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Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: donnyvikings on May 13, 2012, 09:39:50 am

Title: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: donnyvikings on May 13, 2012, 09:39:50 am
I have been given some information (hard copy) and verbal, about the council's sale of Rovers former home...Belle Vue. It looks like the ugly head of Ken Richardson has reared again. For the younger generation, Ken Richardson attempted to destroy our beloved team, and wipe it from existance-including setting fire to the main stand to claim on the insurance....resulting in 6 years in the Nick! Anyway, it seems that whe we were all not looking, and concentrating on staying in the league.....Mr Richardson (Westferry) bought half the Belle Vue lease off of the council. Now its up for sale (£21million) it looks like the Isle of man crook is still going to get 'his pound of flesh' out of Donny.  :thumbdown: My info looks quite clear, does anyone else have any info on this? I am considering letting the DFP look at it.....exposing Richardson  :woot:
Let us know....
 :rtid:
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: The Red Baron on May 13, 2012, 10:09:18 am
The likes of Bob G would know a lot more about this than me, but I don't believe that Westferry have anything to do with Richardson. I understand they bought the lease off Dinard (Richardson's company) although Dinard may have retained a residual interest in the land so may stand to make some benefit from the sale.

Richardson does seem to have been proved right on one thing, though. That the value of the land was much greater than the council said it was at the time- even allowing for inflation.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Mr1Croft on May 13, 2012, 11:49:54 am
Red Barron is right, Westferry was the 'irish' consortium that bought out Ken Richardson. Westferry was 'owned' by Aiden Phelan but it was Ian Green who held 96% of shares in Doncaster Rovers and was acting Chairman untill a more local community man would take the role of 'non-executive chairman' which of course turned out to be John Ryan.  All of the members of the Westferry Consortium however were all English, but the accounting firm was based in Dublin which is why they were dubbed 'Irish'.


Dinard however is the company Ken Richardson formed to control Doncaster Rovers, and during the take-over they were made legally responsible for any liability over £40,000 but a deal was finally met between Dinard and Westferry and announced 2 weeks after the consortium and JR was placed as Chairman (although at the time he owned nothing in the club and was a non-executive.)


Westferry purchased everything to do with DRFC from Richardson. Richardson's company is East Riding Sacks. Our sponsors from the 1996-97 shirt (we also wore it for the opening game of the 1998/99).


However there were problems with the inland revenue which is why when John Ryan and Peter Wetzel bought out the consortium in 1999 they did not buy the trading name "Doncaster Rovers Football club" and Patienceform LTD was formed. The trading name "Doncaster Rovers Football Club" still remains in the hands of Westferry but has always remained dormant.


I am not so sure if it is Dinard or Westferry who own half of that lease on Belle Vue but I would make a well educated guess that it belongs to Westferry.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Drover on May 13, 2012, 11:56:27 am
Hope this is not the source of the "Doncaster's favourite son to return!" rumour?  :suicide:
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: eastender on May 13, 2012, 12:33:09 pm
DRFC were purchased in August 1998 by Irish business man Denis O'Brien ( Westferry Ltd) , from Dinard Trading Ltd  for £4.5m.

JR bought the football club ( not the Belle Vue lease) for 50K from Westfery .

So it's Westferry and DMBC who own 50% each of 10 acre site.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: RoversAlias on May 13, 2012, 12:58:50 pm
Quote
For the younger generation, Ken Richardson attempted to destroy our beloved team, and wipe it from existance-including setting fire to the main stand to claim on the insurance....resulting in 6 years in the Nick!

REALLY!? Wow...I had no idea! Who is this mysterious 'Ken Richardson' figure who you speak of?

 :ermm:
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: BobG on May 13, 2012, 10:11:15 pm
I'm dreadfully sorry to say he only got something like 2-3 years in the nick. And he came out with remission for good behaviour too. There were stories at the time though that those around him hadn't all behaved so well in the nick :D

As TRB and Eastender have said, Dinard took their money and left. It's Westferry and DMBC who own it now. Don't know if Dinard have a residual interest or not but they don't own much if they do. Last time I heard, Firestarter was back in the IoM and not all that well.

Love to know where that odious little creep Weaver is now - and what he's doing. Cleaning sewers I hope.

BobG
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: RoversAlias on May 13, 2012, 10:16:00 pm
Didn't Richardson briefly take over Hyde after his prison stint, or try to at least?

