Charlton fans accuse EFL of time-wasting after delayed review into Roland Duchatelet’s ownership

Charlton Athletic fans have accused the EFL of weakness and time-wasting after the publication of a long-awaited ‘review’ into the club and the unpopular ownership of Roland Duchatelet.

The EFL promised Charlton fans a review of the club - initially requested by Duchatelet himself last September - but fans had heard nothing from the EFL until this week.

It was only on Tuesday evening, after the EFL had been asked by The Independent about the slow progress of the review, that the EFL got back in touch with the Charlton fans waiting for their findings. John Nagle, the EFL head of policy, wrote to fans with a 255-word note from former EFL CEO Shaun Harvey.

Harvey wrote that “the story of the breakdown in relationships at the club is a sad one” and that Duchatelet is “committed to finding a buyer for the club”. Harvey reported that he had made “representations” to Duchatelet that paying staff disputed bonuses would be a “positive gesture”. It made no reference to Duchatelet’s unusual insistence in February that the EFL should buy the club from him.

But Charlton fans were left unimpressed by the EFL’s conclusions, as well as their brevity and their lateness. CARD, the Coalition against Roland Duchatelet, said that the league was “weak” and could not stand up to owners.

“The EFL have wasted everybody’s time - the staff’s, the supporters’ trust’s, CARD’s and even Duchatelet’s,” a CARD spokesperson told The Independent.

“Their ‘review’ has added nothing to the situation and does not answer any of the questions that he posed, never mind our own concerns. Despite all the warm words from Shaun Harvey in private they have done nothing except procrastinate for nine months. All they had to do was say at the outset that investigating the situation was outside their remit, because they are nothing more than the collective voice of the clubs.

“When it comes to it they will not call out owners however badly they behave because that is who they represent. They know the truth about Duchatelet, as do the media and everyone else, but they are weak and have no intention of standing up for the integrity of the game.”

The Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) were also unimpressed with what the EFL eventually produced, pointing to how little analysis or criticism of Duchatelet there was in Shaun Harvey’s “review”.

“We are disappointed that the response we have finally received seems to make no effort to shed any light on or make any observations about why the club has experienced so much turmoil under Duchatelet's ownership and why so many long-term supporters have felt disillusioned and alienated,” said a statement on CAST’s website. “We had hoped for a slightly more incisive analysis of the conflict at the club between the owner and staff and supporters than ‘the story of the breakdown in relationships at the club is a sad one.’”

The EFL insist that they never committed to a full-scale report into Charlton.

“The EFL has now considered a number of matters in relation to the running of Charlton Athletic and has communicated its findings to the Club's owners and supporter groups as per the previous commitment to do so,” an EFL spokesman told The Independent. “The League remains in contact with the Club and will continue to provide support in regard to any change of control application alongside monitoring any further developments, offering any practical assistance that is available to us as we seek to protect the integrity and reputation of our competitions.”