Charlton Athletic: Manager Lee Bowyer calls boardroom row 'crazy'

Tahnoon Nimer (left) and Matt Southall pictured at Charlton's match against Barnsley in February

Charlton manager Lee Bowyer has described the row between chairman Matt Southall and majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer as "crazy".

Nimer claimed on Tuesday he would be looking for a new chairman because his and Southall's interests for the club's future were "irreconcilable".

But Charlton said on Thursday Southall had their "full backing" and Nimer's comments did not represent the club.

"With nine games to go, you couldn't have timed it any worse," Bowyer said.

Charlton are third from bottom in the Championship and two points adrift of safety after three successive defeats.

Bowyer has been busy preparing his side for a crunch fixture at fellow strugglers Hull City on Saturday, but admitted the off-field politics have created "a difficult few days".

"It's been crazy what's going on and it's frustrating because the game is so important," the former Addicks midfielder said.

"The timing is wrong for us, as a club, to have all this negativity at this stage of the season."

'I don't want to walk away'

Charlton are under a transfer embargo after failing to provide proof of how the club can be funded until June 2021, the English Football League confirmed on Tuesday.

The south London club have also clarified that should its failure to provide the EFL with the required financial information continue, it would be "at risk of further sanction".

Lee Bowyer signed a new deal at The Valley until 2023 in January

But despite the restrictions, Bowyer stressed he has no intention of leaving.

"I don't want to walk away," he said. "I could have done that in January.

"Everybody knows what the club means to me. I knew the situation we were in with the embargo and I decided to stay and fight for the club.

"The worrying thing is, once that embargo got put on us in January, I was told it would be fixed the next day.

"We're still under it now. I want to believe everything will be okay, but everyone knows there are a lot of things that have been going on that are not okay."

How did the row emerge?

Nimer and Southall only arrived at the Championship club 10 weeks ago.

Abu Dhabi-based businessman Nimer is part of the East Street Investments consortium who completed a takeover of the Addicks from controversial owner Roland Duchatelet in January.

Former football agent Southall then came in as executive chairman.

However, the dispute between the pair has escalated this week with Southall accusing Nimer of failing to invest "a single penny of the promised funds".

The club then said Nimer had resigned from the board as director, but the Syrian denied this and claimed he would be stopping any financial backing until Southall went.