Netcafe This Friday

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poppyfield
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Netcafe This Friday

Post by poppyfield » Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:25 am

The club will hold a netcafe question and answer session with directors David Johnston and John Tempest on Friday evening, beginning at 7.30pm....

If you want to quiz the directors on any DFC matter, then please mail your question, with your name, to media@darlingtonfc.org.
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al_quaker
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by al_quaker » Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:41 am

Good timing - great to see the club being proactive.

Better than a forum, as no doubt the neanderthals would be out in force again. I've already spotted one on twitter.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by darlo_baron » Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:25 am

Definitely the better idea to hold a netcafe as an alternative to the forum, after the debacle created by the behaviour of our former manager and his select mob in May. Hopefully we can obtain clear information on this occasion.
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by tezza » Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:09 pm

The correct approach and Media

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by QUAKERMAN2 » Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:27 pm

Absolutely great timing, well done to John and David, greatly appreciated.

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H1987
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by H1987 » Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:28 pm

Fair play to them for doing this. Hope we get some answers.

poppyfield
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by poppyfield » Tue Oct 03, 2017 3:55 pm

Pinched from Tezza on another thread, this is the type of question that needs to be asked on Friday so if someone with better word skills than me could formulate this into a question.
The whole MGFA set up with the club needs to be looked at.
We need to understand the fringes of the business, such as the youth set up. The facilitation of prospective talents etc. right down to the Weekly sessions for youngsters, and how the link with DFC is entwined with advertising etc. even as I said the recently sponsored van, plastered with MGFA. The further we drill the murkier I expect it will be.
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:21 pm

I think the subject of the youth setup is covered here...

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=34425

I think the focus of the question should be along the lines of explaining what remains of the relationship between the club and MGFA now that MG has left. Do the club still pay a service fee of any sort the MGFA, and for what.

Something like this (just rattled off in a hurry)

If this is for the services of a management/coaching team has this figure been revised downwards following the departure of MG and could the CEO please explain what guarantees are in place to prevent a possible conflict of interest between the management of DFC & YCFC which might compromise the normal contractual safeguards which are in place should another club (York, in this case) decide that they want to take some of our better players from us.

Could the CEO please also clarify whether he has a business relationship with the new York City manager which could similarly raise suspicion in the minds of our fans that our best talent will be slid under the table for next to nothing, as seems to have happened with MG under the terms of his contract.

Would the CEO also confirm whether he agrees or disagrees with the opinions made clear by a number of supporters that the club can sustain itself at a profitable level outside of the football league and, if in disagreement, would he please outline his thoughts on whether he sees the majority fan-owned model continuing. If not, then please also outline your plan for attracting external investors and tell us how they will expect to some return on their investment while we are at Blackwell Meadows.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by bga » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:32 pm

Mr_Tibbs wrote:I think the subject of the youth setup is covered here...

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=34425

I think the focus of the question should be along the lines of explaining what remains of the relationship between the club and MGFA now that MG has left. Do the club still pay a service fee of any sort the MGFA, and for what.

Something like this (just rattled off in a hurry)

If this is for the services of a management/coaching team has this figure been revised downwards following the departure of MG and could the CEO please explain what guarantees are in place to prevent a possible conflict of interest between the management of DFC & YCFC which might compromise the normal contractual safeguards which are in place should another club (York, in this case) decide that they want to take some of our better players from us.

Could the CEO please also clarify whether he has a business relationship with the new York City manager which could similarly raise suspicion in the minds of our fans that our best talent will be slid under the table for next to nothing, as seems to have happened with MG under the terms of his contract.

Would the CEO also confirm whether he agrees or disagrees with the opinions made clear by a number of supporters that the club can sustain itself at a profitable level outside of the football league and, if in disagreement, would he please outline his thoughts on whether he sees the majority fan-owned model continuing. If not, then please also outline your plan for attracting external investors and tell us how they will expect to some return on their investment while we are at Blackwell Meadows.
These are all good valid points, I wonder if a more general question(s) regards ANY link with MGFA might actually produce more information for us? e.g. Can the club please explain the exact relationship (including any financials) that Darlington FC has with the MGFA. Is any employee of Darlington FC also directly or indirectly employed by MGFA. (Depending on the answers above can the Club please re-assure supporters there is no conflict on interest.)

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by H1987 » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:47 pm

I'd simply like some clarity in terms of if we're receiving compensation, if not why not, and where we go from here.

I'm not sure the club is completely hostile to investment, just not from Raj Singh, but further to that point, I think it is worth noting that unless we get someone who simply wants to be involved in football and isn't expecting a return (not unheard of), that it isn't going to happen. There's no money to be made from Darlington Football Club in its current guise. Apart from our players, we have no real assets.

darlo reborn
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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by darlo reborn » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:53 pm

Have we any assets as are the players contracts as paper thin as grays was

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:39 pm

bga wrote:
Mr_Tibbs wrote:I think the subject of the youth setup is covered here...

