Matt Southall has defended himself against accusations regarding his conduct as Charlton Athletic chairman, with the former agent speaking publicly for the first time since his apparent removal from the club on Friday.

Charlton released a statement at the end of last week which revealed majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer had removed Southall from his position as chairman, with Southall having been seemingly overpowered by Nimer during the club's public ownership dispute.

The conflict started when Nimer levelled serious accusations at Southall regarding his misuse of the club's funds as chairman, but Southall firmly denied these allegations as he claimed that Nimer had failed to provide proof of funds since his takeover at The Valley.

Nimer claimed he would not follow through with his financial backing of the south London club until Southall was removed as chairman, and it seemed Nimer achieved this on Friday when the additions of Claudiu Florica and Marian Mihail to the board were announced.

One Charlton fan has now taken to Twitter to request that Southall pays money back into the club after allegedly spending funds on his business, but the club's former chairman then responded by inferring he had used his own personal wages to make these payments.

Nimer and Southall formed part of the East Street Investments group which completed their purchase the Addicks from Roland Duchatelet back in January, but serious cracks started to emerge in the new ownership group just over two months after the takeover.

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The Verdict

It seemed as though Southall's involvement with Charlton had come to an end following the announcement on Friday, but his latest Twitter activity suggests he has not given hope of further involvement with the club despite his apparent dismissal.

The former chairman appears eager to affirm that he simply used his personal salary to invest into his other businesses, with Southall clearly believing that Nimer is the one at fault given his argument that the majority shareholder is yet to prove his source of funding.

This latest development further suggests that the situation at The Valley is still some way from being resolved, and it must be difficult for Charlton fans to know which party to trust given the mixed messages coming from different club figures at present.