Assem Allam speaks

David Burns: Do you still feel that duty towards the club?

Assem Allam: When I decided to buy the club it was to protect it from winding up. There was a winding-up order from the High Court in London and we would have been relegated to League One and in League Two and so on. I’m not a football man but I thought I have a duty to do something if I can to protect the club for the community. Nothing will distract my attention from this. We had one potential interest, we agreed a price, and I said how much are you going to put into the club? They said ‘that’s it’. I said sorry, no, I need the future of the club here as I’m a local man. I don’t want, after all of these years, all what I’ve done, to see the club not able to survive. I could have sold it and got my money but I refused, we refused it.

DB: Was this the deal that you had hoped to conclude before Christmas with a consortium led by Paul Duffen?

AA: No, that was another one, not this one.

DB: Who were they, Assem?

AA: It’s confidential as you know.

DB: So where are you at now with the sale of the club? Is it still for sale?

AA: Paul Duffen knows it’s not working. The money is not there.

DB: So where does that leave you and the football club then?

AA: I said before, if we don’t sell the club before the window, we would wait until the summer as we need to spend money during the window. I don’t want to risk a transitional period, the buyer, not doing something in this window. When you spend during the window, the price changes.

DB: Is the club still for sale then?

AA: Yes, of course, it is for sale. The fans say ‘Out means out!’ This is a democratic country. If I want to give you a present, would I force you to have it? I made it a present, not gaining or losing £1 that is a present for the community? If you are saying ‘No thank you’ then I must respect that.



To this day, I’m not a football fan, I’m a businessman and that is why the club moved from winding-up order. Do you know that we broke the record in English football? Under two-and-a-half years from the winding up order, to automatic promotion to the Premier League, the FA Cup final, to playing in Europe. Then they want me to be out and I have to respect this, and I do it.

DB: So what is the stumbling block? You’ve been trying for a while to sell it. Is it too expensive? Are you asking for too much money?

AA: We’re not asking for too much money at all. We’re not looking to make £1 profit. We’re not looking to make a loss either as we have worked very hard. Do you know that Ehab and I, for eight years, have not made £1 in salary, wages or directors fees? Absolutely nothing.

DB: People think you have made millions from this football club.

AA: (Laughs) They can think what they like. The accounts are there and they can look at everything. We’ve spent £88m from my business here, money lent to the club to achieve what he have. There’s not many people around the world that don’t know Hull City or Hull Tigers. That is a massive achievement and we saved the club from relegation. We moved the club to being a profitable one. The club remains profitable, we made money the previous two years. We corrected that and it started to make money.



DB: The fans want to know, Assem, where is the money going? Is it going back into the business, is it paying debt?

AA: It is partly repaying the debt. There is a difference between asking for £88m and asking for £50m. When you ask for £50m the more people are interested, especially when you are not in the Premier League. You can get £80m-£90m which we nearly had in the Premier League. We actually had this. You’d never sell in the Championship for £88m. So we reduced this to £50m.

DB: Is that the level of debt now that is owed to you by the club?

AA: It’s £50m as of today.

DB: Is that the asking price?

AA: Yes, the lower the loan the lower the asking price. I don’t want to make money out of it. If you have more money, pay me the debt and keep the rest to improve the squad.



DB: Do you think you’ll sell it as it’s been on the market for a few years now. Various people have had a look at it and the deal has not happened. Do you have to accept the fact that you won’t sell it?

AA: No, everything is sell-able for a price.

DB: Do you maybe need to drop the price and take a hit on it?

AA: Yes, but I don’t look forward to that as it’s not only the loan. It’s a hard life for Ehab and I over eight years without any remuneration. The council pay not £1 for Ehab or myself. How many clubs will do that? Ehab is chief executive, free of charge, for eight and a half years.

DB: So how do you sell it then?

AA: We had a case before, the Chinese people, who were interested and they had the money. Then the fans when they threw the balls during the game that killed the deal. What they said is during the process ‘We know what you have done for this city and the club and that’s something we will never match. But if that’s what you get in return, what about us?’ One day, when things are not that well. They thought we have militant fans to stop the game from being played when throwing the balls. Every club has militant fans around the world. It’s always a minority and you’ll always have that. It scared them at the time but they have the money.

DB: The membership scheme seemed to draw criticism and gates fell off. Are you going to look at the membership scheme again? Is there a way of making it more palatable or more attractive?

AA: We had many meetings with the representatives of supporters. I made the point to attend. Ehab attended as well. We had a couple of meetings (that) went well until the head of the Supporters Trust (Geoff Bielby)… I made the point that we offered high respect to the representatives. I respect the fans, they are my customers. The meeting in the chairman’s suite, with food and drinks, and we were doing well.

The members will tell you. One day after the meeting, having had my drinks and my food, (Bielby) stood up and said ‘Before I go we’ve got a message for you.’ We opened the plastic carrier and there was two scarves. ‘Allam out’. He came to my chairman’s suite, I showed respect, offering drinks and food and then then he gave me two scarves, one for myself and one for Ehab.

That’s it. No more. I don’t attend. I have qualified managers to attend the meetings. Ehab and I don’t attend because I followed what he said, Allam out. I won’t accept this. Name one person who would accept this.