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=34425

I think the focus of the question should be along the lines of explaining what remains of the relationship between the club and MGFA now that MG has left. Do the club still pay a service fee of any sort the MGFA, and for what.

Something like this (just rattled off in a hurry)

If this is for the services of a management/coaching team has this figure been revised downwards following the departure of MG and could the CEO please explain what guarantees are in place to prevent a possible conflict of interest between the management of DFC & YCFC which might compromise the normal contractual safeguards which are in place should another club (York, in this case) decide that they want to take some of our better players from us.

Could the CEO please also clarify whether he has a business relationship with the new York City manager which could similarly raise suspicion in the minds of our fans that our best talent will be slid under the table for next to nothing, as seems to have happened with MG under the terms of his contract.

Would the CEO also confirm whether he agrees or disagrees with the opinions made clear by a number of supporters that the club can sustain itself at a profitable level outside of the football league and, if in disagreement, would he please outline his thoughts on whether he sees the majority fan-owned model continuing. If not, then please also outline your plan for attracting external investors and tell us how they will expect to some return on their investment while we are at Blackwell Meadows.
These are all good valid points, I wonder if a more general question(s) regards ANY link with MGFA might actually produce more information for us? e.g. Can the club please explain the exact relationship (including any financials) that Darlington FC has with the MGFA. Is any employee of Darlington FC also directly or indirectly employed by MGFA. (Depending on the answers above can the Club please re-assure supporters there is no conflict on interest.)
Yes, I think you condensed my babble quite well there.

On the compensation issue I think we know what it says in MG's contract. Why and how that got in there is anyone's guess but I think it's been said that the board were over a barrel with the need to maintain our climb and this was a year ago, remember, well before the seats issue and maybe it wasn't in anyone's minds back then that a vacancy so close to home would arise... so it probably got glossed over.

I think we need to be reassured that the players contracts don't contain a similar clause to the one which MG had and, if so, ask what can be done about it.

I personally don't care about the compensation. Who knows, maybe someone knowingly dropped that final £5k to top up the CSO Phase 2 pitch to help things along? I'm probably wrong on that but we don't know, and I think we should drop that subject and focus on the what our relationship was/now is with MGFA, and on protecting our assets.

As has been said elsewhere MG and his Academy was a good fit for us for the past 5 years but now we need to peel ourselves away from all that and stand on our own two feet.

Brian and Sean are both football men, not businessmen (as far as I know), and with a long-standing relationship with the club and its fans so we should give them the chance to show what they can do but we need assurance that there is no conflict of interest between any position they may hold with MGFA and the boss of that business, who is now the manager of a rival club. I'm sure they understand that themselves so we don't want them to feel like they're being watched.

I would also like to see MGFA removed from the list of sponsors on the main site, if they no longer provide sponsorship to the team (I think the players used MG's minibus, or am I wrong on that?).

I just think we should strip out every remnant of our relationship with MG, though it may take time.

As an aside MG himself needs to beware of unintended consequences - I've already seen one poster say that his kids will no longer be attending his academy so he really needs to say and do the right things to preserve his customer base. He should know what social media storms are like.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by bga » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:56 pm

Mr_Tibbs I have sent the MGFA question to the Netcafe email address along with another question I had regards the Reserves. Let's be honest David and John will be expecting plenty of similar questions on this subject so they may condense these and provide an overall answer!
I think you should still raise your 2 additional questions.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Wed Oct 04, 2017 4:18 pm

I probably will - got to make sure we get everything out in the open about all of this and don't have any nasty surprises waiting for us.

Like you said I'm sure many others will ask the same sort of questions, but the more who do the more likely it is that we'll get all the answers.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by poppyfield » Wed Oct 04, 2017 4:27 pm

Mr_Tibbs wrote:
bga wrote:
Mr_Tibbs wrote:I think the subject of the youth setup is covered here...

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=34425

I think the focus of the question should be along the lines of explaining what remains of the relationship between the club and MGFA now that MG has left. Do the club still pay a service fee of any sort the MGFA, and for what.

Something like this (just rattled off in a hurry)

If this is for the services of a management/coaching team has this figure been revised downwards following the departure of MG and could the CEO please explain what guarantees are in place to prevent a possible conflict of interest between the management of DFC & YCFC which might compromise the normal contractual safeguards which are in place should another club (York, in this case) decide that they want to take some of our better players from us.

Could the CEO please also clarify whether he has a business relationship with the new York City manager which could similarly raise suspicion in the minds of our fans that our best talent will be slid under the table for next to nothing, as seems to have happened with MG under the terms of his contract.

Would the CEO also confirm whether he agrees or disagrees with the opinions made clear by a number of supporters that the club can sustain itself at a profitable level outside of the football league and, if in disagreement, would he please outline his thoughts on whether he sees the majority fan-owned model continuing. If not, then please also outline your plan for attracting external investors and tell us how they will expect to some return on their investment while we are at Blackwell Meadows.
These are all good valid points, I wonder if a more general question(s) regards ANY link with MGFA might actually produce more information for us? e.g. Can the club please explain the exact relationship (including any financials) that Darlington FC has with the MGFA. Is any employee of Darlington FC also directly or indirectly employed by MGFA. (Depending on the answers above can the Club please re-assure supporters there is no conflict on interest.)
Yes, I think you condensed my babble quite well there.

