The Falkirk FC Thread

[AL-FFC]

Just now, ebobsboy said:

We still have Hall and Miller to stink the place out, let's not forget. 

I still think the issue with Hall was Durnan being paired with him.

[Proudtobeabairn]

2 hours ago, Back Post Misses said:

No. 
The whole point the group the club needed a reboot. If you were going to get unity, full buy in from fan and sponsor they believed that was what was required. The Chairman has resided over shambles after shambles (more in the last two days) and it was felt that was not going to happen unless the fans saw change. 
The Board thought differently and it up to than to get on with it now. The chance has been lost IMO. 

For me the first stage of the reboot was the Rawlins investing and then giving them a period of time to really stamp their authority on things.   They've not had that yet.  I get that there's appeal in getting Deans out but seems clear it'll now be the Rawlins calling the shots?

It seems a bit bizarre that having done all we can to get the Rawlins in we should want to dilute their influence through the fans bid before they've had a chance to really get started.   I don't fully understand the fans groups intention or motives here either despite all that's been said.  What have they seen that suggests the Rawins can't be trusted or that we immediately need to reboot again? 

On paper the Rawlins (or Phil at least) know what they're doing.  We don't know who the fans group actually are but unless someone can tell us otherwise its unlikely they have the same experience in football.  
Bringing in the Rawlins then handing over their influence to the fans group seems a bit like bringing in a star striker and then making him play behind someone who has never played up front before.  

Hopefully the investment isn't completely off the pitch and a compromise can be found - as suggested before maybe something that drip feeds the fan investment and increases fan influence depending on the Rawlins hitting some milestones (e.g promotion, future investment etc).  That sort of solution seems most pragmatic under the circumstances and most beneficial to the club?  

 

[ebobsboy]

3 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

I still think the issue with Hall was Durnan being paired with him.

I think issue with Hall is he really isn't a very good footballer. I also hope Gary Miller's contribution is just to rally the boys in the dressing room, help with coaching and warm the bench if we have injuries/suspension. 

[Shadwell Dog]

8 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

For me the first stage of the reboot was the Rawlins investing and then giving them a period of time to really stamp their authority on things.   They've not had that yet.  I get that there's appeal in getting Deans out but seems clear it'll now be the Rawlins calling the shots?

It seems a bit bizarre that having done all we can to get the Rawlins in we should want to dilute their influence through the fans bid before they've had a chance to really get started.   I don't fully understand the fans groups intention or motives here either despite all that's been said.  What have they seen that suggests the Rawins can't be trusted or that we immediately need to reboot again? 

On paper the Rawlins (or Phil at least) know what they're doing.  We don't know who the fans group actually are but unless someone can tell us otherwise its unlikely they have the same experience in football.  
Bringing in the Rawlins then handing over their influence to the fans group seems a bit like bringing in a star striker and then making him play behind someone who has never played up front before.  

Hopefully the investment isn't completely off the pitch and a compromise can be found - as suggested before maybe something that drip feeds the fan investment and increases fan influence depending on the Rawlins hitting some milestones (e.g promotion, future investment etc).  That sort of solution seems most pragmatic under the circumstances and most beneficial to the club?  

 

The Rawlins were brought in so that their experience and contacts could be used .  They were never ever brought in to run or control the club which is why they have only 26 percent of the whole share holding. These images show deans statement before the Rawlins deal was completed.  The bits I'd like to highlight are 'this avoids any one shareholding group to bulldozer through its plans for the club' . Plus 'our vision of a balanced ownership structure, a structure that is ONLY successfull when fans get to invest  and support simultaneously with outside investors.' 

Funnily enough the bod seem to be doing exactly the opposite just now with one shareholder controlling the club despite having only 26 percent of the shareholding and local fan investment being knocked back so as not to get in the way of this one shareholding.

[Stainrod]

3 hours ago, Zbairn said:

Does that not worry you?  If the club remains languishing in Seaside leagues, which is a possibility, do you really believe Rawlins will increase investment....when the club were pleading poverty over £75k today?  

At least these guys are trying to do something! 

