May 18 2010

Simon Jordan

Even in a long life as fascinatingly varied as Jamesey's there come firsts and a Holborn meeting was one of them.

I've never been a creditor before so the CPFC meeting in darkest Holborn on Monday (May 17) was new territory for me.

In common with many thousands of other CPFC supporters I coughed up for my 2010-11 season ticket in advance and am, therefore, an official creditor to the tune of £250 (Main Stand concessionary rate).

I eventually managed to find the venue, hidden in the back streets, near Chancery Lane, and joined a predominantly be-suited throng waiting for administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle, to kick off the show.

The mood was surprisingly muted. I suppose I expected creditors to be angrily baying for their money.

Well, I am neither a lawyer nor a chartered accountant, so some of the proceedings were beyond me but Mr Guilfoyle announced that that very morning he had agreed the sale of the club to CPFC 2010.

This seemed remarkably good news to me although no details were forthcoming. It seems the consortium were to fund the club in the immediate future so everybody will get their wages.

The first interjection from the audience came from a solicitor representing Wien FC, the Austrian outfit who are owed money for that player whose name rhymes with "turtle". Wien were omitted and the name of the agent First Artists substituted instead.

At that point I noticed a familiar figure sitting a few feet away in the front row.

Heavens above, it was indeed our ex-chairman Simon Jordan but instead of an orange barnet, the former chairman's hair had reverted to its former mousey hue with a little streaking on top.

True to form. it wasn't long before the erstwhile leader was arguing with the administrator over various points and the face was colouring somewhat under the Marbella tan.

I thought Mr Guilfoyle handled matters very well and rightly said that there was no evidence for most of Simon's claims and referred him to read the official report.

For me, the best joke of all was when Simon accused the administrator of not marketing the club properly.

Of course, Mr Guilfoyle is an accountant not a marketing guru but even so Simon was reminded that the whole world had known for years that CPFC was for sale and there had still only been one serious contender - CPFC 2010.

The words "kettle", "black" and "pot" sprung to mind at the idea of someone who had said the club was for sale in 2004 before we even kicked a ball in the Loadsadosh-ship and was unable to find a buyer in six years.

Simon claims £7.8m and naturally wants as much of his money back as possible.

However, as the one who got us into the mess in the first place, making daft comments like that won't help his case.

The meeting ended quite quickly with formation of a creditors' committee who will be considering a CVA proposal with voting in early June.

There is a meeting between the administrator and fans to take place as I write and matters might well be explained in a more layman-friendly manner.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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