Fans worried League One club will become ‘another Bury’ after seeing statement

Fans have been left worried that a certain League One club will become ‘another Bury’ after seeing their official statement on their plans.

Rochdale currently sit bottom of the League One table, picking up 36 points from 40 games played, and are five points from safety.

Chris Dunphy’s return to the role of Rochdale chairman now looks unlikely according to Richard Wild on Friday’s RochdaleAFC.com podcast.

There is a lack of support from the major shareholders for Dunphy, and now fans remain worried at the direction of the club despite pressure from the Dale Trust to enforce an EGM in the coming weeks.

The Trust have managed to secure the support of over 50 unique shareholders, equating to approximately 25% of the total shareholding in order to push through an EGM.

However according to what Richard Wild had to say on the podcast, it seems highly unlikely that Chris Dunphy will be taking over again as chairman.

When news first came to light of Dunphy’s desire to return to the club, one of the people mentioned as being involved was former club employee and current EFL official Richard Wild, who spoke to the podcast to give an update this week:

“It just really came to a head for me at the Fans’ Forum. I don’t know what you guys thought, but I sat there and I felt as though I was being insulted” he said.

“The morning after that I rang Francis and said ‘I’m sorry but I just can’t sit by and allow my football club to operate the way it has been doing’ and things to do with the manager’s contract that came out – I’m sorry but I class them as farcical. They should never happen.”

From there, Richard and Francis went about contacting people who they felt could be trusted from a supporters’ perspective.

“We said from the very outset there’s only four people really who the fans, and I class myself as a fan just like you guys, there’s only four people that the fans would trust to really sort this out and that’s David Kilpatrick, Graham Morris, Andrew Kelly or Chris Dunphy.”

“We spoke to those people and Chris at the time was the only person who was prepared to put his neck on the line and say ‘I’ll get back involved with the football club again’.”

“We had a couple of meetings with Chris and obviously Chris is very well regarded by the majority of the supporters, but it transpired that Chris didn’t have the support and doesn’t have the support of the large shareholders of the football club.”

“So as I stand here doing this with you, I can’t see a way that Chris will be back involved with the football club. Even though an EGM will be called very shortly I would suggest, if Chris was to put his name forward to return to the football club I don’t think he would or I know he wouldn’t get a satisfactory number of votes to enable him to become chairman again.”

In terms of what happens next, Richard did tell the podcast that the interim chairman Andrew Kelly was looking to rectify the problems at the club.

“Andrew Kelly is somebody that has the football club at heart. He was born in Rochdale, he’s put his money into the football club, and I think Andrew is looking at seeking investment into the football club.”

“Obviously there have been a few statements hasn’t there and obviously a few names of people have been bandied about of people that were at the game on Tuesday night as potential investors. I think that’s the avenue that Andrew and the club are looking to pursue at the moment.”

“Hopefully we can find people who are prepared to invest in the football club. It’s never really been an avenue with pursued before. We’ve always been reliant and generated our own income whether it’s via large income from the lottery or selling players or cup runs, we’ve always been self-sufficient and not necessarily rely on an investor.”

“So it’s a slightly different route that I think the club could be potentially going down but I wish Andrew nothing but the best in hopefully sorting it out.”

Rochdale AFC shareholders Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli recently stepped back from their involvement in the club as a result of what they refer to as “serious internal issues” which “have not been resolved.”

A statement released by the American shareholders, who had been invited to join the club’s board as directors before putting their acceptance on hold, says they suspended the acceptance of the directorships after ‘learning of serious internal issues at the club within hours of accepting’.

Messrs Altman and Marcelli claim the “aforementioned issues have not been resolved in what we would consider to be a satisfactory or timely manner.” They add that they will continue to hold their shares but have stepped back from involvement with the club, and will now “consider other opportunities”.

The statement reads: “In February of this year we were offered directorships of Rochdale AFC and were delighted to accept. However, within hours of accepting we learned of serious internal issues at the club that we felt had to be resolved by the existing board before we could join. For that reason, we suspended our acceptance of the directorships.

“Since then, the EFL’s administrators have approved our directorships, but the aforementioned issues have not been resolved in what we would consider a satisfactory or timely manner. As a result, we have decided to step back from our involvement with the club. We will continue to hold our shares but will consider other opportunities to deploy our expertise and the significant resources of our partnership.

“We regret that we were not able to find a way forward with Rochdale AFC during roughly two years of discussions with the club’s executives and directors. We believe that a multi-million-pound investment in a new training ground, improved facilities, a sporting director, and additional commercial staff would have paid substantial dividends on and off the pitch.

“We hope that the club can move forward under new and progressive leadership once its interim regime has concluded, and we continue to support the club from afar. We will have no further comment except to say, hopefully not for the last time, up the Dale.”

CLUB STATEMENT:

Response to Statement of 12th April 2021 by Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli on Rochdale AFC

The Board of Directors at Rochdale AFC wish to comment on the recent statement published by Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli.

