A GREAT DAY TO BE A FOOTBALL FAN

It’s polling day in the UK but for some of us the vote that really matters has already been announced.

At one minute past midnight the news was officially released that Chester FC’s supporters organisation, City Fans United, has been awarded the lease of the Deva Stadium by the owners, Cheshire West and Chester Council.

This was not a “gimme.” There was a rival bid from a Danish consortium who had useful support from Jan Molby and Mark Wright. But the council has taken what I believe to be completely the correct option.

Had the Danes succeeded there was a real risk that football would disappear from Chester for ever. Supporters and the public at large have been so enthused by the CFU campaign that it is doubtful that many would have rolled up to see matches staged by a set-up parachuted in from abroad.

The fans can take massive credit. Last August they were angry, disillusioned, and most significantly isolated. Antagonised, then alienated, then scorned by the ill-fated Vaughan regime they felt helpless. But they got together. They held meetings and people turned up in droves. They looked at a future without the great game and didn’t like it. They discovered a real appetite to keep professional football alive.

Clever, sensible, articulate people emerged to lead and organise. Suddenly, things were happening. Lines of communication with the public were established. Money was raised. Outings for kids were organised. All good, positive developments the like of which the dying regime could never have emulated.

Most important of all, a credible business plan was formulated which has convinced the council that the fans are the correct custodians for the future.

Comparing the situation today with that of a year ago, this is a dramatic and astonishing victory for football supporters.

I congratulate CFU and wish them every success. They don’t need me to tell them that the hard work is only just starting. But in the best football tradition, they should take each day as it comes and that means enjoying today to the full, a great day to be a football fan.

DAY THE FANS GOT MAD AS HELL

Very good piece by the Guardian's David Conn today on the lesson that football can learn from Chester's demise. It's also really heartening to see so many messages of support posted by readers of David's piece.

RUMBLINGS FROM THE GRAVE

So what is it like when your football club has been killed off? Surprisingly, it is proving quite uplifting. Not the initial stage of course, the o-my-god-what-will-we-do-on Saturdays-now phase, not the will-anyone-notice-we've-gone phase, and certainly not the underwhelming sight of those clubs still alive squabbling over the points they took off us before our demise, like mangey hyenas fighting over fleshless bones.

We've experienced all that and it hasn't taken long to leave it in the past. Let them fight over our points, the bastards. OK, maybe some of us haven't left it all behind just yet!

But the feeling of liberation is terrific. Chester City (in case you were wondering) doesn't have to cope with a regime which was seemingly hellbent on self destruction any more. That episode is history. Now we are seeing a new club emerge from the rubble, and it's happening amazingly quickly.

Months before the official liquidation of the club supporters saw what was going to happen. They've been preparing since August for the probability that a new club would have to be created. Now a raft of positive moves are being made, from talking to the local council about using the Deva Stadium to preparing an application to the FA to raising money to signing up volunteers and on and on.

Already the fans have dispelled any notion that somehow being a fan prevents you from running a football club. City Fans United already have fund-raising and communication systems that the previous gang couldn't even dream of. Money is coming in, loyalty is being inspired and enthusiasm is being regenerated.

The chances of a new club kicking off next season are improving by the day.

One interesting barometer is the fans' online forum Devachat. For months any thread would barely surive a handful of posts before bickering and insults would grind it into the mud. Now, articulate and informative threads are the order of the day, with fans debating topics like the new name for the club, the colours of the shirt, the badge, ticket prices and so on. People feel a clear sense of ownership now, and engagement, and there isn't even a team on the pitch yet! It underlines what was missing for so long beforehand.

Incredibly, far from being a terrible time to support a football club, it is a wonderful time.

THE AXE FALLS

I've just had a phone call from Radio City telling me that Chester City FC has been wound up in the High Court. Have done a quick interview for them in which I quoted the words of that one-time left-winger Oliver Cromwell who described the execution of King Charles I as a sad necessity. Old Noll should have been around today. Now it's onwards with a new club, hopefully to be run by the fans and playing at the Deva.

Long live the revolution.

WEMBLEY WAY

Off to Wembley today to see England play Egypt and despite all the football I've seen over many years I am really excited about this. It's my first visit to the new Wembley.

First visit to the old Wembley was in the spring of 1967 when my dad took me to see England - reigning world champions - play Spain. I remember gazing up at the massive concrete ramparts. And that was only Jack Charlton. The stadium seemed pretty imposing too. We won, as we tended to in those days.

