'27 Campaign' issues open letter to Farhad Moshiri

15/07/2022 32comments  |  Jump to last

The protest group, The 27 Campaign, has published an open letter to Everton's majority shareholder calling on him and the club's Board of Directors to be far more transparent with their plans for the club and criticised him for a lack of change in the running of the club.

Started last year amid mounting discontent over the running of the club, the appointment as manager of Rafael Benitez and the apparent restrictions on then-Director of Football, Marcel Brands's ability to oversee all parts of the football operations at Everton, the campaign has been leading calls for greater clarity around Moshiri's plans for the Blues.

They are also demanding change at boardroom level where they say a lack of top-level business acumen is stifling the club's ability to progress, particularly commercially.

Dear Mr Moshiri,

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Since December of last year, the 27 Campaign has respectfully requested that you Listen, Engage and Act with regards to many fans' concerns as to the running of our club.

Along with all Evertonians, we recognised the need to support the club as the relegation threat increased last season. As acknowledged extensively by the manager Frank Lampard & our team, yet only briefly by yourself in your open letter of the 8th June, the support and actions of the fans contributed enormously to our Premier League survival.

When news broke of a possible takeover, the 27 Campaign delayed sending a reply to your open letter in the belief that a takeover was the best outcome for you and the club.

However, we have to ask you to address the fans as to your plans regarding the ownership of the club, the management of the club and how it solves the obvious deficiencies of last season and recent years.

Belatedly football is waking up to the idea that fans are the true custodians of their clubs. More importantly and specifically, the actions of Everton fans at the end of last season prove beyond doubt our role in helping determine the club's future.

We have to be direct with you and say that you and your board's response to the fans is inadequate and shows a lack of respect. The 27 Campaign has publicly asked that you Listen, Engage and Act but has had no response or acknowledgement from you.

This cannot continue. Whilst all Evertonians will continue to back Frank Lampard and the team to the hilt, we must demand more from you and we will highlight your lack of engagement and the continued poor management of the club in the run up to the new season.

Enough is enough Mr Moshiri, respond, explain the possible change of ownership, your plans for the club, the changes to the running of the club that is desperately needed. Do not reject the pleas from those fans who wish for a better football club, one consistent with our club motto, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Yours Sincerely,

The 27 Campaign

 

Reader Comments (32)

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Barry Hesketh
1 Posted 15/07/2022 at
The 27 Campaign said they are issuing an embargoed letter to the media at 9 am today. I assume it's not a direct response to Moshiri's open letter, but perhaps the owner's letter was a direct response to the 27 Campaign?

Tony Shelby
2 Posted 15/07/2022 at
The 27 Campaign needs to learn the importance of commas.
Tony Abrahams
3 Posted 15/07/2022 at
I preferred the briefer letter that was on another thread that was sent to Moshiri.

But much more importantly, imo, I just hope the different supporters groups can come together and unite, because everyone wants the same thing for our football club right now.

Michael Kenrick
4 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Tony, I think you might have read the press release that presaged the letter, rather than the 27 Campaign letter itself.

Although gawd knows why on earth the longer letter had to be 'embargoed' until exactly 9:00 am this morning. What utter pomposity and self-aggrandisement that signals.

And as it is, it's a long-delayed response to Moshiri's previous letter to the fans, where he apologizes for the mistakes. This is not a response to the latest missive where Moshiri claims the club is not for sale.

And as for your old hobby-horse about unity, just look at the incredible disunity on the thread about Moshiri's latest letter. The responses of this small cadre of fans could not possibly span a greater breadth of diversity if we each tried to me be more distant from each other's viewpoints, interpretations, and yes, conspiracy theories about what is or isn't going on.

The huge irony being that this follows an attempt by the club to be more open and transparent with the fans... and yet just look at the reaction.

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts
5 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Will they rename it the 28 Campaign this time next year?
Brian Murray
6 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Phil, add another ten on that until proper action is taken.
Barry Rathbone
8 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Genuine question.

Are any sizeable footy clubs run successfully via fan involvement?

David White
9 Posted 15/07/2022 at
I just hope Moshiri now has realised, if he's going to stay and find investment for the stadium and the team, he needs to just stick to the background. He's an accountant, not a DoF.

The stadium & finding new income streams should be his department. Find the money, give it to the football people, Frank & Kev, to use as they see fit. Keep your nose out.

This is his last shot really; if he fucks the relationship with this DoF and manager, I think the last of the fans who still give him a chance will turn on him and, when all are united against an owner, it's time up.

I don't think he's quite there yet due to the new stadium. That's the only thing we Evertonians are clinging to with his regime.

Let's be honest: we all thought we had hit the jackpot with this guy. Willing to pump money into our club, willing to develop a new stadium. Who's to say another owner will be any better?

It's not who the owner of a successful business is, it's the people running the business who make it a success.

Why can't he just head-hunt some top-notch CEO, pay them a pittance compared to the money he's pissed away, and let them do what they're good at?