DB: I’m sure Geoff would accept this was an error of judgement. Is there no way back?

AA: Someone of his experience, it is not an error of judgement.

DB: Do you think the club will be sold in the summer? Would you expect to be selling a Premier League club or a Championship club?

AA: I would hope it is Premier League, of course. There is someone talking to us now. So I hope something materialises. It takes time. We have a history of militant fans and it does not help. What’s done better now is the relations with the Council, that’s back to normal. We had three members of the Council loudly against us for no reason. The three are out of it.

DB: The relationship with the Council is better now?

AA: It is very good actually. I always had a good relationship with Steve Brady, the leader of the Council, and with many members of the Council. There are 57 councillors. When three of them are against you for one reason or another, who cares? There was 54 good councillors.

DB: You’ve said that you’re talking to somebody, is someone showing a serious interest in buying the club now?

AA: I don’t know how serious, it’s too early. But we should be having a meeting in 10-14 days.

DB: Is this a new party?

AA: Yes.

DB: Has Paul Duffen gone completely off the scene?

AA: Oh yes.

DB: Presumably didn’t come through with the funds?

AA: Yes.

 

Wow.

 

No mention of the reason for not selling when in the premier league then , presumably because he couldn't blame that on the fans

 

How many meetings did he attend?

 

He’s a deluded **** & should have been told so.

Given free reign by “on the payroll” Burns to lie, lie & bullshit.

Every time the RIP thread shows a new post I find new optimism but it’s never him.

I hate them both. ****s.

 

Hull Tigers are now known around the world. The deluded **** living in a fantasy world.

 

Burns is asking the questions we want asking and getting answers, however lurid, fantastical or ridiculous they may be. That is the best weapon those of us opposing the Allams have, in my opinion. Burns has made mistakes on this issue - as have many people - but he's done OK in this interview. Amid all the bull**** there's a lot of stuff in there we didn't know. Burns isn't there to tell him he's deluded, however true that may be.

 

Is that enough for a stadium ban?

I heard he was knocking on deaths door when the red card protest was going on. Some actually wanted the protest to stop because he was ill.

 

My head hurts.

 

There’s a difference between asking questions & challenging the answers. If it’s bullshit Burns should be calling it out as that.

“Really? Only met three people who were against you? How many were at the meetings? Were they all in favour of your ideals? That’s not right is it?”

If Burns isn’t there to challenge or pull him up on delusion & bullshit then it’s propaganda & not news.

Burns sold his soul to get back in favour.

 

I’m on a self imposed one. My choice. **** him he’s a ****.

 

Ah, so the club is profitable in interview with Burnsy, yet the directors added a qualifier to the last published accounts. Not a going concern without outside monies.

Also I was unaware they had sold Allamhouse. Just think how much they would have made off the loan interest if they had kept it. Not made a penny? Pah.

 

But isn't it the job of a journalist to challenge those answers? You're right he has asked some of the questions we wanted and Allam has given an answer, but come on why not take him to task on those answers.

 

It's not even just that. He specifically said no directors fees. The accounts have shown directors fees paid to Allamhouse. Straight up lie yet again.

 

So Burns gets stuck into him how you want, Assem concludes the interview and bans RH from matches again. Which I think we could agree is a strong possibility given past events. I think you have too high an expectation of journalists on a number of levels, particularly local ones for whom the football club is the lifeblood of their employment to some extent. It's either this kind of interview or nothing at all with Assem Allam. If the past eight or so years have taught us anything, it's that. And while there's a lot of bull**** involved here - as there always is with the man - there's some stuff that is interesting to know. Do you honestly think that Assem's propaganda works on anyone anymore? People just laugh at him. There's little need to challenge him on much of what he says. Do you really think that anyone really thinks there are only three people opposing the Allams? Is it worth jeopardising the interview based on that?

Local media has got a number of things wrong over this issue - the ballot over the name change being the shining example within this - but an interview along these lines is all you're ever going to get from Assem. I repeat, it's either this or nothing at all. I'd go with this (marginally) to be honest.

 

Usual deluded waffle... The only thing I can slightly and it's only ever so slightly agree with him on is the Geoff incident! It was a stupid idiotic thing to do and just gave them the excuse they needed to stop going.

 

See above. Assem holds all the power here. He's been quiet for five years, and another five years would make no difference to him, presumably. I'm also a believer that when an enemy is talking clear nonsense, let them talk. Granted, that's not turning out too well for the world on a political basis, but in this instance all Assem has done is make himself look more ridiculous. Which is quite the feat.

 

What has he told us that we didn't know?

He has told some lies in there, but we know he's a liar. So if there is something new how do we know its not just another lie?

 

Look on the Brightside.

At least someone AA knows with a young family got to see Suarez and Rooney for a £1

 

If ge’s A journalist he should do his job & not offer a platform for propaganda on a publicly funded media platform.

Better news would have been to announce they had an opportunity to interview Allam but declined because he insisted on staged questions & an agreement that no answers would be challanged.

They could have shown some respect to their listeners & less to Allam. Maybe a little self respect too.