Nobody wins unless everybody wins...
Macclesfield Town
Fans United Day - 29th January
13-Jan-2006
Silkmen Supporters Trust Press Release
Macclesfield Town have allocated their home game with Carlisle United on the 29th January as a Fans United Day.
Last month Macclesfield Town were hit hard by the F.A. who ordered the Cheshire club pay them in the region of £300,000 by the end of January. This took the form of a fine and repayment for offences relating to the building of the new stand. Two of these charges, which incorporate almost 80% of the full amount, the club still strenuously deny.
It was immediately clear that a club the size of Macclesfield Town, and indeed most other organizations, would struggle to raise that sort of money in the draconian six week timescale given by the F.A.
The Club and its supporters both moved swiftly to begin the seemingly insurmountable task of raising the required money.
One of several initiatives being run by the club is a decision to host a Fans United day at the Moss Rose at 3.00pm, Sunday January 29th when the club face Carlisle in a League Two clash.
A Silkmen Supporters Trust spokesman Mike Griffiths said: 'All supporters of Macclesfield Town feel that the FA have been unjustly ruthless in the size and timescale of this punishment. We are working hard to help raise the money and want to support the Club's move to create this Fans United Day. We hope that supporters from across the country will come and enjoy the day with us. Our four games since Christmas have seen 20 goals so it could prove to be very entertaining for the neutral even if the loyal fans fingernails don't last the full 90 minutes!
'The day will also involve a collection for our newly formed Silkmen Supporters Trust who have pledged to help Macclesfield Town raise the £300,000 they need by the end of the month.'
Fans United days have proved to be incredibly successful in the past as the football family turn out to support one of their own who are undergoing a crisis.
Events at Cambridge and Wrexham last year attracted 1,000 and 1,400 extra supporters respectively.
Supporters of all clubs are invited to attend the game wearing their own team's colours to show their support for the Silkmen in their hour of need.
The Silkmen would also like clubs from the Premiership, Football League and below to send a signed shirt which will be paraded at the Moss Rose to signify the support of all of the Football Family.
=================== Previously ================
Trust and Pixsale!
09-Jan-2006
Silkmen Supporters Trust
The embryonic Macclesfield Town Supporters Trust held a meeting at the Moss Rose last week to allow all supporters of the club to have their say in the plan.
A successful event saw close to 200 people attending and all heard representations from Andy Thomas, Steve Mundy and Stockport County trust member Norman Beverly who spoke passionately about the benefits of Football trusts.
The meeting ended with a unanimous vote to give the Steering Group a mandate from the supporters to continue with their efforts in setting up the Silkmen Supporters trust.
At the meeting it was announced that Macclesfield Town Chairman Rob Bickerton is in favour of the supporters forming a Trust and is supportive of our goals to work alongside his team in rescuing this club from its current and longer term difficulties.
The Trust are confident that all monies paid to them will be accepted by the club in exchange for shares, but this would need to be ratified by a Football Club board decision.
Directly after the meeting the Trust were happy to announce a membership level of more than 100 people whose membership fees and associated donations mean that the trust already have more than £1000 in the coffers.
Any further memberships or donations can be made at www.silkmen.org.uk or can be sent direct to: SILKMEN SUPPORTERS' TRUST, c/o Daniels Solicitors, County Chambers, 6 Chestergate, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 6BA.
Why are the supporters forming a Trust?
- To help Macclesfield Town Football Club to raise £300,000 by the deadline of January 31st set by the Football Association.
- To work towards bringing the club closer to the community and the community closer to the club.
- To earn future official supporters representation on the board of the football club.
- To assist in attracting new fans to the Moss Rose whilst allaying the concerns of any existing supporters currently unhappy with the club.
The overall aim of the Supporters Trust is to pull the Silkmen through this current crisis and work towards a healthy and successful Football League club for everyone in Macclesfield and the surrounding area.
These are realistic and very relevant aims and with an average gate of just 2,165 this season, we cannot sit back and continue to watch the club lose money.
It is time for Action !!
Supporters may not know this club has gone bust twice before, and come close on a number of other occasions. It is our aim to provide long term stability and protection against this club ever being brought to its knees again.
