Planet Swans ArchivesIn a statement released today, Ekland said “I did this because I wanted to support the club. I want the club to make its way back to the premiership and glory. I tried to find a business solution with capacity to support the club over a longer period of time. I found one.
What I did not realise was that I would get the fans against me and not with me as I had thought. Let be that a lot of untruthful rumours have been spred about me and that I have been criticised for behaviour I have not conducted.
I have even been accused of demanding the board to step down. But I had hoped for some understanding and even support. Instead I have been abused by the fans, asked to go to funny places, to stick it somewhere and told that “we don´t want you”.
I have been labelled as “someone who does anything for profit only”, accused of not thinking of the club but of money and fame and I have been compared with people I do not know but who obviously have deserved a bad reputation in Swansea.
Even people I know have been treated very badly. Why? Well, I have had enough. The Morfa stadium believe it or not is not the only project in the western world but it is situated in Swansea and is closely connected with the club.
Maybe I was naive, but materializing the Morfa stadium for great Swansea football with some good business involved to be able to support the club was why I focused on finding investors to carry this project through in Swansea.
Now I know that you do not want me at the Morfa and I would never go against the fans so I pull out. I can only say that I have never met this kind of behaviour on the North Bank where I found a lot of friends and I am still a very honest supporter of the club (I will not use the word devoted) and I will join you all Swansea fans in waiting for the Morfa to be built and the next investor who is willing to fund the club to turn up.”
Ever since the newspaper articles were first published last week, Ekland has been met with severe opposition from the fans who picked up on his points that his investment in the club was dependent on him being allowed to take on the Morfa project. Ekland himself met with the council last week, another move which drew criticism from the fans who claimed that he should have made contact with the current board of directors first.
Whatever the wrongs or rights of Ekland’s offer it appears to me that maybe he did go the wrong way about things and now we will never know whether the potential of him coming on board would have benefited the football club.
It is only natural that the fans view anyone with suspicion especially those who want control of a project that has been in the making for over 20 years. There is a big commercial gain to be had from the Morfa stadium and with so many in the past wanting control but not interested in the football club then maybe it was almost guaranteed that things would head this way. In the current poll on this site, the majority of fans remained undecided after Ekland’s original statements and if he wanted a cross section of the fans then maybe he should have looked at this?
I don’t necessarily go with the fact that the fan’s criticism is the main reason for pulling out – it was to be expected that he was not to be welcomed with open arms as a knight in shining armour – and anyone with a serious belief that they could help the football club would work to try and win over the fans? Even Petty gave that one a shot (with disastorous consequences)
But whichever way you look at it, the club will not get investment from Ekland and the Morfa may or may not go ahead in the future months. Ekland is a fan and I expect to see him on the North Bank someday following his love of the club?