It does concern me and I applaud their motive if not their timing ! The issue is we have been run by “ fans” since as long back as I remember (  other than the deans and Fulton ) and sadly the only real success was with these  chancers at the helm . 
No fan owner has had real money or more importantly a plan for success that was viable. 
Now I’m not right behind the Rawlins but they strangely give me some hope they will lead us back to the premier league , and after 10 years of torture I’m prepared to give them time to breathe and sort out the mess that is our club. I don’t have the answers but ;

What I do know is that Rawlins was actively seeking an investment in an underperforming Scottish club  for some time , he has already transferred his shareholding into a business he jointly owns with an experienced sports agency lawyer and he has both the cash ( $35 million net worth allegedly) and the experience in football to make me think there is a good chance that whatever his plan is he will succeed. 
Now he’s not going to pump money in to get us out of this league as he figures probably correctly we should walk it this year if he gets the right people in place . Maybe come January if we need a lift he will do something. I will hold my hand up if I’m wrong but I think at least in the short term he will deliver success. Fingers crossed! 

[Shadwell Dog]

2 minutes ago, Stainrod said:

It does concern me and I applaud their motive if not their timing ! The issue is we have been run by “ fans” since as long back as I remember (  other than the deans and Fulton ) and sadly the only real success was with these  chancers at the helm . 
No fan owner has had real money or more importantly a plan for success that was viable. 
Now I’m not right behind the Rawlins but they strangely give me some hope they will lead us back to the premier league , and after 10 years of torture I’m prepared to give them time to breathe and sort out the mess that is our club. I don’t have the answers but ;

What I do know is that Rawlins was actively seeking an investment in an underperforming Scottish club  for some time , he has already transferred his shareholding into a business he jointly owns with an experienced sports agency lawyer and he has both the cash ( $35 million net worth allegedly) and the experience in football to make me think there is a good chance that whatever his plan is he will succeed. 
Now he’s not going to pump money in to get us out of this league as he figures probably correctly we should walk it this year if he gets the right people in place . Maybe come January if we need a lift he will do something. I will hold my hand up if I’m wrong but I think at least in the short term he will deliver success. Fingers crossed! 

The fact he's quibbling then over giving back supporters a measley 75k then doesn't bode well surely if he's worth that kind of cash.  That would've helped get fans onside straight away instead of alienating quite a number.

[bairn88]

Friendly v cowdenbeath at TFS next Saturday. Behind closed doors because fans have been given a notorious feast of football over the last 16 months.

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, bairn88 said:

Friendly v cowdenbeath at TFS next Saturday. Behind closed doors because fans have been given a notorious feast of football over the last 16 months.

You would think they could've let the first 500/1000 people to buy seasons in for nowt to thank them for renewing .

[Stainrod]

8 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

The fact he's quibbling then over giving back supporters a measley 75k then doesn't bode well surely if he's worth that kind of cash.  That would've helped get fans onside straight away instead of alienating quite a number.

That’s why he has that cash - people like him will never give anything away if they can help it . It’s not in their DNA . Remember he is not investing in Falkirk to make the fans like him . Remember wee Fergus what a job he did for the scum yet they all booed him when they raised the premier league flag in their updated ground . ! 

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, Stainrod said:

That’s why he has that cash - people like him will never give anything away if they can help it . It’s not in their DNA . Remember he is not investing in Falkirk to make the fans like him . Remember wee Fergus what a job he did for the scum yet they all booed him when they raised the premier league flag in their updated ground . ! 

Well when the season ticket update is well down  he's going to have to find a lot more than 75k to get a side on the park to get us out this league.

[ShaggerG]

1 hour ago, Shadwell Dog said:

The Rawlins were brought in so that their experience and contacts could be used .  They were never ever brought in to run or control the club which is why they have only 26 percent of the whole share holding. These images show deans statement before the Rawlins deal was completed.  The bits I'd like to highlight are 'this avoids any one shareholding group to bulldozer through its plans for the club' . Plus 'our vision of a balanced ownership structure, a structure that is ONLY successfull when fans get to invest  and support simultaneously with outside investors.' 

