{"id":5292,"date":"2020-07-03T20:50:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T19:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/?p=5292"},"modified":"2020-07-03T20:50:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T19:50:45","slug":"dan-brownlie-fires-both-barrels-at-rafi-razzak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/dan-brownlie-fires-both-barrels-at-rafi-razzak\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Brownlie Fires Both Barrels at Rafi Razzak"},"content":{"rendered":"

This letter will appear in next weeks Basingstoke Gazette from Manager Dan Brownlie;<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been involved in the Football Club under a couple of different positions for two years now. I am buoyed by the idea, ambition and execution of getting Basingstoke back to where it belongs, and I am excited about the potential future of this great club. A club I am truly proud to manage and represent \u2013 and whilst it\u2019s arguably unusual for management to involve themselves in off-field matters like this; like anything – I can\u2019t moan about its result if I am unprepared to put at least my voice towards it.<\/p>\n

Whilst the club are working tirelessly to take this club forward; across no-mans land is a fighter jet in the name of Rafi Razzak camping in the other direction.<\/p>\n

Just by way of introduction – I see reason before I see doubt; and despite forceful narratives I will attempt to take each person with as open mind as possible. With that in mind, as I hadn\u2019t been hugely immersed in the goings on of the Camrose fiasco \u2013 I along with Kevin White (Vice-Chairman) took the time to go and visit Rafi in his offices in a bid to get a greater understanding. Terry had previously attempted these conversations; but understandably he got quite heated with the ignorance.<\/p>\n

In the same meeting I also met Malcolm McPhail who, to confirm in case you were in any doubt, he has absolutely no interest in the community he is destroying at the club and was purely interested in numbers. Their numbers.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the thinly veiled attempts at appearing interested in the club and its survival; the empty promises and his unwavering belief that what he was doing is completely ethical was quite startling but not surprising. I guess living by the adage of \u201cif you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it\u201d also applied to his own self-belief. The historians amongst you will forgive me for not naming where that quote derives from, although\u2026 no. No, I\u2019ll leave that there.<\/p>\n

Humour me if you can, just for a moment\u2026 Let\u2019s put aside the fact that over the course of the past ten years, The Camrose was left to rot. (Notably on one occasion, Martin Kuhl did team talk in complete darkness with only him lit up by the torch on my iphone \u2013 two weeks after the electric went in the changing rooms.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put aside the fact he overturned a 100-year covenant put in place by Lord Camrose and his gift to the community.<\/p>\n

Put aside the fact he now plans to sell the land protected land to line his own (already deep & cobwebbed) pockets.<\/p>\n

Put aside the fact he evicted a club from its own home.<\/p>\n

Put aside the fact he actioned the digging up of the Camrose pitch without planning application and in a bid to cover up the findings claimed he was reseeding it (for anyone that has been down there recently\u2026 not much grass coming through.)<\/p>\n

Put aside the fact that he began selling items that were gifted by the community on eBay.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put aside the fact on numerous occasions that he has claimed to not let the club die.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also put aside his latest \u2018I want to commemorate Lord Camrose with a grass monument\u2019 statement whilst simultaneously destroying the very gift that Lord Camrose wanted to leave as his legacy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put aside all of that \u2013 because \u2013 in his eyes, \u2018he saved the club.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lord and saviour of Basingstoke Town Football Club. At a time when Basingstoke needed someone to rescue them, he stepped in of his own choosing. Something the club should be forever thankful for.<\/p>\n

That is until, you in the future decide to try and kill it.<\/p>\n

So, I apologise if my thanks have somewhat turned to complete distain, anger and frustration \u2013 something I know many fans much more immersed than me feel right now, arguably at an ever greater level.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said that \u2018nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity\u2019. Sounds familiar when you think of the idea of claiming to rescue something whilst simultaneously attempting to slowly and painfully kill it as you watch from your swivel chair stroking a bald cat.<\/p>\n

The thing about football, is that it\u2019s much more than just football. It\u2019s not one mans play-thing, it\u2019s a community hub that provides escapism, a social identity, hope, friendship, belief, health in body and mind \u2013 the list is truly endless. No longer can he hide behind this sentiment of saviour as it\u2019s not deserving upon him. Sadly, I think the sinking ship may have sailed too far for Mr Razzak to drop the anchor and attempt to turn it round on a path to dignity and right a wrong \u2013 if the continual refusal to even acknowledge his wrongdoing remains, I am hopeful the powers at council, government and Sport England can pull it back to shore.<\/p>\n

History will be watching.<\/p>\n

Dan Brownlie<\/p>\n

Basingstoke First Team Manager<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This letter will appear in next weeks Basingstoke Gazette from Manager Dan Brownlie; I\u2019ve been involved in the Football Club under a couple of different positions for two years now. I am buoyed by the idea, ambition and execution of getting Basingstoke back to where it belongs, and I am excited about the potential future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-21-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Brownlie.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5293,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions\/5293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}