How Charlton fans united and ousted the club’s unfit owner | Football

In January 2014, an unknown Belgian businessman called Roland Duchâtelet bought Charlton Athletic for £14m. With the club sitting 19th in the Championship, there was excitement among Charlton fans that, in the modern age of billionaire foreign owners, they might just be on the cusp of something great. But it wasn’t to be. Within two years, hundreds of Charlton fans were marching towards the Valley in a faux funeral procession, trailing behind a coffin that symbolised the death of the football club at the hands of its reckless owner.

To many Charlton supporters, Duchâtelet’s “regime” offers the perfect example of how not to run a football club: belligerently pursuing an unrealistic vision without any consideration for the fans until the club has been driven to ruin, both on and off the pitch.

His ambition was to incorporate Charlton into a wider network of European clubs – a model not far from what the Pozzo family have done at Watford or even City Football Group’s growing global empire. It would be a mutually beneficial, money-saving agreement, in which players would move from club to club, developing and progressing. However, Duchâtelet’s strategy underestimated the talent required to compete in the Championship. Charlton found themselves ill-equipped for the task, with poor players from mediocre teams in Duchâtelet’s network, and were soon languishing in League One.

Off the pitch, things also took a turn for the worse. Duchâtelet and his choice of CEO, 29-year-old lawyer Katrien Meire, made a series of bizarre decisions and publicity blunders, which corroded Charlton Athletic’s identity as a club. They signed new players without consulting the club’s manager; they sold star striker Yann Kermorgant as he was deemed “too old for the Championship”; they sacked managers who refused to field the players in their network; they relied on a scout with no experience in football; they installed a fans’ sofa for the supporters with the best dance moves; and, of course, they released fake footage of people “having sex” in their ground to inform fans that their pitch was available for hire.

Duchâtelet’s destruction of the club was the catalyst for a wave of fan mobilisation. Charlton supporters have a track record of defending their club. When they were exiled from their stadium in the 1990s, fans set up a political party to run in the local election and fight for their return. With Duchâtelet ruining the club, they decided to mobilise again.

Various pockets of supporters were united under the Coalition Against Roland Duchâtelet (CARD), resulting in a series of tactical protests, marches and demonstrations. The group coordinated opposition at matches to amplify their message and further project their discontent into the mainstream media.

These protests were as creative as they were determined. Whether it be the coffin with “RIP Charlton Athletic” inscribed on it, the thousands of plastic pigs that were thrown on to the pitch, or a “Taxi For Roland” that was driven all the way to Belgium. In their most ambitious protest, hundreds of Charlton fans marched through Duchâtelet’s hometown of Sint-Truiden, delivering a message in person to a man who had not even visited the club he owned for several years.

The sustained pressure worked. The message sunk in eventually and the club was put up for sale. Duchâtelet sold the club at the end of the year to East Street Investments, a consortium comprised of two English businessmen backed by Abu Dhabi money. There is relief among fans as they wave goodbye to Duchâtelet, although it is mixed with both apprehension and excitement. Having been hurt before, it’s hard for them not to be nervous.

Regardless, it looks as though things are going in the right direction. In his early communication with fans, Matt Southall – Charlton’s new chairman and the face of the consortium in charge of the club – has already shown more promise in a few days than Duchâtelet did in his entire reign.Despite the negative circumstances, the work put in by the Charlton supporters in recent years has at least showcased the potential of this passionate fanbase. The hope is now that the club’s new owners realise this promise, harness it properly and lead the club into a new era of much-needed stability and success.

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