Shrimper sale frustrates fans

By Jason Creasey

DRAGGING ON: Southend United’s Roots Hall home

PICTRURE: Alamy

SOUTHEND United fans are still sweating on the future of the football club.

Southend City Council continue to carry out their due diligence on the property side of the Fossetts Farm deal needed for the consortium to finally take charge of the Shrimpers.

And long-suffering supporters are desperate to see the back of controversial chairman Ron Martin.

A statement from the Southend United supporter groups said: “We will not allow the Martin family to continue to use our football club as leverage, and we have a plan ready and waiting for that eventuality which will be issued if that is confirmed to be the case.

“The Martins have not earned any breathing space due to the years of neglect of our football club, and they will face immediate and co-ordinated pressure from the fanbase to concede their position and bring this fiasco to a swift close.” The consortium, which is headed up by Australian Jus-tin Rees, swapped contracts for the sale of the club with Martin back in December but have yet to officially take charge.

The group of businessmen have already pumped £3.5m into the club who finished ninth in the National League last season despite a whole range of off-field issues including a 15-month long transfer embargo and a 10point deduction for failing to pay off their HMRC debt.

Stewarts Law, who rep- resented the club for those winding up petitions, have now issued a winding up petition of their own on the Shrimpers.

The petition has twice been adjourned at the High Court and will be heard again in late June.

But the consortium are becoming frustrated by the slow progress.

They said: “The consortium are getting increasingly concerned that the council’s due diligence processes will not finish prior to the 26th of June winding up hearing in the High Court.

“While acknowledging the importance of the council’s processes, the consortium was initially told that due diligence would start in January and complete within six to eight weeks and has been funding the club on that basis.”

The Shrimpers have again been placed under a transfer embargo due to the winding up petition, much to the ongoing frustration of head coach Kevin Maher.

However, the new leader of Southend Council Daniel Cowan issued a statement on Friday evening hinting progress had been made.

He said: “Late this afternoon, the council received the financial analysis to reach the latest milestone in the due diligence process.

“The council must now work through this with Citizen Housing next week.

“The due diligence has always been a complex and ongoing piece of work where each stage must be completed before the next can be concluded.

“As part of our commitment to transparency, we will endeavour to update each week as matters progress.”