Funnily enough the bod seem to be doing exactly the opposite just now with one shareholder controlling the club despite having only 26 percent of the shareholding and local fan investment being knocked back so as not to get in the way of this one shareholding.

You're right to highlight those parts Shadwell, however the remainder of the paragraph after the bulldozer bit is important too and that obviously didn't happen.

[Shadwell Dog]

18 minutes ago, ShaggerG said:

You're right to highlight those parts Shadwell, however the remainder of the paragraph after the bulldozer bit is important too and that obviously didn't happen.

Your right the inability of the current bod to work with the guys coming in has cost us 600k. A wee bit of give and take was required but the bod only wanted to take I'm afraid.  The navy blue guys were willing to compromise but they weren't which is very disappointing when there is such a large investment at stake and especially as the bod has such a small percentage of the current shareholding  and yet are trying to control the club.

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Shadwell Dog

[ebobsboy]

2 hours ago, BlackandGauld said:

Falkirk will dae well to finish top 6 this season lol

I think it's more to do with the utter disconnect between board and fans that might dictate that as much as having a rookie manager and new players who he thinks  are better than what we had. It will either culminate in a successful season on the park but with utter chaos behind the scenes or more likely a complete car crash as a whole yet again. There's absolutely nothing to get excited about as a fan of this club especially when they release statement after statement constantly outdoing themselves on the ineptitude front. 

[Bairn in Exile]

Hello All,

 

I received a reply from the club and I requested permission to share the email online in its entirety and this request was granted.

 

Here it is below:

 

 

Dear Bairn in Exile,

 

Thanks for your email into the Club regarding the upcoming Q&A session.  You emailed a few of the staff so I thought it would be easier for me to respond on behalf of everyone.

 

We gave a lot of consideration to the format of the Q&A session and in an ideal world we would have welcomed the opportunity to deliver the event at the Stadium in front of a live audience – however COVID restrictions have made that near impossible.  The next best option would have been to hold an online Zoom, however there are several downsides to doing this.  Firstly, it comes at additional cost to do a live webinar.  Secondly, creating an ‘open’ Zoom where anyone can attend and interact has its downsides. How do we know the individuals present are Falkirk fans?  How can we stop them if they decide to disrupt the event and thus force it to be postponed or cancelled?  In our view this seemed a needless risk to take. You also mentioned transparency, but that works both ways and an online and publicly accessible forum means that individuals can join anonymously, and we have no transparency on who is asking us questions.

 

Therefore, we have decided that having a recorded Zoom session that will be available to all fans to watch at a time of their choosing would be the best and most appropriate option.  Asking fans to submit questions in advance via email also ensures we can have a range of views and questions posed on the night and not just of those who are able to attend.  We will group the questions under the key headings and will ensure that all topics are covered.

 

Regarding your point about Lewis Connolly, I understand your concerns and we have discussed this with Lewis.  He - and we - are comfortable that he will not be “soft” with us!  As you will know Lewis has been in and around the Club for several years and is familiar with the background to many of the issues that are likely to be discussed at the Q&A.  We feel it is important to have someone in that role who not only knows the context and history but has enough knowledge to pose follow-up questions as and when required. He has an open brief and we will reiterate to him that he can dig as deep as he wants.

Lewis is primarily there to read out the questions that have been submitted by fans.  He has no editorial control over the questions, other than to filter out ones which are repetitive or abusive.  I am sure you will appreciate that many fans are likely to submit the same questions, so we need a capable host who is able to ensure that we do not spend the entire night discussing and answering the same questions over and over.  Lewis is undoubtedly the best candidate for the role.

 

You may be aware that we asked shareholders and fans to submit questions in advance of the last AGM and EGM and this was a system that worked well.  In both cases we were able to answer the vast majority of questions on the night and have no reason to suspect this will not be the case next week.

 

I understand there is scepticism, however the purpose of the Q&A is for the Board, Sporting Director and Head Coach to answer fans' questions on whatever topics are submitted.  We are not trying to hide or deflect questions in any way – if we were then we wouldn’t hold the Q&A.  We do hope the Q&A will be approached and used in the spirit it is intended and hope you will submit questions.  I hope you will see at that we are not avoiding the difficult issues – in fact, we will be tackling them head-on!

