Chester City gonski

Xavi6

Wound up today in the courts, and Cardiff and Southend could follow suit, though they were given a reprieve today.

Sad to see 126 years of history gone down the drain but there's a spin off on the way.

http://backpagefootball.com/columnists/reports/deva-stated-chester-city-rip/

Deva-stated – Chester City RIP

Chester City are no more after the club was officially wound up today following a court hearing, ending their 126 year existence.

In January the club was given six weeks to sort out its financial affairs, including the amount of £26,125 owed HM Revenue & Customs in unpaid taxes, but they were unable to comply with the court order.

They were booted out of the Blue Square Conference in February, and recently made an application to join the Welsh Premier League in the hope of saving the club.

Supporters' group Chester Fans United now looks likely to form an independent club in the mould of AFC Wimbledon and AFC Telford.

"We understand it was a last-ditch effort by our former owner Stephen Vaughan to keep hold of the club," CFU spokesman Jeff Banks told BBC Sport.

"But we would have had to start at the very bottom.

"And it would have been rejected out of hand in any case by our local council, who say we are an English club and should be playing in an English league."

The club was initially placed into administration last summer with debts totalling £7 million, and they started the 2009/10 season with a 25 point deduction.

Chester had previously been in financial difficulty in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and attendances had fallen dramatically over the past two years, reaching rock bottom on January 19th this year when just 425 fans turned up for the home game against Salisbury

The trouble really took hold last month when Chester failed to fulfill a fixture at Forest Green Rovers after players refused to board a bus to the game in protest over wages owed to them.

The Football Conference decided to suspend Chester from the league for seven days as a result in the hope that they would use to time to sort out their finances.

A meeting of the league’s clubs was called at Rushden & Diamonds’ Nene Park on February 26th and the decision was taken to expell Chester City from the league and expunge their results to that date.

Former managing director Rob Gray, who has remained at the club in an unpaid capacity for the last two months, told the BBC that it is a sad and emotional day for the club.

“We’re in the hands of the receivers now,” he said.

“And my only hope right now is that a deal can be done quickly so that the staff here can keep their jobs. Then I hope that someone can come in and resurrect the club and allow us to carry on playing football.

“But, whatever level we end up at, it has to be a level the club is comfortable at financially. Anything beyond that is a bonus.”

pablomakaveli

I can sympathize with the Chester fans. Loads of clubs are struggling at the moment though so i'd expect more clubs to face a similiar situation.

_blank_

As long as it's not one of the super teams, no-one cares tbh.

Fr Tod Umptious

I heard a odd fact about Chester City once.

Most clubs avoid having directors boxes, hospitality facalities and offices in their East stand (west facing stands), to avoid the glare of low sun during winter games.

Chester City on the other hand did put them in the East stand beacuse it was the only part of the ground that was actually in England

Xavi6

The thing with Chester is that a lot of the fans are kinda happy with today's ruling as it frees them from the owner who was strangling the club and basically brought it to its knees.

Basically they'll do what Halifax have done in the last 2 years and go down a few divisions and re-emerge under a new guise.

pickarooney

The small clubs and the overambitious ones will all crumble away and leave a US-style franchise league with no relegation or promotion.

stovelid

As Des said, it's going to take a bigger club (with all respect to Pompey) going down to make people sit up and think.

Mountjoy Mugger

Farsley Celtic also gone. Link

Only one team in Leeds now!

mike65

The shocking bit is that a piddling 26k would have paid due taxes. Whatever happened to local business barons and thier love for a local club that they can exploit?

gimmick

Chester demise started at some stage in the 90s with some idiot Yank took over as chairman. He sacked thier manager soon after and installed himself as boss. He decided that "soccer" could use the same tactics as American Football, using purely zonal tactics, with 3 captains on the field at all times - one for DEfense, one for "center" field, and one for OFFense.

Needless to say this did not work and I think it was he who had them relegated to the conference the first time around 10 years ago.

Terry Smith his name was.

