Crawley supporters plan to take action amid concerns and silence from owners

Crawley Town supporters plan to take action amid concerns and silence from the owners, after just avoiding relegation last season.

There is disharmony at the League Two club, so much so that the Crawley Town Supporters’ Alliance are looking at ‘exploring initial conversations’ with potential buyers if WAGMI United don’t start listening to and engaging with fans.

Two board members of the CTSA, Reuben Watt and Sam Jordan, revealed via a podcast, after a vote to get a mandate on ‘pursuing any alternative legal means necessary to ensure the current co-chairmen are replaced’.

‘If we lose the first few games, don’t sign any players, it’s going to get nasty and we will have to explore the initial conversations with the people who could be interested in buying our football club at pace to offer them a way out’ @ctsalliance https://t.co/WmqlMU5voP

— Mark Dunford (@MarkSDunford) June 15, 2023

Reuben Watt and Sam Jordan featured on The Real EFL Podcast after a vote to get a mandate on ‘pursuing any alternative legal means necessary to ensure the current co-chairmen [Eben Smith and Preston Johnson] are replaced’.

Things became increasingly worrying earlier in the 2022/23 season, as in December, we saw senior players sold or sent out on loan, while a number of managerial changes was put in place.

The Crawley Town Supporters Alliance spoke with CEO Chris Galley, who was interim at the time, along with Smith and Johnson at a separate time.

But since March, it remains quiet with the owners, only worsening those concerns especially ahead of the 2023/24 season.

The CTSA urged for Galley, Smith and Johnson to leave back in April.

Fast forward to June and the alliance have now sent sent an email to all members asking to vote to seek a mandate (which you can see by clicking HERE).

Watt said: “We believe that relegation and financial hardship are realistic prospects if Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson continue in their positions. Our aim is to prompt the replacement of the Co-Chairmen to safeguard the future of Crawley Town Football Club.”

A vote revealed 60% of the 154 who voted ‘For the CTSA to pursue any alternative legal means necessary to ensure the current Co-Chairmen are replaced’.

Watt and Jordan hope they will see engagement from WAGMI, saying in the podcast: “The doors open to reconcile with Preston. The reason we wanted to do this is to publicly reach out to them. Who is running our football club WAGMI? Someone needs to say something.

He added: “We haven’t done anything yet, we have got a mandate from the members. We need to be ready if our club is in trouble, but as I alluded to earlier they have told us countless time they are going to have a board meeting, they have told us countless times they are going to appoint a CEO. The proof is in the pudding really. They told us they had someone ready to appoint but it was subject to us staying up. We stayed up nearly eight weeks ago now, where is that person. We have been waiting far too long.

“Potentially, is there interested parties out there? Of course there are interested parties in wanting to buy an EFL club. There are only 92 top level Football League clubs in England. Unfortunately we don’t own our own ground, we haven’t really got a training ground, we haven’t got a massive supporter base, we are not like Bradford or Swindon who might attract more interest but we want to engage with WAGMI, that’s our number one priority because they are the current owners of the football club.

“The supporters will only get more and more frustrated. If we lose the first few games, don’t sign any players, it’s going to get nasty and we will have to explore the initial conversations with the people who could be interested in buying our football club at pace to offer them a way out.”

Here’s what Twitter users said as Crawley supporters plan to take action amid concerns and silence from owners…

@AndyPOBrien: Reaching out really helps, when we had our problems we found out that advice was coming in from everywhere. Blackpool were brilliant, Luton and Orient and others stepping up. Forget rivalries, when it comes to survival, all clubs fanbases want to help

@mrmiddle09: Can the @fa step in and do anything or do they just turn a blind eye after the fit and proper test! Which clearly in many cases is flawed

@cambo691: The wagmi thing was always gonna end in tears

@Kearns_Richard_: WAGMI just need to go. They gave up last season and refuse to communicate with fans.

@dannyb0y1969: Can you FORCE somebody to sell against their will? I’m guessing the crypto freaks and cartoon geeks will want to recoup their losses (am guessing the NFT stuff is worthless now?) and so aren’t just going to walk away? 😰😰😰

@marshyuk: Sad to hear and see this..as much as happened between our clubs,I never want to see a club struggle to survive or worse.. wagmi, crypto and nft crap is exactly that.. crap.. cash will always be king.. it’s just another American fad that will faze out over time.. Ctfc deserve better.

@PackerPSmooth: As a Wigan fan, I hope you guys get your cunts out like we just did.

@stephen_dimmock: The first thing that needs to happen is for Eben Smith to be removed from his role as chairman as I think it is totally untenable now. Then we need to get in a permanent CEO who has good experience working in English football as well