[expatriate]

hello Long time red and macca. sorry for the odd and delayed times for replying. i am still out in Hong Kong, and whilst you are snug as bugs in your slumberland duvets its bright mid morning here. I will be back next week, so there will continue to be odd times for replies till then - and its certainly not that i am ignoring you.

On the question of ownership you may have missed or not grasped the import of earlier bulletin board conversations on this precise topic.

However there is absolutely no impediment to the fans and community owning the vast majority of the shares. As a company that has many shareholders and many shares outstanding ASFC has no actual owner at present. In the past, whoever owned 5!% of the club tended to end up calling himself the "owner", which is both factually and legally incorrect. However, that is by the by, and i think that unless the "owner" has the capacity to both fund and bank roll the place as well as be qualified to manage on a professional basis, the end result is always disasterous. combining those two qualities is almost never possible. If you look at somewhere such as Chelsea, where only 1 person owns the club and all the shares, that person (abrahamovich), he also delegates the day to day running of the club to professionals (very highly paid professionals). There are more direct comparables in the lower divisions as well, but my view is still that its very rare for someone to have both the financial wherewithal as well as the requisite professional skills to run a club and make all the decisions.

Turning now to ASFC. There is no legal or other impediment to the club issuing as many shares as necessary to whoever it deems fit. for example if there are 100,000 shares currently outstanding, then it is a matter of record that either Mr Whalley or Mr O'Neil owns 51% of them. Certainly Mr O'Neil has claimed to own these shares for a long time, but no transfer has taken place to my knowledge. I have taken Mr O Neil at face value and I Have not been too bothered by the underlying facts since ownership of approx 51,000 shares is utterly and absolutely meaningless at ASFC right now. As someone pointed out, the documented creditors are the ones who control the club, and for a while last year that was HMRC !

Going forward I hope top achieve a wide ranging discussion about the structure and parameters that are important for ASFC with respect to community and fan based ownership. I certainly dont have all the answers, but I do have a determination to try and create a long term solution. The benefit of a public discussion that allows all of us to participate is that we have a chance to listen and learn from all differnent opinions. If we then build on that, and a community owned club can be created, then there is absolutely no impediment, and sufficient shares will be created to give that group the majority ownership.

There were many bulletin board regulars present at the last official shareholder meeting where a resolution to approve an increase in authorised share capital was passed unanimously, and i cant recall the figures, but that resolution (which is a matter of public record and therefore tansparent) is one of the route markers that allows us to have this discussion.

i hope this clarifies. as always shout loudly if you disagree or dont understand. i will try again. Its important we have this discussion in as open a manner as possible and i will do my bit.

Ilyas


Turning to your question