We had to figure something was coming.
Earlier in the month, Oakland Roots founder Benno Nagel tweeted out some very peculiar, cryptic tweets capped off with a screenshot of himself being blocked by Roots co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal.
Obviously, something was going on behind the scenes with the club who has seen its popularity in Oakland and throughout the Bay Area grow in a relatively short period of time since its inception in 2018. And that popularity continues to grow with the Roots announcing last year that they would make the jump from third-tier NISA to second-tier USL Championship (USLC).
However, news broke Friday that Nagel was suing the team he helped bring to life as well as the club’s board.
One of the founders of Oakland Roots Sports Club is suing the successful startup he helped create. In a civil complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court on Thursday, former club president Benno Nagel outlined the circumstances that led to the Oct. 23 board meeting in which he alleges the club’s other primary owners unjustly removed him from the board of managers and fired him from his position as the team’s president. The lawsuit asks that the court affirm Nagel’s right to remain on the Roots board; it also asks that the Roots’ co-founder, Edreece Arghandiwal, be removed from the board, and that Nagel can appoint his own member — his father John — to the board.
“I just want people to know the truth about what they did,” Nagel said to SFGATE. “If they did this to me, imagine what they will do to other people that get in their way.”
SFGate.com
All of this seemingly stems (no pun) to Oakland’s opportunity to move up to USLC.
According to SFGate.com, when the Roots were making preliminary preparations to jump to USLC in the Spring of 2020, Nagel was approached by current Roots chairman Steve Aldrich and Barney Schauble (both of whom were originally brought on as investors) saying they would need to bring on additional financial backers to enable to the club to purchase the East Bay territorial and franchise rights owned by real estate developer Mark Hall.
The complaint mentions that both Nagel and Arghandiwal were concerned that additional investors would “dilute their ownership share”. Nagel alleges that he and Arghandiwal, however, were offered additional “profits interests” in the club by both Aldrich and Schauble as part of new employment contracts in the same ratio of shares as the company’s original operating agreement.
Disagreements over club shares apparently stretched on throughout the summer and culminated with shit finally hitting the fan during an October 23, 2020 board meeting when Nagel accuses Arghandiwal, Aldrich, and Schauble of colluding together to remove him from the board.
“They came to the board with a secret plan, pre-coordinated with Arghandiwal, to remove Nagel from the board and from his position as president,” the complaint reads. “Specifically, they had a secret agenda to grant Arghandiwal additional equity interests, effective immediately, so that Arghandiwal could become the majority interest holder among the Class F founders; Arghandiwal would then use his newly granted interests to remove Nagel from the board.”
SFGate.com
Meanwhile in light of the lawsuit, Aldrich released the following statement:
“We are disappointed to learn about Mr. Nagel’s lawsuit against Roots and the Roots’ board. This lawsuit is entirely without merit and a full presentation of the facts will support our decision to remove Mr. Nagel from his positions at the club. We look forward to resolving this in due course. We won’t let this deter our focus on harnessing the magic of Oakland and the power of sport as a force for social good.”
It doesn’t seem like this would have any barring on the Roots moving up to USLC. Although, if this issue between Nagel and the rest of the Oakland Roots board is a direct result of the club moving to USLC well then I guess that’s just another indication that nothing good can come from the USL or the completely backward USSF system.
It’s unfortunate in the first place that clubs in the United States have to seek more private investors to essentially “move up” the American soccer pyramid. Likewise, it’s always concerning from a fan’s perspective the potential negative impact additional private investors could do on the communal nature and grassroots effort of clubs not just with Oakland but across the United States.
In the meantime, the Oakland Soccer Club recently appointed Nagel as technical director.