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« on: June 05, 2007, 06:49:47 PM »
THE FACTS REGARDING STEVE BURR
Firstly apologies for the delay in my response. Following advice from my Lawyers I have been unable to say anything in my own defence against the false allegations and comments made by Steve Burr over the last couple of weeks. Having now received the full details from my Lawyers regarding Steve Burrs contractual obligations, I am now in a position to explain the current situation.
PLEASE SEE BELOW THE LETTER SENT TO STEVE BURR ON THE 4TH JUNE 2007, detailing the true events leading up to Steve Burrs resignation from Northwich Victoria Football Club.
With regards to filling the Football Manager position for Northwich Victoria Football Club, I can confirm that we have had over 30 applicants for the position with further applications being received daily. Amongst those applicants experience levels range from non league, football league and Premiership. Interviews to fill the position are currently being held both this week and next.
I have been invited to this Thursdays Supporters Club Meeting where I will be available to answer any questions or concerns regarding the current situation.
To the Fans, thank you for your continued support over the last few weeks,
Mike Connett
Chairman
•Northwich Victoria Football Club•
The Victoria Stadium, Wincham Avenue, Northwich Cheshire CW9 6GB
Tel: 01606 815200
Fax: 01606 41565
“Home of the Northwich Vics”
4TH June 2007
Dear Steve
Re: Your Employment
I acknowledge receipt of the letter received from your solicitors dated 30 May 2007. You will note I have forwarded a copy of this letter to your solicitors but, on the basis that there are a number of issues that I wish to address with you direct, I thought it right to send this letter directly to you.
You will find I now set out below a summary of the events that occurred prior to you leaving the Club. I have decided to write to you and your solicitors with this information as I think it is important to accurately record what has happened at Northwich Victoria over the last season. I am, of course, aware of the information that you have released to various sources, including the Club’s players and the media, as to why you say you have left the Club. I am appalled at the way you have behaved. This Club has supported you in your career and treated you very well. In response, you have breached your contract with the Club in order take up employment elsewhere, doubtless for more money. You have then sought to justify your actions by making spurious and untruthful allegations against the Club and me claiming that, in fact, the Club has breached your contract of employment. This is simply not the case.
· At your request, the Club agreed to enter into a two year fixed term contract with you running from 1 July 2006 until 30 June 2008. That contract was signed by us on 27 April 2006.
· As we approached the end of this season, we began to discuss plans and players for next season. There was a meeting on 24 April at which we had a lengthy discussion about contracts for players for next season. The recollection of everyone who attended that meeting (and we have a written minute) was that the meeting went well and no real issues arose from it. It was after this meeting that your behaviour towards the Club and me began to change.
· We were due to meet again a week later to continue discussions about players for next season but that meeting was cancelled when, without warning, you went away on holiday for about a week and a half. I had received no prior notice of that holiday but, at that time, we continued to maintain a good relationship as, not least, we had a general discussion about players and next season by telephone immediately before you started your holiday.
· It was at about this time that rumours started to circulate that you were in talks with Stalybridge Celtic.
· Rather bizarrely, I then received a letter from you dated 8 May which referred to a meeting we had just prior to the last match of the season (at Woking). That letter made reference to the plans we were putting in place in respect of next season but made no reference to the lengthy discussion that we had had about this very topic on 24 April.
· We next met on 15 May and there was a marked change in your attitude towards me. You were aggressive and argumentative. Issues that were the subject of ongoing discussions between us were suddenly referred to by you as evidence of me “interfering” in the way that you ran the team. I denied that this was the case but it was quite impossible to have a civil conversation with you. You gave the distinct impression that you had attended the meeting with a view to “picking a fight”, perhaps with a view to leaving me with little choice but to terminate your employment.
Despite your behaviour, I confirmed that I wanted you to stay at the Club and that we should continue to work together. I asked you if you had been offered another job or if you were in talks with anyone and you denied that this was the case.
At one point you actually mentioned that you thought you no longer wanted to be in football as you found football management too pressurised. Derek Nuttall was also at the meeting and suggested that you go away and think about your position and that when you had done so we should discuss the matter again.
· We then had a further meeting on 16 May at which your behaviour was entirely different. You were conciliatory and said that you had come to a decision where you thought it was time for you to “move on”. You asked me to release you from your contract on the basis that if I did not any new employer would owe the Club compensation. You made it quite clear that you had no desire to stay at the Club. I said I would discuss the matter with the Chief Executive and take some advice. I thought that process might take about a week and promised to respond to you in a few days.
