Maughan threatens to resign from Knights board
IAN KIRKWOOD
23 Feb, 2011 04:00 AM
FOUNDATION Knights director Leigh Maughan said he would resign from the board if chairman Rob Tew and chief executive Steve Burraston tried to ‘‘ram through’’ the patrons’ trust funding model without putting it to members.
Maughan insisted that the patron’s trust was a loan, and he expected the model to be put to tonight’s regular monthly Knights board meeting .
‘‘I’m going to refuse to vote for it,’’ Maughan said.
‘‘It’s a prick of a deal because you wind up with a debt that has to be repaid with interest.
‘‘They can talk about different versions but the copy that I have been given, which was distributed through the board, talks about paying back the money.
‘‘If there are four or five people and each puts in half a million [dollars] or a million a year over five years that could be $20million plus interest. It’s ridiculous.’’
Maughan said the board was split on the patrons’ trust model but he feared it would get up by a slim majority - perhaps by the chairman’s casting vote – if it went to the board.
‘‘Nathan Tinkler’s a bloke worth almost a billion,’’ Maughan said.
‘‘I don’t see a bloke spending millions to get in the door of the club then not spending more money to make things worthwhile. People whose opinions I trust say I’m wise to give them some room to move. We need the bloke in the door and to jam the patrons’ trust in, just to keep him out, is extremely bad form.
‘‘If it comes to a vote tomorrow night I feel very strongly about it and I will march outside the board and become Joan of Arc. I’m not the only one, others are of the same mind.’’
Maughan said Tinkler’s reasons for wanting to back the Knights were not that important.
‘‘If he spends the money he invests as a benefactor of course he might want political favours – that’s fine by me – but we’re not involved with playing politics. If his image is lifted and he can get favours in the business world good luck to the bloke but it’s not a pay-back situation. We won’t owe him a penny but the patrons’ trust is a loan.’’
Maughan said the club was not the only party at fault in this week’s events.
He put Tinkler’s telephone call to former Knight Kade Snowdon as a ‘‘lack of experience’’. ‘‘This sort of thing goes on but coming out of the blue when the fella is just about to walk into a press conference [to announce a new deal with the Sharks] just shows a lack of experience and judgment but have no doubt it goes on.’’
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...ens-to-resign-from-knights-board/2083996.aspx#