IvySlayer

gimmick wrote: »

Chester demise started at some stage in the 90s with some idiot Yank took over as chairman. He sacked thier manager soon after and installed himself as boss. He decided that "soccer" could use the same tactics as American Football, using purely zonal tactics, with 3 captains on the field at all times - one for DEfense, one for "center" field, and one for OFFense.

Needless to say this did not work and I think it was he who had them relegated to the conference the first time around 10 years ago.

Terry Smith his name was.

A fly-on-the-wall documentary broadcast on ITV at the end of the season showed the limited respect players had for Smith as he delivered team talks, which included The Lord's Prayer.

Bwhahahaha, just looked him up. Oh that is hilarious.

Feel sorry for any Chester fans though. Not nice to lose a club!

Fratton Fred

My heart goes out to the Chester fans, I wish them well with their new club.

I have to question the players in all this, they have been party to the death of the club by refusing to play. They contributed to them being thrown out of the league and therefore ending any income the club had. Selling a few of them could have kept the club alive. Now they are all out of a job. Surely playing for free is better than not playing at all.

DazMarz

It's a sad day for any football fan when misfortune befalls their beloved club.

stovelid wrote: »

it's going to take a bigger club (with all respect to Pompey) going down to make people sit up and think.

It happened to Leeds United, sure. They were a huge team in England, constantly in the top 4 teams or so, getting to latter stages of European competition on a regular basis through the 1990's and early 2000's etc.. When it happened to them, most people just shrugged and laughed (no disrespect to Leeds, but they are one of the most hated clubs going, from what I can gather). Unless it happens to their own club, few people are going to sit up and take notice. With the way finances are going nowadays, a lot of smaller clubs will struggle... badly.

gimmick

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I have to question the players in all this, they have been party to the death of the club by refusing to play. They contributed to them being thrown out of the league and therefore ending any income the club had. Selling a few of them could have kept the club alive. Now they are all out of a job. Surely playing for free is better than not playing at all.

They had to draw a line at some stage. Similar happened with my club, Cork City, where the players threatened a few times to not play, but relented late on everytime. Thuing was, the owner knew they would relent everytime, so there was no impetus on him to straighten things out.

I see exactly why the Chester players took this action.

leninbenjamin

You also have to allow that these players aren't multimillionaires like in the premier league. Some will get fairly decent wages, but a lot are probably living hand to mouth.

Fr Tod Umptious

DazMarz wrote: »

It's a sad day for any football fan when misfortune befalls their beloved club.



It happened to Leeds United, sure. They were a huge team in England, constantly in the top 4 teams or so, getting to latter stages of European competition on a regular basis through the 1990's and early 2000's etc.. When it happened to them, most people just shrugged and laughed (no disrespect to Leeds, but they are one of the most hated clubs going, from what I can gather). Unless it happens to their own club, few people are going to sit up and take notice. With the way finances are going nowadays, a lot of smaller clubs will struggle... badly.

But Leeds still exist, they were never wound up, they never went bust, all that happened to them is that they went into administration and were docked points

amacachi

mike65 wrote: »

The shocking bit is that a piddling 26k would have paid due taxes. Whatever happened to local business barons and thier love for a local club that they can exploit?

That's what's puzzling me, but the club must've made no effort to pay it for a long time. Has to be other big debts around too.


3 pages in a row on Ceefax about failing clubs. It's sad to see, but Christ there's some unbelievable mismanagement going on.

BigBenRoeth

Sad really when you think that such a small amount of money could've saved the club.
Just read up on that Terry Davis lad,proper oleyawn :pac:

Töpher

Fratton Fred wrote: »

My heart goes out to the Chester fans, I wish them well with their new club.

I have to question the players in all this, they have been party to the death of the club by refusing to play. They contributed to them being thrown out of the league and therefore ending any income the club had. Selling a few of them could have kept the club alive. Now they are all out of a job. Surely playing for free is better than not playing at all.

I agree with your first sentence whole-heartedly, but that's about as much as I can agree with.

The players in the lower divisions are not on sky high salaries, and cannot afford to go weeks or months without pay. Add to this a climate when the banks are less than friendly and I would imagine would not loan money to the players, who were essentially unpaid employees of a business that was about to collapse, with virtually no guarantee they would ever be paid their due wages, and therefore could be technically unable to repay the banks.
However, due to technically being employed I would guess that there was also no welfare assistance above what small supplementary entitlement they may already be paid due to their low working hours, so 'playing for free' becomes working for free - would you?

