DEAR British Telecom,
I would like to report a fault on the line of a Mr Frank Teasdale.
Having tried in vain all week to gain an answer from his number, I can only assume a technical problem exists.
This is worrying because Mr Teasdale is the chairman of Burnley Football Club and I am sure he needs to be accessible at all times.
To make matters worse, this is a key time in the history of the club and smooth lines of communication are essential.
Come to think of it, your organisation might also be able to explain away some of the issues raised since the possibility of a takeover bid at Burnley was first revealed last summer.
Presumably you helped put the interested parties in touch with Mr Teasdale at that time.
I also presume that he saw no need to set up any special hotlines with the likes of Ray Ingleby, feeling that his board's appointment of Chris Waddle as the new manager was a step in the right direction.
Waddle was provided with some money to spend on new players - but the coffers were soon empty.
Why then, considering the club's precarious financial position, were these potential investors not openly courted at that time?
The work now going into investigating the background and intentions of interested parties could and should have all been done a long time ago.
It doesn't take the brainpower of a fibre optics engineer to see that action is now needed - and fast.
Division Three is looming and, should season ticket sales plummet next season, Burnley might find themselves struggling to pay your phone bill let alone their sizeable bank loans.
One can only assume that the chairman was sceptical of the intentions of the early bids.
Perhaps he believed the present set-up could take the Clarets into the First Division when the club could be floated on the stock exchange from a position of strength - and without the outside influence of the likes of Ray Ingleby.
That involved an element of risk - but not an unacceptable one.
Whether Mr Waddle sees it that way is another matter.
I am sure he would have liked to have had big money available at the start of his reign, and certainly when team matters started to take a turn for the worse.
But why was there no contingency plan in place?
Mr Ingleby had, apparently, indicated he was available as and when Burnley were ready.
That fact that the club now has a weaker bargaining position has fallen into his, and any other potential investor's, hands.
So much precious time could have been saved had the current investigations and preliminary talks taken place on a more committed basis when the pressure was less intense.
Why the delay? Loose connections, again?
Mr Teasdale indicated at the AGM that he had made the decision to step down if a serious bidder was interested.
He already knew that to be the case.
At any time before the AGM any potential buyer could have been invited in with just 21 days needed for the consent of the shareholders.
I doubt if there would have been many dissenting voices.
It has also been admitted that the board did not need the special resolution - to grant themselves the right to buy or sell any unissued shares without the permission of the shareholders - in order to attract an investor.
One shareholder voiced the concern that the resolution would give directors the power to buy shares on preferential terms.
The suggestion that the board would allocate shares to themselves were strenuously denied
And the board could still have passed the resolution at the AGM, had they wanted.
It was decided, however, to accept the consensus decision via a show of hands.
The shareholders were overwhelming in their desire for more information and discussion about the resolution at a special meeting.
The urgency to hold this meeting has now seemingly evaporated.
Attempts to glean all the relevant information about the three interested parties has evidently overtaken events.
Maybe I have got my lines crossed but I, for one, do not understand why the resolution was so necessary on Boxing Day but of minor importance on January 8.
To summarise, I do hope that British Telecom will do everything to aid the board's quest for information so that investment can take place before the unthinkable happens.
Gremlins in your network are the only legitimate reason I can find for Mr Teasdale's silence.
I am sure he is just hanging on the line, waiting to provide the answers.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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