My stand-out professional memory of the old Wembley is my first commentary from there - the 1984 FA Cup Final in which Everton beat Watford 2-0. Funniest moment was the replay of the 1983 final. This was the year Steve Foster, captain of Brighton, went to court to overturn an FA ban which kept him out of the game against Manchester United. Foster lost but without him his team-mates held out for a 0-0 draw. This gave Foster the chance to play in a final after all, only for United to stroll the replay 4-0. "Stevie Foster, Stevie Foster, what a difference you have made!" came the chant from the United end. Wickedly funny.

It was always my dream to see Chester play at Wembley. It used to bug me, as a young fan, that small teams like Skelmersdale Utd had a better chance of appearing at Wembley than we did because they could play in the FA Amateur Cup. Then the Associate Members Cup was invented - aka the Johnstone's Paint Trophy - and I figured this was our big chance.

Well, if it was we never took it. We did reach the Northern Final one year, losing to Mansfield, an event I remember best for the handbrake cable snapping on my much-loved Ford Capri. And there was a famous near-miss when we reached the League Cup semi-final in 1975.

But Wembley is still the place to be and England will just have to cope with the added pressure of carrying all my Wembley dreams from now on.

CHESTER CITY: THE BUCK HAS STOPPED

I was at Burnley v Portsmouth today and normally I'd be listening out for the latest score from wherever Chester were playing. But not today and not for some time into the future. Yesterday my club was expelled from the Football Conference and that is pretty much that.

Bad news is still bad news even when it is expected. I doubt if I am the only Chester fan who will remember for the rest of our lives where we were when we heard the news. Of course if you're not a Chester fan this may sound like so much hyperbole, but think for a moment: what if this was YOUR club? I was in one of the broadcast rooms at the University of Central Lancashire when the news flashed up on the screen. It was a horrible feeling.

Of course we all knew it was coming. It was obvious for months that the club could not complete the season. Appalling business practices, an atmosphere of violence and intimidation, and alienation of the supporters, had been going on for years. But it was still a hammer blow.

I suspect the football authorities will want to wash their hands of the Chester saga as soon as possible. I doubt if the national media will bat an eyelid. That would be a mistake. There are many lessons which can be learned for the benefit of other clubs. One is the over-indulgence of the football authorities who should have clamped down on the Vaughan regime much sooner. And even more deserving of penetrating questioning is the administrator who took over the club last summer and unbelievably sold it straight back to Vaughan, the very man who had created Chester's crisis in the first place. This was akin to giving a convicted arsonist a can of petrol, a box of matches and a pat on the head. Who regulates these financial wizards? The administrator - Refresh Recovery of Skelmersdale - should be forced to answer for its actions. They were supposed to make decisions that would keep the company going. They made decisions that guaranteed its demise.

Among other lessons is that it always worth listening to the supporters. The fans are the only ones who have come out of this debacle with credibility. Their reading of events, as expressed on messageboards and by the City Fans United group, has been spot on.

So we have been kicked out of the league, and rightly so. What next? Unbelievably, things could get even worse. In less than two weeks the Chester City 2004 company faces a winding up order. If the Vaughan family contest this, or manage to hoodwink the court into allowing them to continue, we will be left with the ultimate lose-lose situation - the club with nowhere to play but the Vaughans still owning the company. The best solution is for the company to be wound up, leaving the way clear for the supporters to launch a phoenix club and start the long trek back to respectability.

And even here the waters are muddy. A group of football enthusiasts from Denmark have arrived on the scene, banding together through Facebook to come up with the spiffing wheeze of buying a football club. You guessed it, Chester. The Vaughans claimed to have sold it to them a week ago. Clearly they haven't. But the presence of the Danes is an unwelcome distraction. There is no evidence that they have the money or the knowledge to carry this scheme through and it is hard to avoid the fear that they will bite off far more than they can chew if they proceed.

So our season is over, our reputation is trashed, and we have no idea if we can launch a new club or not. Football Association, Football Conference, the Vaughan family, and Refresh Recovery: you have a lot to answer for.

OUR LOWEST POINT. SO FAR.

I'm digesting the news that Chester City's match away to Forest Green tonight has been called off because Chester couldn't raise a team. I confess to feeling a grim sense of satisfaction. Apparently several players refused to board the coach because they haven't been paid for months. Well done the players. They have cut the club enough slack already.

The owners have now managed to get the players on strike and the fans on strike. If this is not enough to persuade the FA to send in a trouble-shooter to sort things out then they will be even more derelict in their duty than they've been so far.

