PN
Firstly, what is the Trust's reaction to the events of the last 24 hours?
AS
Well I hope it leads to a bit more harmony, the last thing we need at the moment, we are in the bottom third of the table, the club has just lost £1.2 million. Judging by the numbers that were released in the press somewhat mysteriously in the first half of this week we are still in a bad way financially. The last thing we need is this internal warfare within the club.
Trying to put a positive slant on it, then hopefully from here on in, this disharmony did not happen this week, it has been going on for some time. Hopefully we can now all pull together and head in the same direction, all get behind the club because it is what they need.
PN
How surprised are you by the nature of what has subsequently been said by the two parties?
AS
I don't think it is helpful, if you can't get on with your board of your directors then fair enough, just leave. But I don't think all this muck that has been shovelled about has done anybody any good, it certainly hasn't done the club any good. It is the last thing we need, we have had five changes, I think this is the fifth change of ownership since 2004, or alteration in the ownership. It is the last thing we need is this sort of stuff flying about. Particularly when the team is doing as it is doing, I think it is very, very unfortunate that these sort of remarks have been made.
PN
What happens now in your opinion now? Where do the club go from here?
AS
The club needs some investment and I think it is going to be very, very difficult to find someone who is prepared to put investment in while the club is in debt to the tune of £1.4 million. I think that is going to be very difficult but that is what it needs.
PN
How concerned are you personally about the club's current financial position? You alluded to it a few moments ago.
AS
I think as far as the immediate situation is concerned there are various dollops of money coming through from the various players which have been sold on. There is an enormous debt given the turnover of the company, there is a £1.4 million debt but it is all in one direction and it is secured against the assets of the club.
But hopefully that debt won't be pulled so I don't think there is any need for any immediate concern, there is no administrator going to be called in tomorrow, who knows what the situation will be by the end of the season? But we are not in a good situation are we, and particularly with the crowds the way they are, 4,500 last week was disastrous and hopefully an awful lot more will turn out for the Charlton game tomorrow and get behind the team because that is what we need.
TG
You talked about moving forward and pulling together there before, would you say that it works on both sides and the Trust needs to do a little bit more on that side with the club as well?
AS
Well, I think you are probably not as aware of the same things which have happened over the past 12 months as you might be. But we have always said that all we want to do is to get behind the club, work alongside them, get involved. I think we are in a position to generate a lot of funds for the club, as we have done in the past, probably more funds than anybody else infact.
But it takes two to tango and we have written several times to the club board. We have said, in words of one syllable, let's get together, let's sit down, let's work out ways together where we can put our joint resources together and work out ways in which we can benefit the club, particularly financially.
We have had no response, we have been rebuffed, a telling point for me is the fact that the Trust owns, whatever it owns, 25.37% of the football club. It has a director on the board of the club, that director, until now, has been excluded from the directors' box at Carlisle United on matchdays.
Now that is just bizarre because everywhere else he goes in the country then they welcome in him with open arms. I have got to say, in other clubs, where they have Trusts, active Trusts, and the club board works in conjunction with the Trust, then they have been very, very successful in putting large amounts of money together for the benefit of the club. I don't see why it shouldn't happen at Carlisle United.
TG
Some of the fans do feel though that perhaps the Trust has at times allowed personalities to get in the way of things rather than working together with the club, and personality issues have caused problems.
AS
Well, the Trust have bent over backwards and I will show you the documentation if you like, the Trust have bent over backwards to work in conjunction with the club. The Trust I guess has done two major things since it was put together, it managed to secure a change of ownership back in 2004 where if we hadn't secured a change of ownership the club would have been in a dire, dire position.
It then put £800,000 into the club and in recent times we have stopped a piece of land, which is worth at least several hundred thousand pounds, being given away for nothing by the club. Now those are the principal things we have done and the other thing we have done is to get a representative of the supporters on the board of the club as a channel for the supporters' views.
That is to make sure that the interests of the club are protected over time. So that as and when directors, owners, managers, players, come in and out, then there is always a steady hand at the tiller which is going to look after the interests of the club, that is why we are there.
Now I think, if you don't mind me saying so, you are very, very typical of the normal supporter because you get your information about the Trust from the local media, from the press and it has been so distorted it is beyond belief. It has been distorted so much in the recent past that complaints have been made and upheld to the Press Complaints Committee (ed - Commisson) and I hope we will see a change in that now.
JP
On the subject, you have just mentioned about Trusts working well with clubs, I have heard you on a number of occasions in the past say that the Trust do want to do this. You have got a 25% stake in Carlisle United, what have you done, seeing as you have been rebuffed as you have said, to actually ensure it happens? A quarter of the club seems quite a lot to just simply keep asking and keep getting knocked back.
AS
Funnily enough we tried not to be confrontational, within the law, within the scope of the Companies Act, then there isn't that much that you can do as a minority shareholder. What we have done absolutely consistently is kept banging and banging on the door and saying that we want to get together, we have demonstrated what we can do with our resources. We actually manned all the ticket offices for more than a season and took all in the money without charging a penny for it. So we can tap into an enormous resource there which can be used for the benefit of the club.
But we can't do it on our own, we need to get into a harmonious situation with the rest of the board of the club and we need to work together. Now until now that has not been possible. We are just simply being rebuffed and some of the directors, and infact the director who has just departed, has said quite specifically that he wants to deal with the supporters and with ourselves in particular, at arms length, he doesn't want us to get involved.
Now faced with that sort of attitude you have got an uphill task, but we don't give up. We have been there since the year we were formed, 2001, we won't be giving up now. We shall keep banging and hammering away and working so that eventually we will be able to put that relationship together with the club and we will be able to pool our resources and generate some funds for Carlisle United Football Club.