Roland Duchatelet has castigated “fake news” and the Football League’s “ambivalent attitude” as he seeks to disown the club
The owner of Charlton Athletic has “demanded” that the Football League (EFL) take over the running of the League One club in an extraordinary statement.
It appears the main gripe of Roland Duchatelet, who bought the team in January 2014 and has endured a highly controversial time at the helm, is the EFL’s adoption of Profitability and Sustainability rules that he claims “dramatically increased the financial burden on shareholders”.
Following the change in law, the Charlton owner claims to have struggled to fund survival in the Championship, a league he describes as “the biggest financial graveyard or black hole in football”. From then, he takes aim at fan protests and the EFL’s “ambivalent attitude” as being responsible for his inability to find someone to buy the club.
“New incidents were created by a coalition of fans against the owner based on fake news, like young players were not getting water to drink and staff not being paid due bonuses,” a club statement reads. “It’s hard to deny that such actions could jeopardise the ongoing purchase process.
“The EFL said it would intervene to find out who was telling the truth but nothing like that happened. They did not really investigate things. Moreover EFL representatives suggested to the group of critics that their claims of August 2018 relating to the bonus might have some basis (despite the fact the EFL hadn’t investigated).
“Two fans found sufficient support in this ambivalent attitude of the EFL to come to Belgium last weekend. They tagged and damaged several properties of Duchatelet, the homes of two friends of Duchatelet and the house of the friend of a friend.”
Duchatelet then demands that the Football League take ownership of the situation, and thus the club. And that’s it. It just ends.
“Which foreign candidate owner will be prepared to invest millions to get a chance to bring a club to the Premier League and at the same time accept acts of vandalism against his property and intrusion in his private life, wherever in the world he/she lives? Therefore the owner demands that the EFL acquires his football club.”
Charlton sit fifth in League One and are enjoying something of a resurgence under Lee Bowyer after a number of difficult years under Duchatelet.
