Andrew Barclay drops out of the bidding to buy Charlton Athletic – as Roland Duchatelet refuses to engage in discussions over deals for Valley and training ground
Andrew Barclay has withdrawn his interest in buying Charlton Athletic.
Barclay had teamed up with Peter Varney, the club’s former chief executive, to try and do a deal for the SE7 club.
But he has been unable to progress talks with Roland Duchatelet, who still owns The Valley and training ground in Sparrows Lane.
And Varney issued a statement this afternoon confirming that the businessman had stepped away from trying to secure a deal.
Our website broke the news last week that Thomas Sandgaard wanted to purchase the football club.
The Dane, who has US citizenship, has held talks with East Street Investments, who took over the running of the Addicks at the start of January.
Varney said: “Andrew Barclay has been open and transparent since he declared his interest in CAFC. He believes it is essential that in order to bring stability to the club and rid it of the turmoil it has suffered in recent times that the club has ownership of The Valley and the Sparrows Lane training ground.
“It is important that any uncertainty around future development of The Valley is completely removed. Additionally Andrew believes it is important that in any football model introduced going forward the development of the Sparrows Lane training ground is completed and category one status under the EPPP regime is achieved. This would cost some £6m and Andrew does not want to make this investment in an asset owned by somebody else for obvious reasons. Andrew was keen to resolve the position with the ex-directors’ £7m loan also as they have been badly treated for people whose loans saved the club in 2009.
“Sadly Roland Duchatelet has made it clear through his lack of response to any correspondence to his lawyers and through Andrew’s discussion with his representative that he has no interest in discussing a sale of the two main assets.
“Two things are not helping that process. Firstly a belief that there is some major property play on the Greenwich Peninsular involving The Valley and in my opinion that is pure fantasy. Secondly the allegations made against me in relation to financial wrongdoing which I don’t blame Roland for as he clearly believes the outrageous and false allegations he has been advised of. Additionally,It would appear at least one of the other bidders are in some form of direct engagement with Roland and that can only be good news for the club.
“Any deal with ESI to acquire the ownership of the club is fraught with obstacles.
“Despite signing a NDA previously, not one single document has been provided to Andrew. Andrew has been offered a NDA with Panorama but frankly without the ability to negotiate with Roland, spending thousands on lawyers and accountants to do the vast amount of due diligence needed to unravel what has gone on at the club would be pointless and only add delay to a situation that needs to be resolved urgently.
“His sense is that without administration there will be an array of claims and litigation cases from all those involved in the processes to date. The patience of the EFL on proof of funding is being tested to the limit.
“Andrew got involved in this because he wanted to build a stable and successful club but he recognises that by staying involved in a process that cannot deliver on the model he wants would be harmful to the club and neither Andrew or I want that.
“If others can negotiate a deal with Roland and Panorama/ESI as they claim then the right thing to do is step aside and allow that to happen.
“Saving the club’s league status is paramount to Andrew so that is what Andrew will do. If circumstances change he remains ready to have constructive dialogue with any of the parties involved in CAFC.
“On a personal note it has been a pleasure to work with Andrew and I wish him well with whatever he does going forward.”
Barclay added his own thoughts in a series of tweets this afternoon.
He said: “Peter & I have worked hard to reach a deal over the last six months to resolve the CAFC situation. Valley & SL was key to our plans as Peter said, in order to construct a state of the art facility in order to double down & invest in academy / youth.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to make any headway with the owners of those assets despite our best efforts. On top of that, the risks around doing business with ESI has made it very difficult. I believe it’s best to step aside and let TS have a go.
“We spoke not long ago and he seems to have a bigger appetite to take on the risks associated and therefore it’s best that he has a clear run at it. I wish him the best of luck with it as he is by far the best option.
“Lastly, PV deserves all the respect and applause he can get. From day 1, he worked on this project with me for FREE. There was nothing in it for him if we were successfully. Not a dime. He did this for the love of the club. TS should build a statue of PV if he gets control !!”