who owes Mansfield over a million":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/dec/07/mansfield
38. This article led Keith Haslam to go onto
our local radio station and in a 30 minute interview he admitted
he had broken the law and apologised to supporters. Yet again
he promised to pay off the loans "shortly." Still the
FA failed to act.
39. This galvanised the fans further and there
began an active campaign to bring the plight of the club to the
wider public. This proved highly successful and it culminated
in a march through Mansfield by over 750 supporters. It was at
this point concerns were raised about The Stags Community Trust.
40. David Conn wrote a second article highlighting
issues about Haslams governance and The Stags Community Trust
entitled "Mansfield face new questions of trust" in
September 2006:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/sep/20/newsstory.mansfield
41. In 2007-08, Keith Haslams final year as the
clubs sole director and owner and after three years successive
years of £250,000 loses Keith Haslam gifted to the SCT £77,000
from the football club. His reasoning when challenged by myself
at an the AGM was that the SCT would have gone bankrupt had the
gift not been made. The SCT is dormant and has applied for the
second time to be Struck Off.. There was an investigation into
the SCT by the Charities Commission which highlighted issues regarding
transparency and the need for trustees not connected with the
club, but took no further action.
42. Keith Haslam stood down as the clubs Chairman
in December 2007 and appointed Stephen Booth as Chairman with
the task of selling the club. Keith Haslam paid himself a severance
package of over £30,000. As there was no board of directors
at the club there was no-one in authority to challenge this payment
except TEAM Mansfield. The protracted sale saw many potential
suitors, including an Australian consortium, a consortium led
by James Derry and most alarming of all a potential bid by Mr
John Batchelor who admitted to asset stripping his companies (he
mentioned this many times on local radio) He had already led York
City to near oblivion and he said once he had gained control of
Mansfield Town he would change the name of the club to Harchester
after a Sky One drama about a fictional football club. We notified
the FA of Batchelors involvement and plans but could not or would
not step in.
43. In 2008 Keith Haslam sold Mansfield Town
to a consortium of local businessmen. The details of the deal
were:
— Haslam
transfers the ownership of the stadium to Stags Limited using
a dividend of £2.3 million.
— To
enable this to happen the stadium is re-valued at £1.9m from
its previous valuation of £395,000.
— Haslams
holding company Stags Limited retained the ownership of the land
purchased in Skegby for the purpose of building an academy. The
£500,000 of Mansfield Towns money used to purchase this land
is in effect written off. The land remains untouched and the planning
application has lapsed.
— The
rental on the ground, payable to Haslam is £90,000 increasing
by 10% per annum (rental was approx £110,000 before the agreement
was terminated).
— The
rent was to increase to over £200,000 should Mansfield Town
be promoted into the Football League.
— When
Haslam ultimately sold the club on 9 December 2008, the day the
£2.4m dividend was declared, the accounts say Stags Limited's
"overdrawn loan account" stood at £757,494. Haslam
paid it off with £436,663 from the dividend the club paid
to him, and a further £300,000 in cash. Haslam personally
owed £78,709 to the club, which Stags Limited repaid. The
accounts record £51,643 paid to Stags Limited during 2008-09,
for "rental of the ground and car parks". (source :Guardian:
17 November 2010).
44. The club, now in the Conference having been
relegated the previous season , had Keith Haslam as its landlord
having separated the club from its ground of 97 years by the use
of a dividend which is now being challenged in the courts.
A paragraph in the clubs accounts for 2009 states:
"A dividend was voted on 9 December 2008 of
£2,442,488. In the directors' view, the dividend was illegal,
as at the time the company had insufficient net assets. The directors
are considering legal action to pursue this amount".
45. In December 2010 Keith Haslam locked Mansfield
Town out of Field Mill only letting the club back in after 16
days. Keith Haslam then reneged on the verbal agreement with the
owner John Radford, the club having lodged £95,000 in rent
with Haslams solicitors only to be paid on a signed agreement.
However, Keith Haslam had inserted a demand into the agreement
that the club will not pursue him in the courts for the dividend,
illegal loans, gifts to the SCT, and severance pay when Haslam
stepped down as Chairman. The club quite rightly have refused.
David Conn wrote a further article about the dividend
in November 2010 entitled:
"Mansfield Town, Keith Haslam and that controversial
dividend":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/nov/17/mansfield-town-dividend-keith-haslam
46. That's as brief as I can make the story of
Mansfield Town since 1993 when Haslam purchased the club for the
now infamous £1. There is much more I can go into, personalities.
legal cases etc.
