NOW UPDATED: The relationship between the Peterborough United owners has changed, but 'it won't affect the club,' Bond issue latest and the rumour regarding the potential sale of the club

The regulations Posh have allegedly breached concern ‘the ratification of senior appointments by the Football League prior to them beginning their duties and whether or not there is any reason the person appointed should be disqualified from holding their role.’

According to rule 2.5.1, someone wanting to become a ‘relevant person’ at a football club must submit a duly-completed declaration to the EFL.

As per rule 2.6, the person involved can not be considered a ‘relevant person’ until the club has received confirmation from the EFL that they’re not subject to any disqualifying condition.

EFL allegations

Paton was known to have started work at the Weston Homes Stadium well before he was formally unveiled for reasons that have never been disclosed. His absence from the club from May was also never properly explained with the using the words ‘leave of absence’ used as recently as Tuesday when the PT met briefly with co-owner Dr Jason Neale and interim CEO Leighton MItchell before the EFL Trophy clash with Spurs at London Road.

To be fair to Posh they have been operating in a legal minefield, and to some extent they still are. The co-owners conducted the CEO interviews, but they have not been charged individually by the EFL and there has never been any discussion of any charges.

Mr Paton and Mr Mitchell were both interviewed for the CEO job with the latter subsequently taken on as Operations Manager after impressing at interview.

Mr Mitchell spent 20 years working at Southampton FC, mainly in merchandise, licensing and commercial,, before operating as a consultant in rugby union and cricket before joining Posh. He wil continue as Posh CEO while the Paton enquiries continue, while former long-serving CEO Bob Symns is still helping out as and when needed.

Mr Paton’s previous football experience was a brief stint at Blackpool during the period after the club came out of receivership in 2019.

Mr Paton oversaw a number of commercial deals before the club was eventually sold later that summer when he left Bloomfield Road.

The PT met with Mr Mitchell and DR Neale before the EFL charge was presented to the club. They were limited in what they could say, and there were time constraints, but they did answer questions regarding the use of the £2.5milion raised through a Bond scheme and rumours of a falling out between owners Dr Neale, chairman Darragh MacAnthony and Stewart Thompson.

It now appears the relationship between the two Canadian-based businessmen, Mr Thompson and Dr Neale, has changed. Dr Neale is no longer involved with OKR (Old Kent Road) Financial, a company he founded with Mr Thompson and who are understood to have helped organise the funding to purchase the current Posh stadium back from Peterborough City Council. The stadium and some adjoining land was bought by London Road Peterborough Properties Ltd – a company owned by the three co-owners – in March 2021. Dr Neale remains involved with that company and insists the change in circumstances at OKR will not affect the club.

Stadium purchase

THE OWNERS

There have been rumours swirling around the internet for weeks about a fall-out between the club’s three owners, that they had stopped talking to each other, that the club was up for sale, that Dr Neale and Mr Thompson, business colleagues for decades, had even stopped following each other on Twitter!

Chairman Darragh MacAnthony touched on the rumours in the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast urging fans to ‘stop discussing things they know nothing about’ and referencing a still busy WhatsApp group between the ownership. He knew nothing about the ‘falling out’ rumours until Mr Thompson told him about them recently. Mr MacAnthony did not know whether or not his fellow owners had stopped following each other on Twitter. ‘You’d have to ask them,” Mr MacAnthony said.

Hard Truth podcast

However before the podcast was broadcast Dr Neale said: “There is no problem within the ownership. We are in constant contact. We remain approachable. There cannot be a more visible and approachable chairman in the country than Darragh. Myself and Stewart interact with fans on social media all the time.

"The club is not up for sale either.”

And today Dr Neale added: “I resigned from OKR to pursue other opportunities, but it won’t affect the football club. We have to remain professional and all three owners continue to work together for the club.”

THE BOND

The club’s Bond scheme was a roaring success reaching its target of £2.5 million in just eight days.

Bond success

Initially the aim was to raise £1.5 million to help create a swish new sports bar at the ground and to erect a safe standing area at the London Road End of the stadium.

That total was passed in six days by investors who pre-registered for the bond and opening the offer up to everyone quickly secured another million.

The safe standing area has now been completed after an initial glitch, but the sports bar is unlikely to be seen this season. Mr Thompson recently issued a statement urging Peterborough City Council to re-start talks re the new stadium after both parties had become distracted by other business including elections and a Championship relegation battle.

Thompson offer

Mr Paton, whose situation has had an effect on progress in many areas of the club, was keen on the sports bar to open to co-incide with the first intake of students at city’s new university this month. The bar would have replaced the current ‘Venue’ used by fans before a game.

Mr Mitchell said: “There are issues with the proposed bar. We are dealing with a part of the stadium that is very old. There is an absestos issue and if we started the work now our fans would have nowhere to meet before a match. It’s unlikely it will be open for this season.

"The safe standing was a difficult project, but we are happy with the final outcome. We were the first club in the country to turn a terrace into a safe standing area. There was a teething problem and the capacity dropped from 2,177 to 1,400, but it is at 1,900 now and will be at full capacity in the next week or so.”

Dr Neale aded: "The money raised by the Bond is allocated. We haven’t had the resources, in terms of staff and time, to do more than the safe standing area which was introduced at a sgnificant cost. We had to prioritise the safe standing over the bar and the stadium as there was a chance the terrace would have been closed for this season if the work hadn’t been completed.

“We had to make a decision in February before we knew what league we would be playing in. We would have had to make that same decision every February.”

If Posh had avoided relegation from the Championship they would not have been able to use the London Road terrace as second tier grounds have to be all-seater. They had been given a year’s grace to keep the terrace open last season because of complications caused by Covid.