Denise Barrett-Baxendale has shown she's not the answer. More than anyone, I think she is the one who needs replacing. Ring a delta... get her to fuck!!

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts
10 Posted 15/07/2022 at
David - no! That is what he should not do. He has sat in the background for the last 6 years and let Bill and Denise run the show.

If he was a mill owner and the people in charge were wasting his money, he would be in there knocking heads together, showing people the door, and getting the right people in to manage. That is what he does not seem to have done. He needs to show the same ruthlessness that made him a billionaire in running this club.

And if he was a mill owner, he would not be telling them what yarn to put on the machine but making sure the person responsible for running the factory was responsible for finding the supervisors who knew how to find the staff to run the mill right.

Christine Foster
11 Posted 15/07/2022 at
One could be forgiven to believe that, given my obvious distrust of Bill Kenwright, borne of many years due to the way he has soured the relationship of fans in his tenure of this great club, that it would naturally follow that I would cast Moshiri in the same light. But alas I don't.

His achingly bad decisions on leaving Kenwright in charge and then furthermore his disastrous alleged personal involvement in manager and player recruitment, are offset by his commitment and his money, to bring better days, a better stadium and success to the club and its supporters.

Like the curate's egg, it's equally good and bad... but, if he is to continue, he has to learn from his mistakes and change those he trusted because they are not his friends. He needs to ensure change is made in the total recomposition of the board and its chairman.

If nothing else, he has to understand that the relationship and performance of the board has critically undermined the top flight survival of this club and – if it were not for the massive show of team support by supporters – we could have very easily slid to oblivion.

Moshiri is now not merely having to deal with the perception of failure that has existed for so long, but the actual consequences of misplaced trust, poor leadership and fragmented management of the club. As owner, he has the need to protect the club and indeed his own vast investment, from the incompetence that almost ruined us.

The rot has to be stopped not just at a team level but at the senior management level too. He may respect board members but the truth is, until the board is led by those with more professional expertise and accountability, the hoped-for improvements in performance, trust and competence will elude him.

In doing so, it brings rightly into question his own involvement in the club. It's reaching watersheds...

Change the board – you know it makes sense.

Brian Wilkinson
12 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Well said, Christine.
David White
13 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Phil 10.

I said he needs to get rid of Denise Barrett-Baxendale. He/We need a top class CEO. He's spent millions on shit players. £20-odd million on Tosun, for example. Wouldn't you rather he spent that kind of money on a proper CEO with a proven track record?

He's either got to front the money and let the people who he hires do their jobs, or do it himself and fall on his sword if he fucks it.

Because now he's hiring people, interfering, then sacking them, all the while the CEO who should be overseeing it all seems to be getting off scot-free

All the other appointments will be meaningless if direction from the top of the business is not good enough.

Jeff Armstrong
14 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Moshiri is now realising that the fans know better, far better than the grey lizard that is Bill bullshit Kenwright.
Damn you Moshiri, it’s taken 6 years and £500 million quid for you to accept that Kenwright is a puppeteer.
Tony Abrahams
15 Posted 15/07/2022 at
If you think that this is Moshiri being open, Michael, that's definitely a different viewpoint to mine, mate.

We never heard a thing out of the man's mouth whilst fighting relegation, we never heard a thing from the man, until his spokesman said the deal was off with Kenyon's group, and now he's suddenly told us that Everton are not for sale, then this now means the club is trying to be open and transparent?

The only irony I can see is that a former accountant has run into massive difficulties because of the way he's allowed the club to be run financially, and it's now back to square one, because we have now got another owner who's looking for investment, once again.

David White
16 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Christine 11... your post is spot on.

Wish I had your wordsmithery!

Mike Gaynes
17 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Tony, everything is relative, mate. Moshiri has never communicated to the public in his entire life. By his standards, two letters to the supporters and a Sky Sports interview, all within a six-month time frame, constitutes an absolute explosion of openness.

As I mentioned in the other thread, his past business career has been entirely under the public radar, and he personally likes his privacy, so he never had any reason to consider otherwise. Now he is learning what he has to do.

James Flynn
18 Posted 15/07/2022 at
I have no problem seeing the back of Kenwright. Have said so for over a dozen years.

But on the football side, managers and players, the problem is Moshiri himself, not Kenwright.

Between Moyes and Roberto under Kenwright, they ran the show on the football side. Both complimented old Bill on his complete support.

Over his 6 years as owner, Moshiri's first two DoFs "resigned". Including Roberto, Moshiri (not Bill) had 7 managers. He's fired 5, had to let one leave contractually in Ancelloti, with Lampard his 7th and current.

Where he HAS spent around 500 million in the player market over that time, his record is "spotty" at best. Which also describes his managerial appointments (If not worse). Also cut loose two Kenright faves, Ferguson and Unsworth. Think he asked Kenright's permission? Me neither.

He's building us a stadium.

So, over these 6 years, Everton's been Moshiri's ball to play with and he has. And is. Not Kenwright.

Kenwright is a successful, working theater impresario (still), who gets to sit in the Chairman's box at Goodison during the games.