47. My point here is that Team Mansfield was
alerting the authorities to the problems at Mansfield Town for
far too many years and no one at the FA or the Football League
was brave enough to really take the club to task so Haslam , being
the only director at the club could continue to do as he wished.
48. The alarm bells have been ringing for far
too long and yet the FA have persistently failed to act. I personally
spoke to the Compliance Unit at the FA almost every week in the
height of the troubles. We alerted them to illegal loans, missed
AGM's, failure to supply accounts. Still the alarm bells failed
to ring. Grants given to the club were misused, improperly spent
and protestations of innocence from Mr Haslam were met with nothing
more than a slap on the wrist.
49. I distinctly remember a call to the Compliance
Unit by myself to the problems and the response I got was "we
have an open file on Mansfield Town and action will be taken"
3 months later Keith Haslam loaned himself another £105,000.
50. What happened to TEAM Mansfield? We encouraged
the other supporters groups to come under one umbrella, the Stags
Fans United Supporters Trust. We purchased some more shares from
the owners and we got our Supporter Director, Colin Dobell, who
as it would turn out, was pivotal in advising the owners to sell
in 2010 when the club was heading into administration. When the
club was sold to John Radford in late 2010 we were able to purchase
the final tranche of shares to take our final holding up to 10%.
Darren Shaw the SFU secretary and a qualified lawyer became the
Trusts director on the board at Mansfield Town and now is a key
advisor in the clubs legal battle with Mr Haslam.
52. Without TEAM Mansfield taking the lead and
standing up to the club's owner in the face of threats and intimidation
by individuals who should have known better. Mr Haslam would have
continued to abuse his position. To this day none of the clubs
supporters know why Mr Haslam found it necessary to lend himself
so many monies. Though explanations have been requested none have
ever been forthcoming. To our knowledge the FA never once questioned
Mr Haslam either. We would like to know why?
53. Your committee is looking at governance of
football clubs and the role of supporters. If there is ever and
example of a club being led to almost ruination because of the
lack of scrutiny by the authorities its Mansfield Town. Supporters
have made a real difference at this club and the strength of a
clubs supporters trust has prevailed thus far, though I fear the
Football Conference are about to do what the FA did and stand
by as we fight our battle for Field Mill alone …. Is the
FA fit for purpose? , many supporters from the lower leagues would
say not. The FA really do need to change the way it listens to
supporters and it needs to, in my view:
— Ensure
directors and owners are not allowed to loan themselves more than
is allowed in law, and enforce it.
— Ensure
every football club has a properly constituted board at allow
at least one supporter director on that board.
— The
fit and proper persons test should do what it says; every director
should be subject to the test, at the moment it's not working.
Further every owner/director need to submit to regular checks.
It's all well and good having a test when they take over the club,
but who's checking on them afterwards?
— Directors
are paid a fair income for a fair days work, Mr Haslam clearly
neglected his duties to the club and I would go so far as to say
he has profiteered from it. He failed as a custodian and regulation
needs to be brought forward to ensure Directors are not just held
accountable to the Supporters but to the FA.
— In
the 15 years Mr Haslam ran Mansfield Town the accounts were produced
on time in only seven of those years. AGMs were not held in six
to seven of those years. The FA need to ensure sanctions are place
on owners and directors who fail to abide with corporate law.
— The
FA need a proper body to investigate concerns raised by supporters
and directors. I'm not talking about a compliance unit, but a
body with powers to fully investigate any director or owner who
breaches not only FA rules but Corporate law on a regular basis.
— The
FA must ensure that a football clubs main asset, its stadium can
never be removed from the ownership of the club.
54. Mansfield Town is now in effect being punished
by the FA and the Conference due to mistakes made by those very
organisations, because of failures to challenge and question an
owner who had shown a long track record of poor corporate duty
towards the club. Time constraints are being placed on the club
to obtain a 10 year lease otherwise the club will not be allowed
to take part in the Play-Offs come May. On the 17 February 2011
the club started its legal battle with Mr Haslam in the courts,
winning the right to remain at Field Mill until the matter is
resolved.
55. Should you require any further information
or documentation relating to the evidence I have submitted I would
be delighted to provide it, as it is available from various sources
including; The Sunday Times, Mansfield 103.2 Radio
archive, Guardian Newspaper, BBC Radio Nottingham.
CHAD Newspaper, Notts Evening Post, The Haslam Years on
the TEAM Mansfield website www.teammansfield.co.uk,
Chris Vaspe
(ex Chairman TEAM Mansfield)
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