Chester would not necessarily be able to acquire fees for the players on their books, they're not going to suddenly be able to demand thousands for players not worth that, whilst at the same time needed to keep enough of a squad to be technically eligible to compete.

I know I'm making assumptions here on the state of play regarding the welfare system and current lending terms for financial institutions in the UK, but I do think laying any of the blame at the feet of those who are amongst those who have suffered most in all of this is a bit harsh.

TonyD79

All the talk about the Glazers and that sort of ownership shouldnt be allowed by the authorites yet Peter Risdale was allowed to continue on after Leeds and now look whats going on at Cardiff.

Everton should be the model for clubs to operate in England imo

Headshot

TonyD79 wrote: »

All the talk about the Glazers and that sort of ownership shouldnt be allowed by the authorites yet Peter Risdale was allowed to continue on after Leeds and now look whats going on at Cardiff.

Everton should be the model for clubs to operate in England imo

Arsenal ?

orourkeda

TonyD79 wrote: »

All the talk about the Glazers and that sort of ownership shouldnt be allowed by the authorites yet Peter Risdale was allowed to continue on after Leeds and now look whats going on at Cardiff.

Everton should be the model for clubs to operate in England imo

But it took Everton Years to recover from years of mismanagement themselves. A question, where would Everton be if they had not signed and sold Wayne Rooney for £30 Million to Manchester United. They also have a lot to thank David Moyes for too. They still find it difficult to compete in terms of resources with club of a similar size who seem to have superior resources (Aston Villa, Spurs etc)

I for one am sad to see Chester City go. I was in their ground once as an away supporter for a league cup tie some time ago. Its unfortunate.

Dozen Wicked Words

Think I read somewhere Farsley Celtic are reforming and will just start a few leagues down from the Blue Square, and Chester fans are hoping to restart their team in the Unibond League. The teams usually resurface in one form or another, hopefully for the fans sake they do.


Been to the Deva a couple of times, and it was always a good trip, the Chester fans, despite having part of the ground in Wales definitely consider themselves English.

Cardiff have had a couple of dreamer chairman, spending silly money. Ridsdale has previous with Leeds and before him Sam Hamman who helped financially finish off Wimbledon.

Southend's Chairman is insistent he has a deal to sell the ground to Sainsburys but no one in their local media is convinced.

Necronomicon

It's crazy to think that the teams that contested the 2008 FA Cup final may not exist by next year. Hope it doesn't happen to either obviously. Looking at SSN Chester fans seemed content with the decision, they just want to get on with their new team, good luck to them.

leninbenjamin

TonyD79 wrote: »

All the talk about the Glazers and that sort of ownership shouldnt be allowed by the authorites yet Peter Risdale was allowed to continue on after Leeds and now look whats going on at Cardiff.

Everton should be the model for clubs to operate in England imo

lolwut? Everton are stagnating. Kenwright has been looking to sell them for years. Problem is, their infrastructure and stadium are cack making them an unappealing investment, yet they can't hope to finance anything of the sort without outside investment. If someone like the Glazer's came along Kenwright would probably bite their arms off. Plus whenever Moyes finally leaves for greener pastures they will struggle to find someone who can keep them afloat with such limited resources.

Guy:Incognito

gimmick wrote: »

with 3 captains on the field at all times - one for DEfense, one for "center" field, and one for OFFense.
.

Imagine the pressure and responsibility of being offensive captain while playing in a 4-5-1 system.

Helix

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Farsley Celtic also gone. Link

Only one team in Leeds now!

NOT FARSLEY!!!!!!!!!!

i took them from the lower reaches to become european champions in the mystical land of footie manager once

Fratton Fred

Töpher wrote: »

I agree with your first sentence whole-heartedly, but that's about as much as I can agree with.

