The Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) has released a statement on their website slamming the ownership and regime in Southeast London as “naive, desperate and unethical” after they tried to mislead the media.
CARD was one of three protest groups involved in organising and leading around 300 fans to the city of Sint-Truiden in Belgium on Saturday. In a statement released by the umbrella protest organisation at The Valley, they slammed the ownership and regime as “naive, desperate and unethical”.
A CARD spokesperson said: “It appears to be Roland Duchatelet who needs advice on how to conduct himself in an ‘appropriate and respectful manner’. He has previously called protest organisers ‘stupid people’, misogynists and ex-employees. Charlton must have had a huge turnover of staff if all those in Belgium were ex-employees.’
“The club also misled some national journalists into believing it was transporting all 1,400 traveling fans to Northampton. They ran five coaches and had made clear from the outset that they were not prepared to run more than that. They took 258 people, which is no bad thing, but they could not even be honest and transparent about that.
“The regime has long demonstrated its poor judgement, but this was both naive and desperate, even unethical. It is yet more evidence of the management’s incompetence, as is the team’s plunge towards possible relegation to League Two, despite one of the biggest budgets in the division. Duchatelet and chief executive Katrien Meire have no idea what they are doing, which has been evident to many fans for some time.
“The protest in Sint-Truiden went well beyond our expectations and in addition to CARD’s role, we want to acknowledge the part played in delivering it by the Belgium 20 group, as well as Women Against the Regime (WAR). It was months in the planning, so it was not just about recent results, but three years of hopeless management of the club – confirmed by the team’s league position, the emptying Valley and thumping financial losses.
The protest group has made clear that they will return to Belgium in the future with numbers greater than the 300 which traveled on the weekend. However, they are urging Roland Duchatelet to sell now before another 600-mile round trip becomes necessary.
“If necessary we will return to Belgium in even larger numbers in future, but we would much prefer that Duchatelet makes arrangements to sell the club before that happens. We fear for its future if he remains in control.”
