FOOTBALL BEYOND A JOKE

After a few days which have redefined the word ineptitude, the new Conference season kicks off today with my club, Chester, sitting on the sidelines like the class dunce.
On Thursday, the Conference announced that the imposition of a 25-point penalty on Chester had cleared the way for us to kick off as planned, away to Grays.
Yesterday, late on, the Conference issued another statement saying that the FA were still not happy with Chester's arrangements in coming out of administration, and so the game was off.

The lack of communication between the FA and Conference is astonishing.

But the real architects of the crisis are the owners of CCFC. Even when the Conference gave them the go-ahead on Thursday I could not see how this would be acceptable when the owners have so far failed to reach an agreement with the taxman and the vatman over the little matter of £982,742.61 in outstanding debts. The FA will not accept a club's affiliation unless an agreement is in place.

Chester may not have millions of supporters worldwide. But to those of us who do support the club, it means as much as any team of galacticos. It ought to be a good, lively, well-run set-up performing a valuable role in the community of one of England's smaller cities. Instead it has become a useless, washed-up embarrassment which will only change when someone buys out the Vaughan family.
The only very small consolation today is that the asking price must be more affordable than ever.