A company proposing to buy Rochdale AFC says it’s ‘disappointed’ after the football club announced it had entered into a ‘period of exclusivity’ with a rival bidder. They said there hasn’t been ‘an open, full, and fair process’ around the move and called for ‘a fair evaluation process for all bids’.
The Football Club LLC (TFC), a group headed by businessmen Justin Corrado and David Dwyer, signed a letter of intent to buy the Spotland club last week. It followed a crunch vote in which shareholders voted to dilute their holdings in order to create nine million new shares.
TFC are the second company to publicly reveal a bid for the National League club, after Texas-based World Soccer Holdings also signed a letter of intent. It was announced on Tuesday, however, that the club has entered a ‘period of exclusivity’ with the US firm over a potential deal.
Mr Corrado, managing partner of TFC, has now released a statement and the contents of its letter of intent in full, which says £1.6m would be offered as soon as any deal with it is agreed. Both are published on its website.
In the statement released on Tuesday, TFC said: “We were disappointed to hear today that the chairman has elected to enter a period of exclusivity without an open, full, and fair process. We believe it’s crucial for both supporters and shareholders to be fully informed about the future of their club. Given the numerous questions surrounding this issue, we want to provide as much clarity as possible based on the information available to us.”
The group said it had ‘not yet received any feedback’ on its letter of intent (LOI) from the club or ‘been given an opportunity to respond to the opposing bid’. It said club chairman, Simon Gauge, has cancelled a meeting planned for today – Wednesday.
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