Crawley Town Supporter's Alliance demand answers about ownership of club in open letter to WAGMI United - read it in full here

Preston Johnson and Eben Smith have been the main faces of WAGMI United ever since they took over in April 2022. But it has been unclear who else is involved in the consortium despite published names on WAGMI’s website.

The fans have wanted answers about many aspects of the club following a season of turmoil, controversy with selling senior players, numerous managerial changes and a relegation battle. The CTSA have requested meetings throughout the season with mixed success.

And now they are demanding answers for clarity on the ownership.

Here is the CTSA’s open letter in full:

Upon the acquisition of the club in April 2022 WAGMI Utd LLC pledged ‘a new era of unprecedented transparency and accountability to Crawley Town Football Club supporters and the Crawley community.’*

We believe that fundamental to such transparency is a simple right for the supporters and community of Crawley to know which individual or individuals are in effective control of their football club.

Hence why in March 2023 the CTSA asked the Chairman of Crawley Town Football Club, ‘Mr Eben Smith’, in writing ‘Who are the shareholders and ultimate beneficiaries of Crawley Town Football & Social Club Ltd?’ to which Mr Smith replied ‘Wagmi United LLC is the 100% owner and shareholder of Crawley Town Football & Social Club’. This reply neglected an answer to the question in relation to the disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners.

Please note regulation 114.5.4 from section 10 of the EFL rules & regulations:

’Each Club shall publish the identities of the ultimate owner (Person, not Entity) of each Significant Interest in the Club (as that term is defined Rule 1.1 of Appendix 3). That information shall as a minimum be published on the Club’s official website on a page accessible directly from the home page of that official club website.’**

We note that such disclosure features on the websites of teams within League 2.

A Significant Interest is defined in Section 1 of the EFL rules & regulations as follows:

‘‘Significant Interest’ means the holding and/or possession of the legal or beneficial interest in, and/or the ability to exercise the voting rights applicable to, shares or other securities in the Club which confer in aggregate on the holder(s) thereof ten (10) per cent or more of the total voting rights exercisable in respect of the shares of any class of shares of the Club.’**

The purpose of this letter is to therefore request that you please provide the following disclosure in accordance with the spirit of the aforesaid pledge made by WAGMI Utd and/or in accordance the aforesaid EFL regulation:

- Your names along with a brief bio as a means of introduction to the supporters.

- Your total percentage shareholdings in WAGMI Utd LLC.

- The identities of the persons with Significant Interests in Crawley Town Football and Social Club Ltd.

- How these persons comply with the definition of ‘Significant Interests’ in accordance with the EFL regulations.

Furthermore we note from your website that the following characters are listed as members of the WAGMI Utd team: Gmoney; Andy8052; GFunk; Snowfro; Bitfuterez; Pragmatiko; Ethernaut; Jpegviceroy; BlockFuturez

We assume the above are pseudonyms. In which case we would be grateful if you could please also provide the actual names of these individuals as well as their role and interests in WAGMI Utd in accordance with the spirit of the aforesaid pledge.

The CTSA maintains our invitation for you to contact our Chairman Mr Reuben Watt at [email protected] so we may commence a constructive dialogue with you in order to achieve our common objective which is the success of Crawley Town Football Club.

SussexWorld.co.uk and the Crawley Observer have approached Preston Johnson for a comment on the open letter.

Here are a list of previous stories about the CTSA open letters, meeting requests with WAGMI and minutes of any meetings which took place.

Crawley Town director of football meets with club's supporters' alliance - here is everything that was discussed

'Prove us wrong' - Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance make urgent call to owners WAGMI United about current situation

Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance demands meeting with club to discuss 'serious issues' following departure of Matthew Etherington and Tom Nichols

'Some sensitive legal issues' - Crawley Town co-owner 'currently unable' to meet club's Supporters' Alliance but hopes to share more 'in the next week'

Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance addresses concerns with co-owner Preston Johnson - read full statement here

Crawley Town Supporters’ Alliance holds board meeting and discusses current status of club and their concerns

Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance calls for changes in top level management in 'no confidence' statement - Preston Johnson responds

'We want to hear from you publicly' - Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance publicly call on owners to galvanise fans and players

The CTSA is the independent voice of Crawley Town Football Club supporters.