As is evidence by this season, they're well over that now if he did!
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: northerncasual on May 13, 2012, 10:24:15 pm
Jr and peter wetzel bought the club name and players contracts for £1 and announced it on the pitch at farnboro cup final in 99
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: silent majority on May 14, 2012, 09:15:20 am
Hope this is not the source of the "Doncaster's favourite son to return!" rumour?  :suicide:

It's definitely not, that I can guarantee.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: DonnyOsmond on May 14, 2012, 10:14:56 am
So Westferry made a massive loss on Rovers then? Wow, sounds like these guys deserve some credit along the way.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Filo on May 14, 2012, 10:18:49 am
So Westferry made a massive loss on Rovers then? Wow, sounds like these guys deserve some credit along the way.


Not really, Westferry`s initial £4.5M investment will turn into around £10.5M on the completion of the sale of the Belle Vue site
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: donnyroversfc on May 14, 2012, 12:39:36 pm
Jelly and icecream when Richardson dies!!!
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Mr1Croft on May 14, 2012, 02:58:27 pm
So Westferry made a massive loss on Rovers then? Wow, sounds like these guys deserve some credit along the way.


Not really, Westferry`s initial £4.5M investment will turn into around £10.5M on the completion of the sale of the Belle Vue site


Along with John Ryan, Ian McMahon and the two Phelans ( I think Kevin and Steve, could be wrong, who apparently were no relation to one another) Westferry did release us from the grasps of Richardson and co. and no matter how much money they may or may not make on the sale of the Belle Vue site I will be forever grateful. £4.5 Million was too much for a club that had what 4 pros? 
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Dr Fundlekrotch on May 14, 2012, 02:59:13 pm
Westferry appeared to have been advised at the outset that they could sell the lease for development and it was only after they completed their purchase from Dinard that they discovered that no football at Belle Vue meant no lease.  They then negotiated frantically with the Council to help them with a sale and development.  So far as I am aware, the lease should have lapsed and any interest Westferry are left with is purely contractual with the Council and not through any title to the land.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: keyser_soze on May 15, 2012, 01:31:04 pm
I'm dreadfully sorry to say he only got something like 2-3 years in the nick. And he came out with remission for good behaviour too. There were stories at the time though that those around him hadn't all behaved so well in the nick :D

As TRB and Eastender have said, Dinard took their money and left. It's Westferry and DMBC who own it now. Don't know if Dinard have a residual interest or not but they don't own much if they do. Last time I heard, Firestarter was back in the IoM and not all that well.

Love to know where that odious little creep Weaver is now - and what he's doing. Cleaning sewers I hope.

BobG

Weaver did appear running another football club recently, i forget which one?
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: BobG on May 15, 2012, 10:25:45 pm
Did he???? Bloody hell. I missed that. Which one??? I just gotta go there. Be like old times shouting abuse at the horrible little git. I don't care if its in the Screwfix Division 10. I'm going. Try to remember, please!!

BobG
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: keyser_soze on May 16, 2012, 09:17:18 am
I say recently, I think the info surfaced somewhere on the Internet recently but he was long gone by then. I've a feeling it was one of the local non-league sides over Manchester way.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: VivaRovers on May 16, 2012, 10:04:08 pm
Richardson and Weaver together tried to get involved with Cheadle Town straight after Rovers, and prior to Mr Richardson's court appearance and subsequent conviction. Further details on that here in the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-nonleague-notebook-mixed-blessings-for-cheadle-town-1187658.html).

In terms of recently, Weaver is managing Cale Green, a side in the Stockport Sunday League (aka Rovers' 1997 academy), and has just steered them to the North West Sunday Champions Cup (http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/non_league/s/1493411_lee-morris-on-the-spot-as-cale-green-reclaim-their-crown).
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: BobG on May 16, 2012, 10:10:07 pm
Thank you Glen. That is some serious research. Who fancies a day out in the Stockport area early next season? Be both fun and a laugh. And revenge. Always a dish best eaten cold.

BobG
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: RoversAlias on May 16, 2012, 10:26:33 pm
Are we allowed to take offensive weapons on this trip Bob?
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: BobG on May 16, 2012, 10:38:15 pm
:):) You can take anything you like mate! Uzi, machete, RPG, Challenger tank if you like :)

BobG
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: donnyvikings on May 27, 2012, 10:12:48 am
Hi Bob G. I've read the paperwork again, and to me it looks like westferry own half, and Ken Richardson is involved somewhere along the line. We shall see. RTID
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Mark DRFC on May 27, 2012, 02:46:02 pm
:):) You can take anything you like mate! Uzi, machete, RPG, Challenger tank if you like :)

BobG

You will however still be slightly less armed than the locals ;)
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: silent majority on May 27, 2012, 04:57:04 pm
Hi Bob G. I've read the paperwork again, and to me it looks like westferry own half, and Ken Richardson is involved somewhere along the line. We shall see. RTID

