King adherents reaffirm their faith despite every counterfactual

“Time has now been provided to allow Mr King to take the steps that will be required for him to arrange for Laird Investments (Pty) Limited to make a code compliant offer for shareholders’ shares”.

Translated: It’s a fair cop.

The former statement was made on Newco’s website by court order yesterday to confirm Dave King would comply with the Takeover Panel’s Code and earlier court findings.

This offer to shareholders will see some of the club’s founding fathers cash in their chips and ponder the wisdom of their six-year investment.  Allegations of their involvement in organised crime may, or may not, be valid, but the club will soon be more concentrated in the hands of Dave “penniless” King than ever.

Getting the money out of South Africa will involve a tax consideration.  The entire exercise will cost money that would otherwise be available for investment in the club, not to enrich early-investor shareholders and the South African Revenue Service, but the court has had its say.

As ever, this finding in favour of the Takeover Panel was delivered in language consistent with “favourable settlement” phraseology.  “Time has now been provided”, suggesting what happened at court last week was the spontaneous creation of time, not a clear instruction to perform against deadlines.

The ref flags are all there, we are clearly in Trump/Brexit bombast territory, where the adherents reaffirm their faith despite every counterfactual and the rest of us roll our eyes and wait on the inevitable consequences. It is a successful leadership strategy, if lacking in a long term survival plan.