Please find below an update on the sale of the club.
Following promotion to the Championship in May the owner had hoped the club would be sold by the start of the season.
Talks appeared to progress initially. Unfortunately though, as we near the start of the season, a takeover has not happened. While the interested parties are still active, the fact they haven’t concluded a sale yet means the club is very much still on the market.
It was announced in January 2018 that the club was for sale and it is disappointing for the owner and the fans that the club has not been sold. Let there be no doubt, the Charlton Athletic owner wants to sell the club.
He has sold three other football clubs in recent years (Standard Liege, St Truiden and a few months ago Alcorcon) as he wants to get out of football. None of those clubs have taken this long to sell.
The owner is frustrated as he believes the huge losses owners incur in the Championship are a clear deterrent for many candidate buyers to step in. The owner feels the EFL need to take action so the financial rules are more like American sport where clubs rarely lose money, making them more attractive to purchase (https://talksport.com/radio/listen-again/1564477200/1564479000/ and https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5c77e0391c719/owner-roland-duchatelet-demands-efl-acquire-charlton).
In the meantime though, the owner will continue to pay the staff and the bills. In Lee Bowyer and his staff, the club has a management team everyone can get behind, they did a brilliant job to get Charlton promoted last season and they created a bond between the team and the fans. Everyone knows the Championship will be tough but in Lee and his team, the owner feels the club has the best people in place to give Charlton the chance to surprise teams again this season.