Putting the obvious concerns of the fines to one side for the moment, The Trust steering group believe that there are further issues at the club which are causing our supporters some concern, and perhaps the lower crowds are linked to this.
We need an umbrella organisation that will listen to, and understand the concerns of its members and act positively to address the issues collectively with the Board.
We are looking to facilitate a new version of this football club - with fans at the heart of it and the club at the heart of the community.
Pixsale Takes OffWhen Macclesfield Town Football Club were hit with a £300,000 fine by the FA, the club's supporters began to rally around to help save the Silkmen. The first fund-raising method launched was the innovative Pixsale from Gary Jackson on one of the club's unofficial websites.
Up and running within a matter of hours of the judgement being made public, the Pixsale sailed through the £1,000 barrier in it's first 36 hours.
'The level of support from Macclesfield Town supporters in the first hours was tremendous and got us off to a great start' said The Silkweb's editor Gary Jackson. 'But as word started to get around and we picked up some publicity, then it was fans of other clubs who astonished us with their generosity.'
Indeed, with the Pixsale now rapidly closing in on the £5,000 mark, supporters of over 110 different clubs from Chelsea to Cheltenham and from Fortuna Düsseldorf to Fulham have added their donation to the Pixsale board. The level of response has been so great that the board had to be moved to a different website to prevent it outgrowing it's home but you can still get to the board at
www.mtfc.info.
'It is amazing to see the diversity of supporters offering their help and vitally their money' Gary added. 'We knew that the community of Football Supporters was a strong one, but it has been heart-warming to see the level of support offered to our club from around the world.'
But with the £5,000 mark rapidly approaching Gary and the rest of the Macclesfield Town supporters have set a target that they would like to meet before the FA deadline of 31st January.
'It would be fantastic to reach the £10,000 mark by the time the deadline comes about. Not only does it help the club to raise the funds, but the comments on the site from the supporters of other clubs will show the level of support we have within football and, perhaps will help to persuade the FA to extend the date.'
Meanwhile Gary has added the opportunity for local businesses to place adverts on the board to help raise further money for the club. 'Any business or individual who is willing to donate £75.00 will receive a block of 40 squares which will host their company logo and a link to their website. This way we can help the companies who are helping us by generating traffic for them as well as raising money for the Silkmen.'
The money raised by Gary Jackson's Pixsale board will go towards the huge FA fine via the newly founded Macclesfield Town Supporters Trust. See
www.silkmen.org.uk for more information.
=========== Previously ===============
Huge Fine Threatens Club's Existence20-Dec-2005
From the
BBC:
Macclesfield have been fined £62,000 and told to pay the Football Foundation £195,000 after an inquiry into the funding of their Estate Road Stand.
The investigation centred on a payment made to the previous administration of the Moss Rose outfit in connection to the stand during 2000-02.
The club, which has the right to appeal against the punishment, says the fine threatens its existence.
Macclesfield say the blame lies with the club's former regime.
Football Foundation regulations forbid clubs to receive any more than 80% of the total funding for a construction project but it has been established the payment eventually covered the entire cost.
The charges centred around two allegations of receiving funding before and without paying contractors for the work, which is also against Football Foundation regulations and also a supposed sponsorship deal with the contractors.
The inquiry eventually heard Macclesfield supplied bogus invoices suggesting they had paid their share of the construction costs up front, when in fact no payment had been made.
In addition, rather than being an actual sponsorship deal, the contract with the constructors merely shaved some of the cost off the entire project.
This meant the Football Foundation eventually bore the whole cost of the stand, so the FA have ordered the Cheshire club to repay the overspend before 31 January next year.
'The club admitted a charge of improper conduct for receiving funding before paying contractors and another charge of improper conduct for receiving funding without paying contractors,' said FA in a statement.
'They were fined £10,000 for each of these breaches.
'The club denied a charge of improper conduct in relation to sponsorship payments received from the main contractor which were alleged not to have been genuine sponsorship amounts, but rather a saving or discount against the value of the project.
'The Commission found this charge to be proven and issued a fine of £40,000.
'The club denied a separate fourth charge relating to their accounting records. The Commission found it to be proven and fined the club £2,000.'
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