Gillingham Football Club’s former chairman Paul Scally says he’s ready to fight any attempt to remove him as a club director.
A vote to remove Mr Scally from the company board has been called by current Gills owner Brad Galinson but if that’s passed on Thursday night it looks set to be challenged.
More on Scally: It feels they’re trying to destroy me
In advance of the general meeting, the football club have sent shareholders a copy of representations from both Mr Scally and Gillingham FC. The former owner is adamant that the club has no right to remove him from the board.
Mr Scally was owner and chairman of the Gills up until selling his majority stake at the end of 2022 to American businessman Mr Galinson. The pair initially worked together but things turned sour, leading to the call for the former owner to be removed from the board.
Mr Scally had initially acted as a consultant but his services were terminated. The club said that “a number of matters in respect of Mr Scally’s conduct came to light which gave rise to concerns.
“These matters included, but are not limited, to his conduct as a senior member of management of the club, his treatment of club staff, and his management of club resources and assets.
“The concerns required investigation, and such process was duly undertaken.
“As a result of that process, the club arrived at the decision that Mr Scally had acted in a manner which, at the very least, breached the agreement through which he indirectly provided consultancy services to the club and, moreover, that such conduct breached his duties as a director of the club.”
The club felt that Mr Scally’s “continued involvement in the management and operations of the club, at director level, are not in the best interests of it or its members and as such it encourages all members to vote for the resolution removing him as a director.”
Mr Scally believes that he – or someone of his choosing – is entitled to remain on the club’s board while ‘Paul Scally Management Consultancy PZE’ holds 5% of the company shares. It’s understood Mr Scally has a 30% minority stake.
The football club argue that Mr Scally’s legal position is “based on a series of legal misconceptions, and which mischaracterised the nature of the arrangements by which Mr Scally remained a director of the club when ownership changed hands.”
Mr Scally, 69, claims a number of decisions were taken without proper oversight or scrutiny by the board, including the appointment of now-former manager Stephen Clemence, who the ex-owner said was given the job as head coach despite not making it onto the football board’s proposed shortlist.
Mr Scally also says he had concerns over the accuracy of the May 2023 accounts, which he claimed he didn’t get a chance to properly review.
In his submission, Mr Scally claims he was excluded from significant operation decisions, had his email account blocked, was excluded from official areas of the stadium and told staff weren’t allowed to talk to him.
Ahead of the general meeting, he warned that: “I confirm that should (GFC) Holdings be successful in its attempt to remove me as a director, the founder will immediately exercise its constitutional and contractual rights to reappoint me (or such person as the founder shall nominate) as a director of the club.
“The net result will be that a lot of time will have been wasted by me, Holdings, the club and its shareholders, causing me considerable emotional distress and necessitating Holdings, me and the club in incurring unnecessary expenditure on legal fees to achieve no net result.”
Mr Scally concludes in his submission that: “I have invested 29 years of my life in trying to enable the club to fulfil its huge potential.
“In 2022, having concluded that I had taken the club financially as far as I was able, I sold a majority stake in the club to Mr Galinson.
“I genuinely believed, based upon all of our discussion and the representations made to me by Mr Galinson, that as a custodian he could push the club to achieve its potential.
“Regrettably, I have material concerns as to the way the club is being run and his ability to do so.
“Mr Galinson convinced me to remain as a strategic part of the future of the club and our agreement sought to ensure this would remain the case.
“The proposed removal of my directorship is at odds with that and in my view is against the interests of the club, its shareholders and supporters.
“In light of the developments, since Mr Galinson assumed majority control, I believe it is critical that in accordance with the terms of the deal we agreed in 2022, I remain a director of the club in order to provide independent oversight of the club’s affair and its future, as is my right.”
Mr Scally finished by saying that he’s set up a website paulscally.co.uk where he plans to “update and comment on matters going forward.”
The vote on Thursday takes place in the club’s boardroom ahead of a fans’ forum that is set to be conducted by Brad and Shannon Galinson.