On the compensation issue I think we know what it says in MG's contract. Why and how that got in there is anyone's guess but I think it's been said that the board were over a barrel with the need to maintain our climb and this was a year ago, remember, well before the seats issue and maybe it wasn't in anyone's minds back then that a vacancy so close to home would arise... so it probably got glossed over.

I think we need to be reassured that the players contracts don't contain a similar clause to the one which MG had and, if so, ask what can be done about it.

I personally don't care about the compensation. Who knows, maybe someone knowingly dropped that final £5k to top up the CSO Phase 2 pitch to help things along? I'm probably wrong on that but we don't know, and I think we should drop that subject and focus on the what our relationship was/now is with MGFA, and on protecting our assets.

As has been said elsewhere MG and his Academy was a good fit for us for the past 5 years but now we need to peel ourselves away from all that and stand on our own two feet.

Brian and Sean are both football men, not businessmen (as far as I know), and with a long-standing relationship with the club and its fans so we should give them the chance to show what they can do but we need assurance that there is no conflict of interest between any position they may hold with MGFA and the boss of that business, who is now the manager of a rival club. I'm sure they understand that themselves so we don't want them to feel like they're being watched.

I would also like to see MGFA removed from the list of sponsors on the main site, if they no longer provide sponsorship to the team (I think the players used MG's minibus, or am I wrong on that?).

I just think we should strip out every remnant of our relationship with MG, though it may take time.

As an aside MG himself needs to beware of unintended consequences - I've already seen one poster say that his kids will no longer be attending his academy so he really needs to say and do the right things to preserve his customer base. He should know what social media storms are like.
This shows 'Brian Atkinson' is clearly a director with the MGFA set up so has to be some conflict of interest there


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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:32 pm

That was more interesting than I thought it was going to be, thanks.

All needs clarifying.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by roadrunner » Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:16 pm

Are we still on for tomorrow night ?

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Undercovered » Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:16 pm

Should be a pretty quiet netcafe
Image

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Beano » Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:33 pm

Undercovered wrote:Should be a pretty quiet netcafe
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Darlo_Pete » Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:24 am

There shouldn't be a shortage of questions following yesterday's departures both on and off the pitch. Bet there glad no forum was organised?

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by MKDarlo » Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:59 am

IS this still going ahead? Most of my questions have now been moved to the bin by recent events. I am still interested in learning a bit more about the CEO and what his plan for the future is for the club and his part in it.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by tezza » Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:27 am

Darlington Football club are delighted to announce that through the generous sponsorship of Country Harvest Farm Foods we have been able to secure a van for the use of the club over the next three years.

It needs clarifying the terms of the sponsorship for this vehicle. In daily use at MGFA

Was unrestricted use by MGFA authorised. If so withdraw authorisation immediately, if not seems reasonable to Levy a retrospective service charge, and still withdraw the facility

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by MKDarlo » Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:28 am

I also think we nee dot explore and understand the links between MGFA both before the rupture and going forward.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:42 am

tezza wrote:Darlington Football club are delighted to announce that through the generous sponsorship of Country Harvest Farm Foods we have been able to secure a van for the use of the club over the next three years.

It needs clarifying the terms of the sponsorship for this vehicle. In daily use at MGFA

Was unrestricted use by MGFA authorised. If so withdraw authorisation immediately, if not seems reasonable to Levy a retrospective service charge, and still withdraw the facility
There's a picture of it here - wonder where it is now? Who is the key-holder?

It'd be useful for the DFC coaching/scouting team or the community liaison coordinator to drive around the schools, etc.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by tezza » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:05 am

Its in the car park of MGFA at Eastbourne.

Plastered with DFC & MGFA Paraphernalia, as is his own Van.

Needs to be informed to have all semblance of DFC removed from his operation. Down to the pencils. Costly business in my experience.

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:28 pm

I'm presuming this is still on? I can't find a link, just the original notice...

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/netcafe-on-friday/

anyone know?

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:29 pm

Just spotted this:

@Official_Darlo · 9m

John and David are in a meeting with the DFCSG that hasn't ended yet, so the start of the netcafe will be delayed, apologies

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by princes town » Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:30 pm

Mr_Tibbs wrote:I'm presuming this is still on? I can't find a link, just the original notice...

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/netcafe-on-friday/

anyone know?
yep still on but not sure about access. Its delayed though die to a meeting with DFCSG

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by D_F_C » Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:43 pm

do i just need to follow the official website for this?

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Re: Netcafe This Friday

Post by Quakerz » Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:45 pm

How do you follow the netcafe?
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“Everybody knows where that club is going now, so I’m out of the way. They can carry on, it’s their club, they can keep it." - Raj Singh, 2017

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