Page 7 - Deal Round Up June 2019

Gent Builders

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The terms and conditions now state: “The price once paid is final and no refunds are offered or
given for any reason other than if a takeover is not completed within 3 months of a club accepting
our offer. If no offer is made to a football club by 01/06/2019 then refunds will be offered.” (https://
ownafc.com/)
One Twitter user compares OWNAFC to “the Fyre Festival of football club ownership”. After the
unsuccessful takeover, OWNAs were sent a message via the app informing them that no updates
would be made until 12 March, that all emails would be deleted and that the business had ceased
trading and would be up for sale. Shockingly, users then received a message last week stating that
business would be continuing as normal!
After complaints to OWNAFC about poor communication and a lack of transparency have been
largely ignored (in some scenarios, customers have been blocked on OWNAFC’s social media
groups), unhappy customers have been applying for refunds through their banks. Watchdog Action
Fraud has also confirmed that it has received reports relating to OWNAFC and that it has informed
the National Intelligence bureau who will, as part of the process, contact the relevant police force.
OWNAFC’s legal adviser has admitted that it accepts the business needed to be more open with
its customers but denies that OWNAFC has done any wrongdoing or has committed any fraud.
Attempts to reassure those involved include appointing a non-executive advisory board to OWNAFC
and as part of this, Mr Harvey would be stepping aside from the business.
Will these reassurances be enough? Such a PR catastrophe may lead to an emerging mistrust
and lack of credibility in the business, which could be fatal. It is clear that both from a legal and
commercial viewpoint it is imperative to be clear and upfront with any terms of business.
Interest From Brazil By David Richardson
A couple of months ago a Brazilian sports channel called SporTV came into The NLP headquarters
to film a short documentary about how the paper is put together and to find out more about Non-
League football. SporTV is the most watched sports channel in Brazil, effectively their version of
Sky Sports - we were a little apprehensive about what they might have been saying about us in
Portuguese!
When the video came out last month, along with an accompanying article, it was clear they were
amazed about the structure of Non-League with the vast amount of leagues and clubs it contains.
It was eye-opening reading (or rather translating!) the comments on social media from their
followers about our football pyramid. One of the most up-voted replies read: “And there are still
people who think that Brazil is the country of football.”
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