Things are so bad that the club's supporters have been moved to write to every other club in the Conference apologising for the club's abysmal conduct this season. Not that the fans are the ones who should be apologising.

This farce has arisen because of the appalling way the club has been run over the last few years, racking up debts while alienating everyone. Because when it went into administration in the summer the administrator (whose conduct should also be investigated) sold it back to the same people who had caused the crisis in the first place. And because even now the owners are refusing to negotiate a proper sale. Offering the club for sale at £1 without disclosing the extent of the debt is like asking someone to throw a petrol bomb into their own house.

The final insult is just around the corner - that we will probably go out of business just before we are due to play our greatest rivals. Wrexham are due at the Deva on Sunday. I'll be amazed if the game takes place. The police won't staff the game unless they are paid up front and there is no money.

What a way to go, with our old foes dancing on the grave.

A THRILLER AND A CHILLER

A thrilling League Cup semi-final at Villa Park with a two-goal lead being wiped out. Last night's seesaw action between Villa and Blackburn had my mind whirling back to the same stadium, same competition, same stage, 35 years ago. On that occasion it was my club, Chester City, who came from two down to level at 2-2. We had drawn the first leg 2-2 at Sealand Road. At Villa Park we looked down and out, as everyone had predicted, when the home team went 2-0 ahead. Then the late and much lamented Stuart Mason slammed home a Steven Gerrard-style rocket. Soon afterwards Jesse James turned in a loose ball from close range. I was in the press box and turned to the Liverpool Daily Post's veteran writer Horace Yates and said "I don't believe what I'm seeing here." Horace smiled indulgently, knowing that it would end it tears. It did. Ten minutes from time Brian Little snaffled a winner for the Villa. Even then Norman Whitehead went incredibly close to a third goal for us.

That season I'd spent a fair amount of time covering Chester's exploits and I'd been in the dresing room with the players after some fantastic wins. This time I went into the dressing room expecting a hubbub of activity and it was like a morgue. No-one was saying anything. The lads were sat on the benches, heads down, in total silence. The fact that they were devastated showed how close they'd been to Wembley and how realistic their chances of winning actually were. They had played superbly - a Fourth Division team defying all the odds.

A few weeks later the smiles were back when they clinched promotion - the least they deserved.

We had a great team, clever management in Ken Roberts and coach Brian Green, and a sensible board led by local florist Reg Rowlands.

The club today is unrecognisable. League position dire, finances worse, reputation shot to pieces, owners discredited, players unpaid and defecting, fans disillusioned.

Today the supporters' group City Fans United announced an overwhelming vote in favour of an official boycott of home games until the club is back in the hands of reputable locally-based owners. Well done the fans! Enough is enough, a stand is being made, and maybe, one day, we can start building a club which is again worthy of respect.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN.....

The Football Conference have allowed Chester City to stay in the Blue Square Premiership after the club produced a cheque for £36,600 yesterday in payment of football debts. But the next hurdle for City's embattled rulers may not be long in appearing.

The Football Association have replied to my letter of November 22nd (see blog entry for that date). It is interesting stuff.

The FA point out that the definition of "director" as it applies to implementation of the Fit and Proper Persons regulations is much wider than the usual definition. The FA's definition of the role is not simply a person who is a member of a company's board. A director in their terms is (among a range of definitions) "a person exercising direct or indirect control over a corporate director of the Club."

It is hard to see how Stephen Vaughan can claim he is not in that position in respect of his son, Stephen junior, to whom Vaughan senior apparently gifted his 100% ownership.

By any reasonable interpretation therefore, Stephen senior is still a director of the football club.

That places him in clear contravention of the FA's regulations pursuant to Rule J1(F) of the association.

And when that happens, the FA will, according to Paragraph 4 of the Fit and Proper Persons Test for Clubs Competing in the Football Conference Ltd, issue a written notice requesting the Conference to suspend a club's membership.

I suspect the FA was waiting to see what action the Conference would take yesterday. Surviving one threat simply puts Vaughan (senior or junior, take your pick)in line for the next.

The fact that the helpful gentleman from the FA pointed me in the direction of the key sections of the regulations suggests that the authorities at Wembley Stadium are only too well aware of what is going on.

The situation at Chester City goes from farce to tragedy. I have sent the following letter to the Football Association's Compliance Unit.

Compliance Unit
Football Association
25 Soho Square
LONDON
W1D 4FA


November 22 2009


Dear Sir/Madam

I am a journalist who has covered professional football for over 35 years. I am also a supporter of Chester City FC for 47 years.

