| |
Chester City - A ‘helping hand’ that nobody wants
With finances among Football League clubs featuring so prominently in the headlines this season, it is unfortunate that the most desperate case in English football currently resides outside the top four tiers.
Last season Chester City were relegated from the Football League and entered administration. Coupled with other solvency issues, this saw the club docked a crippling 25 points at the start of their first Conference season for six years. That they currently sit at the bottom of the Conference table on minus three points is the least of their worries. Their recent game at Forest Green Rovers on February 9 was postponed when the players refused to board the coach. Even if they had, the company that ran the coach service would not have gone anywhere without up-front payment. Then their home game against Wrexham was called off when the police refused to patrol the game as a result of unpaid bills. Their Conference status has dangled by a thread throughout the season, with the latest development being a winding up order served by HM Revenue & Customs on March 10. Given the scale of the club’s debt, it seems bitterly ironic that what could ultimately force them out of business is the £26 000 in unpaid tax (plus the same amount as a penalty for non-compliance).
A supporters’ organisation, City Fans United, have become the voice of the border club’s long-suffering followers. They hold the owners of the club, the Vaughan family, totally responsible for the mess that they currently find themselves in. After taking control of the club from the American, Terry Smith in 2001, there was some initial success, with Mark Wright taking them back into the Football League in 2004. However, a steady decline in the latter part of the last decade saw the club relegated with debts estimated around £7m. Incredibly, the Vaughan family were allowed to buy the club back under the guise of Chester City 2004. Stephen Vaughan’s disqualification as a company director was easily got around by placing his son, Stephen Jr at the helm. It is believed that after less than a year’s trading, the new company has run up debts of just over £700 000.
This would appear staggering for a non-league side in the course of less than a year, and the detail has maddened many of their fans. A sizeable amount includes unpaid utility bills, the police, the dispute with the revenue and wages owed to the players who had played unpaid for three months before the non-game at Forest Green. Then there is the small matter of the £485 911 the Vaughan family state they have ploughed into City in their nine months as a going concern. One wonders with so many obligations not being able to be fulfilled by the club, precisely what this large sum of money was spent on. This sits especially uncomfortably with the current ownership’s insistence that any potential buyer must have £500 000 to invest right away “to satisfy creditors.” The belief of most City fans is that the current owners are determined either to retain control of the club to the death, or to let go only if presented with a sizeable pay-off.
The ideal scenario of Chester’s supporters would be for a white knight to arrive at the eleventh hour and help the club rebuild in the Conference North next season. Given what they understand as unreasonable demands from the current ownership, the view of City Fans United is that they should wait for the inevitable and form a new club from scratch, drawing inspiration from Accrington Stanley, Aldershot and AFC Telford. The latest development must therefore be seen as something of a nightmare scenario. A Danish consortium with the ominous title ‘Projekt Chester City’ is the brainwave of Palle Rasmussen. The idea is to sell a maximum of ten shares to anyone who wants them in exchange for a vote on the club’s future direction. A General Assembly in Odense has been arranged for March 6 to finalise the plan and raise the interest and funding necessary for the venture to take off. Although they state that the day-to-day running of the club and issues such as team selection will be left to the professionals, this sounds worryingly similar to the purchase of Ebsfleet United in 2008 by the MyFootballClub venture. This may seem like a bit of fun to a few students in Silkeborg, but one wonders how they would feel if their local club became a plaything for foreigners with excess spare time. The timing could not have been worse for CFU, who see the prospect of replacing a devil they know with one whose intentions are at best based on a fantasy and more likely are fundamentally flawed.
Interest in English football in Scandinavia has been high for over twenty years, but if English supporters got bored of Ebsfleet, what’s the hope that the Danes will stick around? Some would dismiss this as xenophobia, but one wonders what the motives are for buying Chester when there are a multitude of lower-league sides in their own land that could be acquired more easily? City Fans United have issued a statement which reads: “You told us if we did not support you then you would not proceed with your bid. We are asking you not to proceed with your bid.” The language is emphatic, as is the message. The plight of their club had sympathetic responses throughout the footballing community. It’s about time they were left alone and given the chance to rebuild themselves.
See the full list of OLBG's free Football Tips here.
Related Articles
| |