By Graham Thomas
Former Swansea City Supporters Trust chairman Phil Sumbler has accused Rob Davies of trying to de-stabilise the club following his attack on the fans organisation.
In an interview with Dai Sport on New Year’s Day, ex-shareholder Davies criticised the Trust for “trying to break the club” and suggested the Swans could soon go the way of Blackburn Rovers under controversial owners, Venky’s unless fans backed current chairman Huw Jenkins.
But Sumbler – who stood down from the Supporters Trust six weeks ago and has since formed the Swansea City Supporters Alliance – has rejected Davies’s claims.
Not only does Sumbler point the finger at Davies for trying to deflect attention away from Jenkins, but he insists the actions of the Trust during the period of the takeover by Americans Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien have been misrepresented by the former shareholder.
Davies – who contributed £100,000 to help save the club in 2002 – sold his stake for around £9m in July 2016 when the sale went through. He backed Jenkins’ recent claim that the Supporters Trust knew all about the American offer and instead rejected the chance to sell their stake for £20m.
But Sumbler has dismissed those suggestions and said: “I am bemused by Rob Davies’s comments and his claims are just not true.
“It seems he is trying to de-stabilise the club following the reaction of fans to recent comments by the chairman. He is not someone who normally puts his head above the parapet.
“People will make their own judgements over what has happened at Swansea City over the past couple of years. But the suggestion that the supporters – the only shareholder who gained nothing from the sale of the club – have not acted in the best interests of the club just doesn’t wash.”
With the club bottom of the table going into Tuesday night’s home match against Tottenham, and anger towards the board and new owners having simmered throughout 2017, when the club went through their fifth manager in three years, Sumbler believes former shareholders have decided to try and shift the blame onto the Supporters Trust.
He added: “Some of the shareholders seem quite happy to take all the plaudits for what happened after they came in, but less happy to take responsibility for recent events.
“Feelings have been stirred by recent events and so some people have decided to lash out.”
Sumbler has also disputed the claims of Davies that the Trust knew of the intended sale to the Americans prior to an official meeting in March 2016 and were not kept in the dark by the selling shareholders.
He added: “It is simply not true to state that there was a meeting in March 2016, outside of those already outlined by the Trust, and it is laughable that there has been a claim that there was a £20m offer made for the Trust’s shares.
“It is frustrating that whilst the supporters’ organisations are dealing with facts and evidence, the media is allowing other shareholders to make untrue allegations unchallenged and with no substance or proof.
“I have no doubt that this is part of a coordinated and concerted campaign by the former shareholders to discredit the Trust and others who were involved at the time but are no longer part of the Trust board. But the facts are there, and I am sure that the fans will judge these based on what they see and hear which is all that can be asked for.
“The simple fact is that there was clear collusion between the sellers to keep the particulars of the sale away from the Trust until matters were virtually complete and no amount of revisionism will ever change that.”