 

Best wishes,

 

Colin McFarlane

 

Don’t shoot the messenger.

I then followed up this email with another of my own where I then gave my point of view to the answers that I received and, long story short, in further email exchanges, we had to agree to disagree on a couple of points.

The Q&A session will be going ahead in its proposed format and so I will now be submitting my questions to Colin / Lewis in the hope that at least one of them will be selected on the night.

Colin comes across as a decent bloke so out of respect to him I will, for the next week or so, bite my tongue here on P&B until after the Q&A session has been aired.

 

[joozy]

1 hour ago, Bairn in Exile said:

Hello All,

 

I received a reply from the club and I requested permission to share the email online in its entirety and this request was granted.

 

Here it is below:

 

 

Dear Bairn in Exile,

 

Thanks for your email into the Club regarding the upcoming Q&A session.  You emailed a few of the staff so I thought it would be easier for me to respond on behalf of everyone.

 

We gave a lot of consideration to the format of the Q&A session and in an ideal world we would have welcomed the opportunity to deliver the event at the Stadium in front of a live audience – however COVID restrictions have made that near impossible.  The next best option would have been to hold an online Zoom, however there are several downsides to doing this.  Firstly, it comes at additional cost to do a live webinar.  Secondly, creating an ‘open’ Zoom where anyone can attend and interact has its downsides. How do we know the individuals present are Falkirk fans?  How can we stop them if they decide to disrupt the event and thus force it to be postponed or cancelled?  In our view this seemed a needless risk to take. You also mentioned transparency, but that works both ways and an online and publicly accessible forum means that individuals can join anonymously, and we have no transparency on who is asking us questions.

 

Therefore, we have decided that having a recorded Zoom session that will be available to all fans to watch at a time of their choosing would be the best and most appropriate option.  Asking fans to submit questions in advance via email also ensures we can have a range of views and questions posed on the night and not just of those who are able to attend.  We will group the questions under the key headings and will ensure that all topics are covered.

 

Regarding your point about Lewis Connolly, I understand your concerns and we have discussed this with Lewis.  He - and we - are comfortable that he will not be “soft” with us!  As you will know Lewis has been in and around the Club for several years and is familiar with the background to many of the issues that are likely to be discussed at the Q&A.  We feel it is important to have someone in that role who not only knows the context and history but has enough knowledge to pose follow-up questions as and when required. He has an open brief and we will reiterate to him that he can dig as deep as he wants.

Lewis is primarily there to read out the questions that have been submitted by fans.  He has no editorial control over the questions, other than to filter out ones which are repetitive or abusive.  I am sure you will appreciate that many fans are likely to submit the same questions, so we need a capable host who is able to ensure that we do not spend the entire night discussing and answering the same questions over and over.  Lewis is undoubtedly the best candidate for the role.

 

You may be aware that we asked shareholders and fans to submit questions in advance of the last AGM and EGM and this was a system that worked well.  In both cases we were able to answer the vast majority of questions on the night and have no reason to suspect this will not be the case next week.

 

I understand there is scepticism, however the purpose of the Q&A is for the Board, Sporting Director and Head Coach to answer fans' questions on whatever topics are submitted.  We are not trying to hide or deflect questions in any way – if we were then we wouldn’t hold the Q&A.  We do hope the Q&A will be approached and used in the spirit it is intended and hope you will submit questions.  I hope you will see at that we are not avoiding the difficult issues – in fact, we will be tackling them head-on!

 

Best wishes,

 

Colin McFarlane

 

Don’t shoot the messenger.

I then followed up this email with another of my own where I then gave my point of view to the answers that I received and, long story short, in further email exchanges, we had to agree to disagree on a couple of points.

The Q&A session will be going ahead in its proposed format and so I will now be submitting my questions to Colin / Lewis in the hope that at least one of them will be selected on the night.

