Jeff Stelling reacts to West Brom protest march against Guochuan Lai live on Sky Sports
Jeff Stelling reacted live on Sky Sports to the West Brom fans’ protest ahead of the Huddersfield win, calling it “very well ordered indeed”.
The Action For Albion protest group had called on fans to join them for a peaceful march to The Hawthorns ahead of the 1-0 victory on Saturday (11 March), which saw the Baggies climb back to within three points of the play-off places.
The Birmingham Mail reported that the protest, directed at chairman Guochuan Lai for the financial insecurity at the club thanks to loans he is still yet to repay, was “well attended”, and was approvingly mentioned by Stelling.
Speaking live on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (11 March, 3.31pm) Stelling said: “A protest organised by Action For Albion, they want to pressurise absentee owners for explanations about loans allegedly taken from the club and not repaid.
“But it was apparently a very well ordered protest march indeed.”
Exposure
The more attention these protests get the better for the West Brom fans as it is a situation that no reasonable football supporter can accept.
The win over Huddersfield, by a single goal from the penalty spot by John Swift, and the outstanding job done by Carlos Corberan since his arrival in October, don’t detract from the fact that the Albion are being forced to push for promotion in spite of what Lai does.
A controlling shareholder should be aiding a club’s push to achieve its goals, or at the very least staying out of the way of them.
But by extracting millions of pounds from the club and missing multiple deadlines to repay it Lai has prevented the Baggies from operating in the transfer market at times, such as this January, where it could have hugely-improved the chances of getting back into the Premier League.
If events take a turn for the worse then the club could be facing financial oblivion, with the club turning to MSD Holdings to take out significant loans in the absence of the money back from the absent chairman.
That is clearly not an entity that can happily afford for Lai to be taking millions out of the club for his own ends, and then providing information that proves to be false over its return.
So banners on protest marches reading “sick of broken promises, Lai out” are necessary to draw any attention possible in an attempt to pressure him into putting things right.
In other West Brom news, a luckless Baggies player posted an emotional reaction online after his fortunes finally changed.