I am writing to ask you to investigate the transfer of ownership of the club from Stephen Vaughan to his son, Stephen Vaughan junior, as announced by Mr Vaughan senior in a radio interview yesterday.

You will be aware that under the terms of a Disqualification Undertaking signed by Stephen Vaughan senior on November 11th 2009 he accepted a bar on acting as a company director for a period of 11 years. The FA then indicated to David Conn of The Guardian that it would take the necessary steps to ensure that the ownership of Chester City complied with your “fit and proper persons” test.

It is inconceivable that the transfer of ownership to Mr Vaughan’s 24-year-old son, who is a professional footballer on the books of Chester City, should create a situation in which Mr Vaughan has no control or influence over decision-making. This would appear to be an attempt to circumvent the rules and regulations of the FA.

You will also be aware that the entire future of the football club is hanging by a thread for financial reasons. I ask you now to act swiftly and decisively to ensure that the ownership of the club is transferred to genuine purchasers at a reasonable price. There are potential buyers who have expressed interest. Any delay could be fatal to the future of the club which, without a genuine change of ownership, will (by its own financial projections posted on the official club website in September) be insolvent long before the end of the season.

I would be grateful if you could contact me to let me know what action you will take.

Yours faithfully




CHARLIE LAMBERT

GUARDIAN TURNS SPOTLIGHT ON CHESTER

Chester City's plight is brilliantly summed up by David Conn in today's Guardian. In a detailed analysis Conn traces the path from Stephen Vaughan's takeover in 2001 to today's situation in which the club is broke, cast adrift at the foot of the Blue Square Premier, and facing expulsion unless football debts are cleared by Monday week.

The main story inside the Guardian's sport section is also written up on Sport's front page, under the news line that Vaughan has become the first person to fail the FA's "fit and proper person's test." Another dubious distinction for our club.

David's piece performs two other functions. It gives us, the club's supporters, a real boost knowing that someone in a positon of influence has noticed what is going on. And I hope it also embarrasses the FA who should have taken action much, much earlier.

Meanwhile the Liverpool Daily Post today reports that the club is talking to potential new owners. I'll wait and see on that one - there have been too many false dawns already.

TURNING UP HEAT ON CHESTER OWNER

The wolves are beginning to circle around the owner of Chester City, Stephen Vaughan. Mr Vaughan has now been banned from holding a directorship of any company for 11 years as a result of an alleged VAT scam when he was in charge of Widnes RLFC. This involved an illegal claim for just over £500,000.

He remains as owner of Chester but one wonders for how long. I am sure that HM Revenue and Customs, encouraged by their findings at Widnes, are even now scrutinising the books (such as they are) at the Deva.

IN THE HOT SEAT

Meeting of the committee of the Chester City Former Players Association tonight in what is becoming our favourite pub on the outskirts of the city. It was time to grasp the nettle of who does what. Gary Talbot, our legendary goalscorer from the 1960s is our president. Grenville Millington - goalkeeper in our most successful team of the 1970s - is our chairman. Alan Tarbuck, another superb goalgetter for Chester in the late 60s, is treasurer. My pal Chas Sumner, Chester City statto and historian, is secretary and I am (guess what) media officer.

Gary and Gren went to Chester's home game with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday. They were guests of the club which was a very nice gesture. The invitation followed on from the FPA's approach to the club back in September to inform them that the association was being set up and to ask permission to incorporate the club's badge in the logo. Bob Gray, managing director, has been very supportive.

There was a bit of a problem on Saturday when the FPA was wrongly announced as being match sponsors. Some fans understandably concluded that the FPA was putting money into the club and wondered why that was the case. In fact, Gary and Gren were asked to select the Man of the Match, which is usually the role of the sponsors, and the mistake seems to have taken off from there.

The FPA did not sponsor the game and paid out no money.

CHESTER CHRONICLE WIDENS ITS NET

Last week the Chester Chronicle asked me to write an article about the sad state of affairs at my favourite football club, prompted by the Conference's threat to expel us for non-payment of debts.

Interesting to note that the Chronicle has published it online today, ahead of the print edition. They also posted a link on the main fans' messageboard, Devachat. Clever way to maximise attention and good use of digital media by so-called traditionalists.

My pal Jonathan Legard also has his say. The BBC's Formula One commentator is a stalwart Blues fan. Like most of us, he is appalled at the current situation. Something has to give, and soon.

Read both articles at www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-city-fc/

CHESTER CITY STAY ON DEATH ROW

A stay of execution but we remain on Death Row.

