Hundreds of Charlton fans have embarked on a trip to the Belgian city of Sint-Truiden. The cohort of fans are being led by the Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet, The Belgium 20, Women Against the Regime and The 2Percent. Their final objective is to remove their controversial and damaging owner in Roland Duchatelet.
Charlton Athletic have seen their football club free fall since 2014. The season before Roland Duchatelet took over, the Addicks had a healthy finish in 8th place of the Sky Bet Championship, in their first season back in the second tier after a record-automatic promotion the season before under Chris Powell. Charlton now find themselves in 15th and are being dragged into a possible relegation fight which could mean League 2 next season, which will be their worst finish post World War 2.
In January 2014, Charlton Athletic were facing another major issue, they were on the brink of administration. The two bankers unable to pay for a playable pitch, unable to pay salaries and were struggling to stay above water. However, no one back then would have thought that when Duchatelet took over, that one of the richest men in Europe, and the owner (now former) of Standard Liege would inflict such a disease, the pain and downfall which the Addicks have witnessed and experienced.
Their very identity has been torn apart, the days of Alan Curbishley, Jimmy Seed and Chris Powell unrecognisable in the current turbulent environment in Southeast London. Charlton fans have witnessed their brightest, exciting and most admirable players sold on, the money disappearing with no sign of re-investment. In fact, in the January transfer window just passed, Duchatelet pocketed an estimated £12 million, with less than £1 million being reinvested within that window. Charlton fans are not ignorant, we understand that you cannot directly spend what you earn back on players, but our owner is almost a billionaire in League One, and the lack of permanent signings, the continuous managerial changes are deeply concerning.
Not only has the academy been described by the CEO as a simple player farm, rather than an exciting producer of future talent to run out onto the Valley pitch for many years to come. Charlton fans have seen fan favourites like Yann Kermorgant now at Reading, who was mentioned as “not good enough”, their replacements often being players from the third and fourth tiers of Belgian football, as well as a chain of poor network clubs also under the ownership of Duchatelet. Unfortunately, the players coming in were simply not good enough to act as replacements.
A string of managers has been seen at The Valley since January 2014, a number closing on 10 in just three years, a lack of stability, ambition and strategic planning clearly obvious.
Senior management and the owner have directly attacked and insulted Charlton fans, the likes of the CEO describing fans as “customers”, as well as the ownership stating that Charlton fans wanted their club to fail.
The fact remains that the protests taking place are not because of poor results, not because of being unable to pick up points as these are simply knock on effects of bigger issues. The people at the top show no ambition, no passion and no desire to support the fans and what Charlton is about at Valley Floyd Road.
Charlton fans traveling to Sint-Truiden have been speaking with the Independent, and had the following to say.
“We just want to continue to make it clear to Duchâtelet that while he continues to embarrass and humiliate us as a section of society, we will continue to embarrass him,” Clive Harris, one of the 250 supporters traveling to Belgium,
“There could actually be 500 people marching as we expect a similar number of Sint-Truidense supporters. Last year we drove a taxi to Belgium on a three-day tour to protest what was going on and we could tell that it got under his skin because he actually shouted at us whereas previously he had just ignored us.”
“We are all still supporters of the club so we take no joy whatsoever in seeing the downturn in results or seeing the struggles on and off the pitch,” Harris counters. “And we certainly get more frustrated seeing all of the empty seats at The Valley because we remember it when it used to be full.
“What is more frustrating is that we are repeatedly being told that these are the committed actions of a few extremists. That’s what he’s saying all the time. But really it’s the other way round; they are the extreme actions of committed supporters. It’s not a few bitter ex-employees like they keep saying – none of them have worked for the club under the current regime.”
“I could be doing better things than spending my weekend in Belgium,” Harris adds. “But we are involved in a fight for our existence.”
The cohort and legions of Charlton fans heading to Belgium will be hoping that Roland Duchatelet is on the brink of selling after failing to show success, the tycoon being voted as the worst owner in English football and the continuous effective attacks by the protest groups. Today marks D-Day for Mr. Duchatelet. It is time for him to leave.