The players in the lower divisions are not on sky high salaries, and cannot afford to go weeks or months without pay. Add to this a climate when the banks are less than friendly and I would imagine would not loan money to the players, who were essentially unpaid employees of a business that was about to collapse, with virtually no guarantee they would ever be paid their due wages, and therefore could be technically unable to repay the banks.
However, due to technically being employed I would guess that there was also no welfare assistance above what small supplementary entitlement they may already be paid due to their low working hours, so 'playing for free' becomes working for free - would you?

Chester would not necessarily be able to acquire fees for the players on their books, they're not going to suddenly be able to demand thousands for players not worth that, whilst at the same time needed to keep enough of a squad to be technically eligible to compete.

I know I'm making assumptions here on the state of play regarding the welfare system and current lending terms for financial institutions in the UK, but I do think laying any of the blame at the feet of those who are amongst those who have suffered most in all of this is a bit harsh.

I maybe was a bit harsh, but I still think their course of action was foolhardy.

it is a bit like working for free, I agree, but it is also different. Footballers need to play football otherwise they become unfit. they also can't play for anyone else until June, so it's not like they can get a job elsewhere. (Actually, maybe they can as they are now free agents).

Necronomicon wrote: »

It's crazy to think that the teams that contested the 2008 FA Cup final may not exist by next year. Hope it doesn't happen to either obviously. Looking at SSN Chester fans seemed content with the decision, they just want to get on with their new team, good luck to them.

I don;t know if anyone saw the Ponmpey v Birmingham game on Saturday, but they interviewed david James beforehand. Apparantly one of the finance team said, the day after we won the cup, that it could ruin the club because of the bonuses we had to pay out.

I remember Redknapp joking when we signed a player (Sully Muntari I think it was) that his agent was insisting that we gave his client a £500,000 bonus if we qualified for europe and Redknapp told the press conference that he told the chairman, yeah why not, we aint going to qualify for europe, who does he think he is signing for, its pompey innit.

Bearing in mind a lot of our players were signed through a small number of agents it would not be hard to imagine that a lot of players had the same bonus. and guess what, we went and qualified for europe.

leninbenjamin

leninbenjamin wrote: »

If someone like the Glazer's came along Kenwright would probably bite their arms off

your harsh on Kenwright. hes a genuine Evertonian and i don't think he would want Everton to go down the same route as the Glazers have with United.

Back to topic, £29,000 debt and it would have cost £1 to buy them at one stage. Very very sad story. 126 years old....

Relegation to the conference probably ultimately sealed their fate. the fans probably want to start a club without debt, with a new team and new manager whilst keeping the traditions of the old regime so perhaps in one way £29k is alot of debt to ask fans to clear, fans who are probably working class to begin with

flahavaj

If only the thread title was preceded by "Man".:pac:

Pure_Cork

Deleted User wrote: »

your harsh on Kenwright. hes a genuine Evertonian and i don't think he would want Everton to go down the same route as the Glazers have with United.

Back to topic, £29,000 debt and it would have cost £1 to buy them at one stage. Very very sad story. 126 years old....

Relegation to the conference probably ultimately sealed their fate. the fans probably want to start a club without debt, with a new team and new manager whilst keeping the traditions of the old regime so perhaps in one way £29k is alot of debt to ask fans to clear, fans who are probably working class to begin with

The fans could easily have cleared the £26k in taxes - the immediate debt. This was only the tip of the iceberg. Total debts were a lot higher than that, rumoured to be around £7m.

Fratton Fred

Yeah, it was £26k to the tax man. If you can't pay off all the debts and are going under, why pay off any.

Really?, 7m? f*ck that is unbelievable for a conference club who were div(or league 2, whatever you want to call it) for as long as i can remember.

peejay1986

I've lived in Chester for almost 4 years while at University. Its such a shame to see Chester City go under. A city like Chester deserves a football club but suffers from having both Liverpool and Manchester situated within an hour's drive. Liverpool/Everton would be the main clubs in Chester and throughout my time here I very rarely met anyone who went to see Chester play. Perhaps a new club in the city could have a better chance of connecting with the people of Chester.

Good luck to any future projects that come as a result of Chester City's demise.

pickarooney

They could probably have one hell of a youth team with all the offspring of the Prem footballers who live there.