While the club respects the rights of shareholders to provide views on the management of the club, we are surprised at the timing and content of Dan and Emre’s statement. As our fans will be aware, in a statement issued on 25th March, the Directors apologised to our supporters for the lack of transparency regarding the extension to the First Team Manager’s contract.

We note that Dan and Emre have now removed themselves for future investment consideration. The Board would like to thank them for their interest in RAFC and for providing assistance to the club through the use of their analytical platform. We look forward to their continuing support as shareholders and fans.

As a Board, we are working continuously to secure outside investment for Rochdale AFC and have over the past few months met with several serious investors. We have now reached a key stage with a number of highly interested parties who have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements and share the ambition of Rochdale AFC that was presented to Dan and Emre over two years ago, including the development of our own training facility.

As a Board of Directors we are committed to discussions with any person that could legitimately provide significant investment to fulfil the ambitions of Rochdale AFC. As agreed with the Dale Supporters Trust, further updates on investment propositions will be provided following the Board meeting on 19th April.

At this time, we call for supporters to unite and focus our attention on our forthcoming home fixtures v Swindon Town and Accrington Stanley.

Fans have been left worried that the League One club will become ‘another Bury’ after seeing the latest statement…

https://t.co/v7dVWHhJLr pic.twitter.com/cMNnx2w2Fo

— Rochdale AFC Brasil 🇧🇷 (@rochdale_afc_br) April 12, 2021

@FootballMyerp: I don’t like the direction the club is going in but are we actually in danger of going out of business?

@joembeebam: Bottomley out he’s ruining his “beloved” club.

@kriswardh: we riot

@ChaffRAFC: We’ve become very Bury like with our statements in past 12 months

@retromikey6: I’m half expecting Bottomley to unzip his face Scooby Doo style, to reveal himself as Steve Dale!

@mattstewart12: Gutted.

@joembeebam: If bottomley was really a Rochdale fan he’d do what’s best for the club and step down to let dunphy and co take over before our club dies.

@LisaChrimes13: We are dale never give up never surrender up the dale forever we are battlers how many dale fans stand with me and love

@jon_38dale: The statement from Altman makes no reference to BBM’s contract. Are we to assume from this statement that the shambolic nature of its extension is one of the ‘serious internal issues’ complained of? Very odd to mention it otherwise

@Travisedgee: What is going on at this club

@SteveCoulthurst: Shambolic. SHITE. BBM clueless. Board a disgrace. Going down and need a solid base boardwise to rebuild. UTD

@Gareth4327: Clubs dead

@CMaynock: Get Dunphy back NOW

@a_matherr: Complete shambles

@joembeebam: Seriously doubt any of these “investors” have any money.

@rochdale_afc32: My club is dying and its sad to see, really need dunphy back asap fuck bottomley your suppost to be a fan of this club are you fuck your an embarrasment simple as that #BottomleyOut

Fans continued to express that they were worried that League One club Rochdale will become ‘another Bury’ after seeing statement…

@Suggs4210: Not a chance am I paying to watch that rubbish that BBM churns out week in week out, players follow instructions from the coaching staff, they look disinterested, clueless, passionless, the club is a shadow of its former self, enough is enough, sack the manager and the board.

@TommyRAFC: Absolute clowns this board

@J_Schofield4: Turning into oldham with these club statements

@MattyK988: #BottomleyOut

@RochdaleFan: #BottomleyOut before our club dies. Enough is enough!

@MotorwayBuddy: So we’re skint and lacklustre then? Marvellous!!

@anthonybritland: Club is in turmoil !

@ChrisOConnor10: Maybe the money from previous FA Cup runs, transfer fees and sell on fees should have been put to good use. It all disappeared into a big black hole and the debts are mounting up still. Wait for the excuses, low attendances and Covid.

John E Sercombe: Another nail in rafc’s coffin

Antony Gratton: RIP Rochdale FC

Nick Johnson: The large shareholders are the ones he said he was going to replace, so hardly a surprise, its up to the fans to make a stand, this board can’t possibly go on if only them are there on match days

Daniel Gardiner: obviously the large shareholders don’t give a Fuck then.

Colin Taylor: I cant fathom it out he can rescue our club and the shareholders wont let him why ?

Thomas Ashton: clearly a section of the shareholders are the ones who don’t agree with his approach are on the other side with bottomley and co

Colin Taylor: the club is in turmoil people are willing to help but no leave it to the dickheads in charge I cant see us having a club at this rate

Ian Mills: The club rotten to the core from the top

Ray Parry: Immovable object

Nick Johnson: The large shareholders are the ones he said he was going to replace, so hardly a surprise, its up to the fans to make a stand, this board can’t possibly go on if only them are there on match days

David Shand: This change can only happen if the fans unite against this board starve them of any money yes it will hurt the club short term but it will force change for the better longterm do nothing then we may well live to regret it by having no club

Circus arrived early pic.twitter.com/RShzyp0EH8

— Ben (@Ben_m_1234) April 12, 2021