Colin comes across as a decent bloke so out of respect to him I will, for the next week or so, bite my tongue here on P&B until after the Q&A session has been aired.

 

Complete and utter bullshit.  They're taking us for mugs 

"Additional costs of doing a webinar" -  f**k right off.  It's not that expensive.  

The risks of an open zoom - get a grip.  It's not March 2020 when nobody had a clue how to do a Zoom conference.  Do they think none of us use these things for work?  It's pretty straightforward to arrange a call where a moderator can control who is unmuted and when.  Or even have questions submitted via a chat function.

Still no answer as to why it couldn't be done live.  Even if Lewis does ask tough questions then who is in control of the final edit?  The bit about being pre-recorded so fans can watch whenever they want literally makes no sense.  If you have a live session it can still be recorded and uploaded for others to watch later.

The need for the board to know who is asking the questions?  Bullshit.  If it's a legitimate question, it's a legitimate question.  It doesn't matter whether it's being asked by @disgruntledgoalkeepingcoachtakingtheclubtoatribunal from Twitter or Joe Bloggs who sits in seat E20 in the main stand.

And as for Lewis being tough.  It's totally disingenuous.  Oh sure, it's easy for them to say he can be as tough as he likes but as a de facto insider there's no way of avoiding the internal pressures to ask questions in a certain way.  He's being put in an impossible position.

 

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by joozy

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bairn in Exile said:

Hello All,

 

I received a reply from the club and I requested permission to share the email online in its entirety and this request was granted.

 

Here it is below:

 

 

Dear Bairn in Exile,

 

Thanks for your email into the Club regarding the upcoming Q&A session.  You emailed a few of the staff so I thought it would be easier for me to respond on behalf of everyone.

 

We gave a lot of consideration to the format of the Q&A session and in an ideal world we would have welcomed the opportunity to deliver the event at the Stadium in front of a live audience – however COVID restrictions have made that near impossible.  The next best option would have been to hold an online Zoom, however there are several downsides to doing this.  Firstly, it comes at additional cost to do a live webinar.  Secondly, creating an ‘open’ Zoom where anyone can attend and interact has its downsides. How do we know the individuals present are Falkirk fans?  How can we stop them if they decide to disrupt the event and thus force it to be postponed or cancelled?  In our view this seemed a needless risk to take. You also mentioned transparency, but that works both ways and an online and publicly accessible forum means that individuals can join anonymously, and we have no transparency on who is asking us questions.

 

Therefore, we have decided that having a recorded Zoom session that will be available to all fans to watch at a time of their choosing would be the best and most appropriate option.  Asking fans to submit questions in advance via email also ensures we can have a range of views and questions posed on the night and not just of those who are able to attend.  We will group the questions under the key headings and will ensure that all topics are covered.

 

Regarding your point about Lewis Connolly, I understand your concerns and we have discussed this with Lewis.  He - and we - are comfortable that he will not be “soft” with us!  As you will know Lewis has been in and around the Club for several years and is familiar with the background to many of the issues that are likely to be discussed at the Q&A.  We feel it is important to have someone in that role who not only knows the context and history but has enough knowledge to pose follow-up questions as and when required. He has an open brief and we will reiterate to him that he can dig as deep as he wants.

Lewis is primarily there to read out the questions that have been submitted by fans.  He has no editorial control over the questions, other than to filter out ones which are repetitive or abusive.  I am sure you will appreciate that many fans are likely to submit the same questions, so we need a capable host who is able to ensure that we do not spend the entire night discussing and answering the same questions over and over.  Lewis is undoubtedly the best candidate for the role.

 

You may be aware that we asked shareholders and fans to submit questions in advance of the last AGM and EGM and this was a system that worked well.  In both cases we were able to answer the vast majority of questions on the night and have no reason to suspect this will not be the case next week.

 

I understand there is scepticism, however the purpose of the Q&A is for the Board, Sporting Director and Head Coach to answer fans' questions on whatever topics are submitted.  We are not trying to hide or deflect questions in any way – if we were then we wouldn’t hold the Q&A.  We do hope the Q&A will be approached and used in the spirit it is intended and hope you will submit questions.  I hope you will see at that we are not avoiding the difficult issues – in fact, we will be tackling them head-on!

