Is This Why the Essex Senior League Are Supporting Vince McBean?

I have read, with some amusement and disbelief, the twitter exchanges between the Essex Senior League account @essexsenior and various others (mainly, but not exclusively, supporters of Clapton) concerning Vincent McBean’s club and I was particularly interested in the exchanges relating to it's actual constitution.

What is apparent that many supporters and indeed, even the Essex Senior League, have very little understanding of what the actual position is.

This is hardly surprising in the case of the former, as Mr McBean has run and collapsed a number of limited companies that purported to have been Clapton FC, since he arrived.

Some years ago, supporters wrote to the Essex Senior League asking for clarification on the legal entity that was playing in their competition as Clapton Football Club.  It was a league rule that clubs should disclose this either on their website or in the match day programme.  Needless to say, at the time, McBean’s club did neither.

The response from the ESL was less than helpful and, in essence, they refused to enforce their rule.   One wonders why this was such a guarded secret.

In the twitter thread, a supporter talks of fans not being able to influence the club because they were not shareholders.  This would be correct if McBean’s club was a Limited Company and, given the on-going confusion on who or what is Clapton FC, this error is perfectly understandable.

It should be said that McBean’s website now describes his entity as an unincorporated association.

But the response from the ESL was quite interesting. "This is one of the main issues - being a fan, paying an entrance fee - does not entitle you to a share in any decision making and/or profits unless you’re a shareholder.”

With respect to whoever is running the ESL twitter account, (said to be ‘the Committee’) ‘shares and shareholders’ are not an issue in the Clapton case.  An unincorporated association would normally have members but, as we know, Vince McBean closed the membership six years ago for “restructuring”.  One may speculate that his was clearly to protect his position within the entity as its been the same old same old, ever since.  (Note : he has posted a written on-line denial that he was the owner of Clapton FC)

But I can fully understand why the Essex Senior League Committee are so confused in thinking that shareholders are an issue as far as Clapton Football Club are concerned..

This is because not so long ago the Essex Senior League were accepting and banking cheques from the Santander bank account of Clapton Football Club Limited. At the time they should have been fully aware that this was not the legal entity of the ‘member club’.

Nonetheless, the Essex Senior League continued to bank cheques from the company after it had been struck off, dissolved and no longer legally existed.

The assets of any struck off/dissolved company immediately becomes ‘bona vacantia’ (property of the Crown) and therefore this money was not theirs to accept.

This use of shell companies, and fraudulent transactions such as this, clearly smacks of money laundering, and is most certainly, false accounting and tax evasion.  A casual inspection of the bank statements of McBean’s Clapton FC Limited, reveals that the company traded quite actively before and after dissolution, although it never actually filed accounts at any time.

Nonetheless the Santander bank account in the name of Clapton Football Club Limited remained active until 2014.

Given the amount of unbridled support for Mr McBean in the Essex Senior League twitter feed, is it just a co-incidence that their determination to keep him afloat, not enforce their own rules, and consistently bat away any criticism of him, is founded more on the concern that their financial transactions with Clapton Football Club Limited, if revealed, may implicate them in future investigations regarding Mr McBean?

One thing is for sure, such behaviour, whether it be naivety, or by assisting or failing to disclose/report such financial misconduct, is not that which should be expected, at the very least, of a Senior League.  (described at page of this season's ESL Handbook as a 'Senior Attitude'.)

One wonders what sanctions and financial penalties the Essex Senior League would have meted out to other member clubs if those clubs had been involved in such financial skullduggery?