When Simon Clegg was asked at a Supporters' Club AGM in October 2012 why fans couldn't have more direct contact with our club's owner, he replied, whilst pointing to his own head that "this is the face that you've got." It seemed a slightly bizarre, albeit accurate, thing to say and I was reminded of the scene in the Wizard of Oz, where the large, rather terrifying, disembodied face of the Wizard was revealed to be a little old man hiding behind a curtain. Marcus Evans, it seems, is operating an Oz-in-reverse strategy, the powerful figure hidden behind an apparently benign real life human being in the form of a Managing Director (or two). Marcus Evans' current face, Ian Milne, is undertaking a mini-tour of local media outlets in an effort to answer some of the many questions that we and others have been asking of the club for the last few months. He appeared on Radio Suffolk's Life's A Pitch on Saturday lunchtime, when he seemed to be floundering under some incisive questioning from TWTD's Phil Ham. He was saved by the intervention of the programme's presenter, Mark Murphy, who perhaps didn't want Milne's performance - on what is a light-hearted and fun show - to turn into a complete debacle.
Last night, Graham Blackburn interviewed Milne on his Naked Football Show on ICR. The extended edition of the show allowed the MD to be quizzed at length about many aspects of ITFC and his involvement in it. We even learned the unsurprising news that Mr Milne has been a Chelsea supporter since the 1960s. A Chelsea tractor boy, indeed - as we featured on the cover of issue 2 of Turnstile Blues.
I am grateful to Graham for asking a question on my behalf. The question, which we've asked before but not received an answer to, was:
"In what way did selling Playford Road to one of Marcus Evans' other companies and leasing it back at £40,000 per annum benefit the football club?"
The figure of £40K was taken from a BBC News report from 2013, so I imagine the figure might be even higher now.
Given the rather waffly nature of some of Mr Milne's previous answers, I was surprised that his reply was quite clear:
"It's all part of the same group and he looks at the best taxable way of investing in various of the businesses and the club is his only loss-making business, so he's got to look at various options of how to get the best value from all the group's assets including from within the club."
Mr Milne went on to say that the land would not be sold for development, although that wasn't part of my question. Basically, the club has lost this asset forever. When Marcus Evans leaves the club, Playford Road will remain in his portfolio. He can do what he likes with it: continue to lease it back to the club, sell it to the new owners, or sell it to someone else completely. My interpretation of Ian Milne's reply is that it was done for the benefit of Marcus Evans Group, not ITFC.
We can only be grateful that Portman Road is still owned by the council and is an Asset of Community Value. We know that Evans enquired about purchasing the ground some time ago. Hopefully, the local authority will never be in a position that they have to raise money by selling it.
Whatever you think of the deal, and whatever happens in the future, it looks as if this was a better deal for Marcus Evans than for Ipswich Town Football Club.
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