Hear the front door to Goodison has hit Kenwright in the ass for the last time? Fine by me. But he doesn't and hasn't run anything since Moshiri took control. It's Mosh himself interfering and gumming up the works.

That's what needs to change. Though I doubt the recent "Internal Review" indicated that.

Tony Abrahams
19 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Speaking to Jim White, who used to carry on like he was a relative of Moshiri's, definitely never went under the radar, Mike, and I'm sure him and Usmanov also wrote a letter to the Arsenal fans when trying to gain more control of the Gunners.

Learning what he has to do? I hope you're correct, Mike, but I'm very cynical, and it's who he might be learning from that concerns me.

Life is definitely about looking forward though, and the one thing we all want is a great Everton team. So if Moshiri is genuinely committed, I obviously wish him all the luck in the world.

Brian Murray
20 Posted 15/07/2022 at
With the best will in the world, I'm sure Denise knows that the potential investment and scale of the area even around the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, including maybe Nelson Dock, is totally foreign to her and out of her depth.

That's nothing against her – it's a force of nature that demands the best on the planet to maximise. It would be embarrassing to her if she's still here and remotely involved in any of this. She probably never even asked for the CEO role, to be honest.

Barry Rathbone
21 Posted 15/07/2022 at
Barry Rathbone 8

Obviously none. Now do one with your daft questions. Fan representation is a meaningless sop for busy bodies and self-important blusterers.

This is simple stuff, you utter melt.

Tony Abrahams
22 Posted 16/07/2022 at
Don’t be to hard on yourself Barry, because I think you knew the answer before you posted mate, although that Spirit Of Shankly group, across the park might disagree, because it sounds like the Yanks listen to them, whenever they get something wrong!
Justin Doone
23 Posted 17/07/2022 at
As a fan, I try to stick to football and supporting the team which I will continue to do.

But I don't believe the board, the manager and coaches or the players are anywhere near best in class.

Moshiri is trying and has put his hands in his pocket but I can't fathom why he hasn't hit the reset button on the rest if the failing board.

We are far too reactive, always putting out fires and never tackling the initial problems, the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock being the exception.

Gary Jones
24 Posted 17/07/2022 at
27 Years Campaign organising a protest:

Link

Brian Murray
25 Posted 17/07/2022 at
Midday outside gods little acre on Saturday... I'll be there. Enough is Enough. Sick of all these good times.
Gary Jones
26 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Can't see anything much on here about the 27 years protest planned for Goodision this Saturday let alone a dedicated thread or push for awareness.

Maybe, just maybe, our fans' inertia is a big part of the problem.

I can already see a backlash on other forums about the need to support the team and the "bad timing" (fuck off!).

Shouting on here makes you feel better. Protesting could make a real difference.

Clive Rogers
27 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Gary, I read on here it was going to be Friday 5 August, but has been put back to September.
Danny O’Neill
28 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Gary, 9 September was the last update I read.

I do think the 27 Campaign could come out of the shadows a bit more. I know they publish on Twitter, but not everyone is a regular Twitter user. I know they published some stuff on princerupertstower.com, but without being critical, I think they could be more visible. One thing I would suggest is through articles posted on here.

And change the name to the 35 year campaign. I want trophies as much as anyone (that League Cup please), but it's 35 years since we last won the League. That should be the bar for the 9 times English League Champions.

Kim Vivian
29 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Perhaps they could rename themselves "How many more years?"
Gary Jones
30 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Clive - according to their Twitter, it is this week now:

https://twitter.com/27yearsCampaign/status/1548697610038517760?s=20&t=YAahqdOF-29l3E8vX5VtJw

Brian Wilkinson
31 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Ray, the 27 campaign group have put a message on twitter, they are converging on Goodison this Saturday 27th July, at 12 midway in regards to the board and asking for fellow Evertonians to attend.

Absolutely nothing to do with me, just passing the message on.

Tony Abrahams
32 Posted 18/07/2022 at
Maybe they feel they can't wait any longer, Brian, as this summer begins to give us the same feelings, that we got used to whilst Kenwright was our owner?

I'm not sure how Moshiri will respond to pressure, but I'm certain he won't want to see his name in the news, and it might even give others more clout when trying to purchase Everton?

I personally think Bill Kenwright finally made his biggest rick, when saying we have had some good times, and this younger generation of very passionate Evertonians, have absolutely, got no time for a man, who must also be nearing the end of his tenure?

So near, but so far, is my spiteful wish, for a man who thought success was all about delivering a new stadium for plucky little Everton, until new owners came in, with a big new brush, and finally swept him out of “our club”

Brian Wilkinson
33 Posted 19/07/2022 at
Hi Gary and Clive,

The 27 Campaign is this Saturday at 12 midday, that is the one run by the 27 Year Campaign.

The one you read about being put back until Friday 9 September is up to now still going ahead.

We decided to wait until the transfer window closed before having ours.

There is deffo one outside Goodison Park this Saturday and they are asking for any Evertonians around the area to attend if they can.


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