 

Best wishes,

 

Colin McFarlane

 

Don’t shoot the messenger.

I then followed up this email with another of my own where I then gave my point of view to the answers that I received and, long story short, in further email exchanges, we had to agree to disagree on a couple of points.

The Q&A session will be going ahead in its proposed format and so I will now be submitting my questions to Colin / Lewis in the hope that at least one of them will be selected on the night.

Colin comes across as a decent bloke so out of respect to him I will, for the next week or so, bite my tongue here on P&B until after the Q&A session has been aired.

 

Funny, I’ve had a couple of conversations myself although the outcome on the last one wasn’t quite agree to disagree. 

Anyway the Webinar we hosted for the Crunchie Initiative/FFC Heritage event cost us around £150 and could host up to 500 people.  We were able to choose who would be on screen and we had it linked to PayPal so people could buy a ticket. Each person who bought a ticket would be sent a unique link. We did a Q and A session at the end and already had some pre-submitted questions but those who attended could also ask questions via the Q and A box. 

You can set up the webinar without linking to PayPal and you can monitor who joins with a waiting room. So long as you verify people’s email addresses beforehand then there should be no problem and pretty sure you can remove people if you think they’re being abusive.  They could also do it live via YouTube, Facebook, Falkirk TV or other formats, even if still meant submitting questions beforehand. 

I’m sure the club could cover the cost of £150 for the webinar. It’s also for a whole month so put it to use and do an online event to recoup the money and give the rest to charity. 

What I’m concerned with is the delay between asking questions and the recorded Q and A. Colin said ‘We will group the questions’. Surely it doesn’t take too long to sift through emails to group questions and what did he mean by we? I thought Lewis was the only one privileged to view the emails, hence why they have to be sent to an address under his name? I understand it would be good for Lewis to ask a variety of questions however to be truly independent there shouldn’t be any instruction from the board. If one topic draws more attention than others then Lewis should be allowed to press on that for a bit. There should also be trust in Lewis to ask questions on a number of topics, as he definitely would. 

For what it’s worth too I think he’s been put in a very unfair position and fair play to you for trying to convince them otherwise but it’s an impossible task. 

Edited June 18, 2021 by Guest

[Guest Ecosse83]

[FFC 1876]

8 hours ago, bairn88 said:

Friendly v cowdenbeath at TFS next Saturday. Behind closed doors because fans have been given a notorious feast of football over the last 16 months.

No sense letting fans in for the first few pre season games especially in covid times. We'll maybe get a highlights reel if we perform well. All clubs usually tend to do closed door friendlies to start off so by the time there's a game fans can get in the managers had a chance to sort the team out a little. We only have 15 players currently so Sheerin will most likely want to take a look at a few trialists. 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

For me the first stage of the reboot was the Rawlins investing and then giving them a period of time to really stamp their authority on things.   They've not had that yet.  I get that there's appeal in getting Deans out but seems clear it'll now be the Rawlins calling the shots?

It seems a bit bizarre that having done all we can to get the Rawlins in we should want to dilute their influence through the fans bid before they've had a chance to really get started.   I don't fully understand the fans groups intention or motives here either despite all that's been said.  What have they seen that suggests the Rawins can't be trusted or that we immediately need to reboot again? 

On paper the Rawlins (or Phil at least) know what they're doing.  We don't know who the fans group actually are but unless someone can tell us otherwise its unlikely they have the same experience in football.  
Bringing in the Rawlins then handing over their influence to the fans group seems a bit like bringing in a star striker and then making him play behind someone who has never played up front before.  

Hopefully the investment isn't completely off the pitch and a compromise can be found - as suggested before maybe something that drip feeds the fan investment and increases fan influence depending on the Rawlins hitting some milestones (e.g promotion, future investment etc).  That sort of solution seems most pragmatic under the circumstances and most beneficial to the club?  