Richardson is not involved at all.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Herman Hessian on May 28, 2012, 11:15:40 pm
so - just for the sake of a bit of objectivity, where would rovers be now if richardson had never got involved ?

let's see - hmmm - "celebrating" the fifteenth consecutive year in div three, grubbing about doing nothing like most of the other waste of time outfits mired down there, or do you think that cramby, darren moore, scoff and the rest would have taken rovers onwards and upwards under their own steam - as i recall, that pre-richardson team only avoided relegation by five points as it was - pretty shite by any standards other than what was to follow the next season...

say what you like about the bloke, it was his actions that directly precipitated everything good that happened to this club in the last two decades, albeit in spite of him, rather than because of him; take him out of the equation, there's no reason for john ryan to have ever got involved; i'll take five years in the conference and the subsequent "glory years" up to that first year in the championship over the endless tedium of utter insignificance that would almost certainly have been the alternative....

richardson gave this club the biggest kick up the arse it's ever had, and the consequences, for a time, were spectacular

i'll still desecrate his grave and shit in his eyesockets when he's dead, mind  ;)
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Dagenham Rover on May 28, 2012, 11:21:46 pm
you've still got a way with words   :)
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: RoversAlias on May 28, 2012, 11:23:21 pm
To avoid any confusion down the line when any potential storm erupts, are you basically saying that Ken Richardson was good for Doncaster Rovers Football Club?

Because that is a new one even for the lofty heights of this forum.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: German Rover on May 28, 2012, 11:26:24 pm
so - just for the sake of a bit of objectivity, where would rovers be now if richardson had never got involved ?

let's see - hmmm - "celebrating" the fifteenth consecutive year in div three, grubbing about doing nothing like most of the other waste of time outfits mired down there, or do you think that cramby, darren moore, scoff and the rest would have taken rovers onwards and upwards under their own steam - as i recall, that pre-richardson team only avoided relegation by five points as it was - pretty shite by any standards other than what was to follow the next season...

say what you like about the bloke, it was his actions that directly precipitated everything good that happened to this club in the last two decades, albeit in spite of him, rather than because of him; take him out of the equation, there's no reason for john ryan to have ever got involved; i'll take five years in the conference and the subsequent "glory years" up to that first year in the championship over the endless tedium of utter insignificance that would almost certainly have been the alternative....

richardson gave this club the biggest kick up the arse it's ever had, and the consequences, for a time, were spectacular

i'll still desecrate his grave and shit in his eyesockets when he's dead, mind  ;)

There was the ITV digital thing as well, we could very well have gone under from that as well
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Dagenham Rover on May 28, 2012, 11:28:22 pm
Hermans actually got a point ..........every action causes a reaction .............if the actions of Richardson had been different the reactions would have been different......................but he's still a t**t
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: keyser_soze on May 29, 2012, 09:18:40 am
Granted -  but equally if it wasn't for the ineptitude of Alan Kristiansen we would have ended up with the club disappearing into obscurity like Scarborough etc.
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: DonnyNoel on May 29, 2012, 11:27:23 am
Hermans actually got a point ..........every action causes a reaction .............if the actions of Richardson had been different the reactions would have been different......................but he's still a t**t

I've also wondered a "what if" scenario around our relegation - what would have happened had the team that won the conference in 97/98 not been granted admission to the league. Would KR still have sold the club? Would the Snods have been able to keep us up that year in Div 3? Or did we need to be relegated to buy time to regroup?
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Dagenham Rover on May 29, 2012, 12:41:07 pm
Granted -  but equally if it wasn't for the ineptitude of Alan Kristiansen we would have ended up with the club disappearing into obscurity like Scarborough etc.

Exactly, the action of dropping his mobile caused the police to find it
 now if his action had been "to put his phone safely in his pocket and zip it up" it would have caused a different reaction i.e. the police wouldn't have found it and firestarter may well not have been charged, and we slip into obscurity, but there again he might have been got just the same by a different route   :blink: 
Title: Re: Belle Vue and Westferry/Dinard
Post by: Colin C No.3 on May 30, 2012, 10:25:40 am
Granted -  but equally if it wasn't for the ineptitude of Alan Kristiansen we would have ended up with the club disappearing into obscurity like Scarborough etc.

Exactly, the action of dropping his mobile caused the police to find it
 now if his action had been "to put his phone safely in his pocket and zip it up" it would have caused a different reaction i.e. the police wouldn't have found it and firestarter may well not have been charged, and we slip into obscurity, but there again he might have been got just the same by a different route   :blink: 
I'll never forgive him for stealing my donkey & making it a laughing stock!