· On Friday 18 May at about 4.00pm in the afternoon you appeared at the Club unannounced and demanded to see me. You asked me if I had yet made a decision about whether the Club was prepared to release you and I said that I had not. You told me that you required a decision immediately and then threatened me saying words to the effect of “If you don’t let me go now I’m going to go to the press and cause you ****”.
You then left the Club’s premises.
· Your behaviour became more erratic as I then received a message from Derek Nuttall that you had called him to inform him that I had until 9.00am on Saturday 19 May to make a decision as to whether the Club was prepared to release you. You subsequently extended this deadline to 10.00am. When I did not contact you you sent a text message by mobile to a number of people including all of the Club’s players that read:
“To all the players and back room staff thanks for all your efforts duringmy time at NVFC. As far as I am concerned my contract has been terminated by NVFC so therefore no longer employed by the club. SB.”
· The contents of this text message is simply untrue. Furthermore, sending it to the players as you did caused entirely unnecessary worry and panic amongst playing staff.
· At the same time, you obviously contacted members of the press as a number of articles began to appear concerning your position and status at the Club. You and I were then not in contact between Monday 21 and Friday 25 May whilst you were away on England duties.
· I wrote to you on 25 May expressing concern at the nature of the articles that I had seen in the press and reminding you that you were an employee of the Club. I also informed you that I expected to see you at work on Tuesday 29 May to discuss ongoing team matters.
· In response to that letter, I have now received a letter from your lawyers dated 30 May which contains a number of points which are simply untrue.
· First, the letter claims that you resigned from your employment with immediate effect on 15 May in circumstances where you consider that you were constructively dismissed. As you well know, this is absolute rubbish.
· The letter then refers to further discussions taking place between 17 and 19 May during which you did not withdraw your resignation. This is correct as, of course, you had never resigned from your employment in the first place.
The letter refers to you making it clear at our meetings on 24 April and 15 May that you were unhappy with me “interfering” in decisions relating to the squad of players for the forthcoming season”. Again, this is simply untrue as can be proven by reference to the minutes of the meeting on 24 April and the views of other attendees at those meetings.
It is quite obvious that for reasons unknown – though probably financial – you had decided that you wished to leave the Club in order to take up employment with Stalybridge Celtic. You had no issues with the way that the Club was treating you and you have simply made up and/or grossly exaggerated various matters in order, as you see it, to give you a plausible excuse to resign from your employment without notice. You clearly believe by following this course of conduct you will be able to avoid the contractual obligations entered into in April 2006 when you signed up to a two year contract with the Club which, ironically, was granted to you following your request. I consider your behaviour to be reprehensible. Despite your protests that “You may wish to give up football” and that you had no new job to go to, I note that Stalybridge Celtic were in a position to announce on their website as early as 25 May that they were ready to unveil their new manager which they did so on 30 May. You have, no doubt, been in discussions with Stalybridge Celtic for some time. For the record, I am also aware that during the last season you applied for managerial positions at both Macclesfield and Chester. Although I would have been quite entitled to do so, I did not ever confront you about this behaviour on the basis that I thought it might otherwise undermine what I considered to be our good working relationship which I hoped would allow us to continue to bring success to the Club. Obviously that is not to be.
You will appreciate that I have taken legal advice in respect of your conduct. The fiction that you have put forward in correspondence from your solicitors is that you resigned from your employment on 15 May 2007. That “resignation” and your subsequent behaviour places you in repudiatory breach of your contract of employment with the Club. On behalf of the Club, I hereby give you notice that the Club has decided to accept your repudiatory breach and that, therefore, your contract of employment is now at an end.
Your breach of contract will cause the Club to suffer significant losses. Please note that the Club reserves all its rights to pursue legal action against you and any party that has induced any breach of contract on your part when those losses become clear and have been valued.
In addition, despite the fact that you consider your employment ended on 15 May 2007, you have, of course, continued to retain and presumably use the company car supplied to you by the Club. Your actions in this respect are unlawful and, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to contact you to arrange for the return of that company car together with other company property in your possession which, of course, includes your mobile telephone. Should, therefore, you fail to return your car by close of business on Thursday 7 June 2007 then I will instruct the Club’s solicitor to immediately issue proceedings in order to obtain delivery up of the vehicle to the Club. Such an application will include a claim for legal costs.
Yours sincerely
M Connett, Chairman. Northwich Victoria