 

The Board (including the Rawlins) are encouraging investment. On their terms only however. 
The groups only motive is to get this club by the scruff of the neck and get it moving forward again. 
The deal is dead under all current circumstances. Of circumstances change - who knows. 
No doubt the Board are now staking everything on Sheerin to turn the ship around. He may well do. For sure however he would have had a much better chance with a “balanced ticket” behind him. 
It wasn’t to be, no one died. Life goes on. 

[Shadwell Dog]

3 hours ago, Bairn in Exile said:

Hello All,

 

I received a reply from the club and I requested permission to share the email online in its entirety and this request was granted.

 

Here it is below:

 

 

Dear Bairn in Exile,

 

Thanks for your email into the Club regarding the upcoming Q&A session.  You emailed a few of the staff so I thought it would be easier for me to respond on behalf of everyone.

 

We gave a lot of consideration to the format of the Q&A session and in an ideal world we would have welcomed the opportunity to deliver the event at the Stadium in front of a live audience – however COVID restrictions have made that near impossible.  The next best option would have been to hold an online Zoom, however there are several downsides to doing this.  Firstly, it comes at additional cost to do a live webinar.  Secondly, creating an ‘open’ Zoom where anyone can attend and interact has its downsides. How do we know the individuals present are Falkirk fans?  How can we stop them if they decide to disrupt the event and thus force it to be postponed or cancelled?  In our view this seemed a needless risk to take. You also mentioned transparency, but that works both ways and an online and publicly accessible forum means that individuals can join anonymously, and we have no transparency on who is asking us questions.

 

Therefore, we have decided that having a recorded Zoom session that will be available to all fans to watch at a time of their choosing would be the best and most appropriate option.  Asking fans to submit questions in advance via email also ensures we can have a range of views and questions posed on the night and not just of those who are able to attend.  We will group the questions under the key headings and will ensure that all topics are covered.

 

Regarding your point about Lewis Connolly, I understand your concerns and we have discussed this with Lewis.  He - and we - are comfortable that he will not be “soft” with us!  As you will know Lewis has been in and around the Club for several years and is familiar with the background to many of the issues that are likely to be discussed at the Q&A.  We feel it is important to have someone in that role who not only knows the context and history but has enough knowledge to pose follow-up questions as and when required. He has an open brief and we will reiterate to him that he can dig as deep as he wants.

Lewis is primarily there to read out the questions that have been submitted by fans.  He has no editorial control over the questions, other than to filter out ones which are repetitive or abusive.  I am sure you will appreciate that many fans are likely to submit the same questions, so we need a capable host who is able to ensure that we do not spend the entire night discussing and answering the same questions over and over.  Lewis is undoubtedly the best candidate for the role.

 

You may be aware that we asked shareholders and fans to submit questions in advance of the last AGM and EGM and this was a system that worked well.  In both cases we were able to answer the vast majority of questions on the night and have no reason to suspect this will not be the case next week.

 

I understand there is scepticism, however the purpose of the Q&A is for the Board, Sporting Director and Head Coach to answer fans' questions on whatever topics are submitted.  We are not trying to hide or deflect questions in any way – if we were then we wouldn’t hold the Q&A.  We do hope the Q&A will be approached and used in the spirit it is intended and hope you will submit questions.  I hope you will see at that we are not avoiding the difficult issues – in fact, we will be tackling them head-on!

 

Best wishes,

 

Colin McFarlane

 

Don’t shoot the messenger.

I then followed up this email with another of my own where I then gave my point of view to the answers that I received and, long story short, in further email exchanges, we had to agree to disagree on a couple of points.

The Q&A session will be going ahead in its proposed format and so I will now be submitting my questions to Colin / Lewis in the hope that at least one of them will be selected on the night.

Colin comes across as a decent bloke so out of respect to him I will, for the next week or so, bite my tongue here on P&B until after the Q&A session has been aired.

 

If Colin's running this that means his beloved Hibs obviously aren't playing that night.

What a pile of crud  though. It's obvious they do not want it to be any sort of debate but simply an enforcing of the party line where they can say whatever they want without being questioned upon it by those that can actually corroborate their answers or not. Complete farce.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Shadwell Dog