Can Peter Varney save us?
First yesterday we had what looked like a home made tic-tock video from potential Portuguese bidders called Corporate Football Organisation Portugal. It was hard to take Fernando Corte-Real too seriously as he rolled out the innovative idea of a having a 5-year plan to get into the Premier League from what looked like a furniture shop.
Not a lot online about this lot except it is obviously a collection of investors and according to Corte-Real “experts.”
The Portuguese bidders are said to be one of as many as five hovering around our carcass.
The later yesterday I got a text from a close well-informed mate that made my heart skip a beat. Another bidder, but not just any old bidder.
VOTV then broke the news that had every Charlton fan punching the air, and then mouthing over and over with hands clasped together “please, please.” 🙏
Peter Varney and Andrew Barclay, a 28-year old investor seem odd bedfellows, but they have been working on the bid for a couple of months, and it is fair to say Peter has taken a keen interest on our ownership situation for a hell of a lot longer.
Varney is Charlton through and through, risk managed the football club through it’s most successful modern period and knows where the skeletons are hidden. Barclay, the grandson of the famed Barclay brothers, has obvious family wealth, but I’d imagine more trust-like than liquid.
Varney pushed the bid to be made public to force the hands of ESI and Duchatelet, but plenty of barriers exist among the current cast of numpties, including Richard Murray.
According to current Tahnoon Nimer mouthpiece Marian Mihail the deal is done, and they’re waiting to reveal the name. The concern is that Nimer would sell to anyone that means Southall is left with nothing. That potentially would not be the best deal for Charlton or it’s fans.
This soap opera is about to become a daily series. But we all sincerely hope that Peter Varney becomes a key character.
Chicago Addick 
Varney to late club sold announcement next week
EFL are still investigating the January take-over and should declare the deal void as Southall and Nimer are obviously ‘duds’. Would a deal by NImer be valid in these circumstances?
Surely the EFL should be commenting on events. But as we know they are totally incompetent and not fit for purpose.
I did some googling last night to find out a bit more about Fernando Corte-Real and discovered nothing that made me think he had the nous and contacts, the stuff about five year plans seemed to be a cut’npaste off an MBA business course. I suspect that he’s not the money man but a front, if so, but for who? Hmmm…
Then we have the Andrew Barclay/Pete Varney consortium, which is intriguing, Andrew B seems to be leveraging Reg’s contacts and experience quite sensibly. However there are one or two snags, the first is that the money that Andrew B has will almost certainly come from a family trust and therefore won’t all be his. Has he personally got the cash to buy the club, the freeholds, run it at a loss etc? The second is that Andrew Barclay is in a spot of legal bother having got involved in a family dispute. He’s a named defendant in a bugging case relating to the sale of the Ritz. Private Eye has been reporting on this for sometime, the Graun report below is a reasonably succinct summing up of the case:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/06/frederick-barclays-nephews-taped-1000-of-his-conversations
I suppose all’s well as long as doesn’t get disinherited or something and can avoid any jail sentences that may come his way.
This is Charlton though, so nothing is straightforward.