Please find below the minutes from the CTSA AGM held on November 22, 2018.

Board: Sam Jordan, Chris Laker, Andy Tester, Steve Leake, David Leake, Simon Smith

• Chair’s report
• Fans’ Rep report
• Treasurer’s report
• AOB

Fan question: There was a report published in Turkey in 2011 regarding match fixing. Erdem Konyar was mentioned within this report to have been found guilty. Are the CTSA aware of this?

Board response: EK is a figure we believe is involved in running the football club. We were assured by Selim that EK is just an advisor. However, we have requested a meeting with the club to investigate this. The meeting will take place tomorrow (Nov 23, 2018).

Incidentally there are only three directors listed at Companies House. Erdem is not listed.

Fan: Funnily enough I did a search on Google and found Erdem listed as a football agent. I found him linked to Emenike. I’m a bit concerned.

Board: Emenike is the player concerned in the match fixing but was found to be innocent. Erdem has been mentioned by players but we will obviously give the club the benefit of the doubt, but questions need to be asked.

Fan: There’s talk of a 10-year plan but we don’t really know what the owners are about.

Going back to Erdem, if he’s involved in transfers or the ongoing running of the club then it’s not right. If he’s banned that is.

Do we know how much money Ziya is putting into the club?

Board: We did ask that. We know the playing budget has increased substantially.

Board: We think about £700,000 a year has been going into the club to keep it running.

Board: The club are actively looking to cut costs off the pitch.

Board: One thing the club is really passionate about is gaining a new training ground. So if anyone knows of any land that could possibly be used please advise.

Fan: To get an FA grant, the club required a 25-year lease from the council. Due to previous financial difficulty, the club could not get a lease for more than 5 years.

Board: For us the training ground is more important than investing in the stadium. But we appreciate that the costs are huge. We do know the club are working really hard. We know that the club could acquire a training ground in the London area tomorrow but quite rightly the club want a training ground locally.

Fan: Do we know anything about the U23 side?

Board: They are based in the London area. They don’t play in a league, they play friendlies. It’s not really an academy and it doesn’t cost the club any money.

Fan: Will we be doing the Festival of Football again?

Board: Yes, absolutely. This year we will plan it earlier and hope to offer food.

Fan: Shirts for schools was a good initiative.

Board: Yes, it was great. And has been very well received. As a board, we feel that this would be better offered to 7/8 year olds rather than 4/5 year olds in order to increase the fanbase.

Fan: You were talking about the Rollover etc not being supported as well as hoped. But as you haven’t got a ‘presence’ on a match day maybe that’s why? A lot of relatively new fans probably haven’t heard of the CTSA. I know you have a presence in the programme but so many people don’t use social media etc. You need a public face on a match day.

The problem is back in the day when the CTSA used to run the travel you used to have a face for the public every two weeks.

Board: We approached GH Travel earlier in the year about running the travel alongside the CTSA but the offer was declined. As a board we will consider how we can reach out to the fanbase more.