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Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: coventryrover on June 22, 2025, 09:13:23 pm

Title: One direction failed takeover
Post by: coventryrover on June 22, 2025, 09:13:23 pm
Interesting

EFL club takeover bid collapsed when world-famous superstar failed 'fit and proper' ownership test | talkSPORT https://share.google/G3ckOxidYIvS7Aaj3
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: 5minstogo on June 22, 2025, 09:18:49 pm
All very bizarre at the time. Two diehard Rovers fans with plenty of cash asking for donations to help buy the club. Probably best it didn't happen
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: donnyallday on June 22, 2025, 09:41:34 pm
Didn't Louis say something along the line of he'd been mislead after the collapse
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: 5minstogo on June 22, 2025, 10:19:47 pm
Didn't Louis say something along the line of he'd been mislead after the collapse

Yeah all in the article but then has he done anything since?
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: RobTheRover on June 22, 2025, 10:25:45 pm
That article is riddled with half truths and inaccuracies. FLJs at their very best.

Louis had a very lucky escape.

And the photo caption "Doncaster may have gone on a different path if the takeover had gone through" is very very true. Thank God we took the path we did.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: essexrover on June 22, 2025, 10:47:45 pm
Not just because of this article but, imho Talksport is bloody awful !
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: DonnyBazR0ver on June 23, 2025, 09:01:51 am
Kevin Phelan again. Say no more.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: roversdude on June 23, 2025, 09:29:33 am
Bloody hell was that really 11 years ago
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Upton Rover on June 23, 2025, 10:47:49 am
We would have been a Bury if they had succeeded in their mission to take over us
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: keyser_soze on June 23, 2025, 11:02:24 pm
Louis was on Soccer Aid last weekend. Sporting 28 that was his shirt number when he ‘signed’ for us and a few Donny shirts on the crowd. I wonder if we still sell many shirts to 1D fans? There seemed to be lots there judging from the screams but there average age must be rising these days.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Pinter777 on June 23, 2025, 11:02:54 pm
Kevin’s secret money man from Belize…turned out to be false…still I do wonder who Willie got to fund £55million into his project ….
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: In the box on June 24, 2025, 08:16:38 am
Interesting

EFL club takeover bid collapsed when world-famous superstar failed 'fit and proper' ownership test | talkSPORT https://share.google/G3ckOxidYIvS7Aaj3
Why… If two very rich persons wanted to buy the club did they need crowd funding  ..
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: DonnyBazR0ver on June 24, 2025, 08:58:17 am
Plus, let's not forget the role Simon Cowell had in this when he reminded Ryan and Phelan, he owned One Directions image rights. All the T Shirts, mugs etc etc that were promised to all the Crowdfunder contributors would have been useless.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Glyn_Wigley on June 24, 2025, 11:58:54 am
Interesting

EFL club takeover bid collapsed when world-famous superstar failed 'fit and proper' ownership test | talkSPORT https://share.google/G3ckOxidYIvS7Aaj3
Why… If two very rich persons wanted to buy the club did they need crowd funding  ..

Because they wanted to buy it with other peoples' money.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: BobG on June 24, 2025, 12:32:54 pm
My understanding was that JR had nowhere near enough money of his own. Don't know about Louis but I understood JR had no other option at the time. It's a feasible argument. John didn't make a huge amount from selling Transform. Nice, but not massive. After funding the Rovers for half a dozen years he'd have spent quite a chunk of his Transform money. But we're all just speculating anyway.

BobG
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: DearneValleyRover on June 24, 2025, 02:42:53 pm
My understanding was that JR had nowhere near enough money of his own. Don't know about Louis but I understood JR had no other option at the time. It's a feasible argument. John didn't make a huge amount from selling Transform. Nice, but not massive. After funding the Rovers for half a dozen years he'd have spent quite a chunk of his Transform money. But we're all just speculating anyway.

BobG

There’s quite a bit of truth in that Bob although the role of Louis was more of an enticement for the crowdfunding than he himself putting funds in.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Bentley Bullet on June 24, 2025, 03:07:22 pm
As far as I can see, JR resuscitated the club, not only keeping it alive but also making it healthier than it had ever been.

I think I'm right in saying if he hadn't persuaded TB and DW to join the board, we wouldn't have achieved Championship football, and probably wouldn't be as high up on the league ladder as we are now. I understand that JR contributed the same amount of finance as TB and DW, despite being far less wealthy, and his concern was that all that investment would have been worthless if the club returned to the fourth tier without similar investment.

......  Which it did, before TB took over from Blunt and invested more cash into the club.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: BobG on June 24, 2025, 10:47:24 pm
I don't  get the relevance this has to the point under discussion of 'Why did two rich blokes need to use crowd funding?'

BobG
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Bentley Bullet on June 24, 2025, 10:52:16 pm
Maybe being "rich" doesn't mean you have enough available cash at a particular time?
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Glyn_Wigley on June 25, 2025, 10:42:10 am
If they couldn't liquify enough of their assets in the months that they had before the deadline, how the hell would running costs have been paid afterwards?
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: TheFunk on June 25, 2025, 11:20:24 am
Wasn't it the same Irish mob behind it as the previous attempt. JR and Louis were just the front men and when the Irish pulled the plug they were stuck without proof of funds to finance day to day running costs.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: silent majority on June 25, 2025, 12:21:16 pm
Wasn't it the same Irish mob behind it as the previous attempt. JR and Louis were just the front men and when the Irish pulled the plug they were stuck without proof of funds to finance day to day running costs.

Mostly correct.

There was no One Direction takeover, just a lot of subterfuge.
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: Pinter777 on June 25, 2025, 09:43:17 pm
If it was O’Brien, why didn’t he buy the club years ago when the value was less? Why wait and pay more?
Title: Re: One direction failed takeover
Post by: BobG on June 26, 2025, 02:01:33 pm
No factual knowledge at all Pinter. But dealing with Firestarter Richardson, as O'Brien would have had to do, was never the simplest of things to do....

BobG