This evening the Conference backed off from expelling Chester City due to non-payment of football debts. New deadline is November 16th. So much for the club's assurance that the monies would all be handed over in good time.

To me the delay serves only to underline how skint the football club is. If they had the money, surely they would have paid up. And yet, barely three months after managing to get their debts wiped out by going into administration, they can't make this very important payment.

It looks like we will make it to Hallowe'en after all. But will we still be around on Twelfth Night? I'm not betting on it.

BEFORE REBIRTH MUST COME A DEATH

It's early Friday morning and I am reflecting on an absorbing evening in Chester.

My role tonight (last night!) was to chair the launch of City Fans United, the new organisation for Chester fans which has been formed by the amalgamation of two previous groups.

We met as the shadows gathered over our club once again, with the Conference threatening to boot us out if the club does not pay certain debts by Monday. I gather that the owners will cobble together enough cash to see off this particular threat. But there will be another. And another. The club doesn't know how to conduct itself properly and is on track to inevitable self-destruction.

The fans' meeting was packed. The mood was serious. It was also focused. And the biggest applause of the night came when one supporter said he fully expected the present club to go bust in the next few months, and that in August we, the fans, will be part of the foundation of a new Chester FC starting from scratch in a lower league. The response spoke volumes - that the punters recognise the seriousness of the situation, that they are sick of the present regime, and that they don't see the birth of a new club as a disgrace. Rather, they see it as a way to reclaim our pride.

GOOD NEWS IN A TOUGH ENVIRONMENT

It's nice to be able to report something positive from that beleaguered outpost of footballing turmoil known as Chester City FC. For the last couple of weeks I've been working with three other Chester fans to set up a Former Players Association for the ex-players of the club.

The other fans are a bit more than simply fans. They are Gary Talbot, our legendary goal-getter from the 1960s who once scored 33 goals in one season, Grenville Millington, our goalkeeper in the 1974-75 season when we reached the semi-finals of the League Cup anbd won promotion, and Chas Sumner, Chester's club historian and statistician.

The four of us met at the Shrewsbury Arms, just outside Chester, to discuss setting up an FPA and by the time we broke up the Association was formed. The aims are to give ex-players the opportunity to get together, raise some cash for charity, and give fans a focal point for paying tribute to their heroes.

The club may be on its knees at the moment, but it hasn't always been like that and it's good to reflect on great days and happy memories. Who knows, it might inspire better days in the future.

Work to build on that decison at the Shrewsbury Arms is racing ahead and we now want anyone who has played a first team game for Chester to contact us and sign up via our website: www.formerchesterplayers.com

The picture shows Gary and Grenville in front, and Paul Baker of our generous sponsors UKS Transglobal and Chas at the back.

Big thanks to the Rev Harry Ross, of Everton's FPA, for his encouragement and advice.

ONE CLOUD HAS LIFTED

The FA has cleared the way for Chester to carry on. Our first game will be at home to Cambridge on Saturday. But it was a close-run thing. The FA fined the Conference £5000 for failing to apply their own rules correctly. If they had done so, we would have been expelled from the competition for failing to exit administration correctly. The additional 15-point penalty imposed by the Conference still stands, so we start our campaign on minus 25.
In the relief all Chester supporters feel at the club still being alive, I hope no-one overlooks the reasons why we ended up in this situation in the first place.
This blog will now move on to other matters!

THIS COULD BE MAKE OR BREAK

This is another mega day. The FA and the management of the Conference are debating what to do with the game's basket case, us. That's Chester City FC. We expect an announcement today.
This evening I'm chairing a meeting for all CCFC supporters and whatever the FA announces will obviously fuel the mood.
I've just done an interview over the phone for Radio City about our situation.
It's getting horribly close to push coming to shove.

FOOTBALL BREAKING MY HEART

Things stagger from bad to worse. Our first home game of the season, against Gateshead tomorrow, has now been called off. The FA have still not accepted our affiliation and they're now having a spat with the management of the Conference for saying it was ok for us to start the season. The Conference chiefs have been summoned to the FA on Thursday to explain themselves. Meanwhile the supporters, players and manager of Chester City are left like King Charles I with his head on the block, waiting for the axeman to take one last swing.
I am not hearing many positive noises. It is not inconceivable that Thursday's meeting will sound the deathknell of the club. The FA are taking a tougher stance with Chester than they have with any other club that's hit a crisis. Trouble is, they are probably justified.

Meanwhile I have accepted a request to chair a supporters' meeting in Chester on Thursday evening. It could be grim.