by Richard Brook
Hereford United are one of the latest of a growing list of football clubs to find themselves facing financial crisis, and yet there has been barely a whisper of the news in the mainstream football media. Football is too caught up with the glittering glow of the Champions League to take an interest in the kind of club that exemplifies the British footballing tradition, teetering on the brink. The papers are too busy reporting who is not going to shake hands with who, and other such play-ground squabbling of extremely privileged, fully grown millionaires to pay any attention to the precarious position of a club formed in 1924. Who cares about Hereford United?
Like any club, Hereford United will have some fans to whom the club means everything. To a supporter it matters not in the slightest whether their club is amongst the sparkling elite of the game, or whether their side is ploughing the lower end of the pyramid, you follow your team no matter what. Whether out of local pride that almost warrants the term patriotism, or whether because a club is so entrenched in your family heritage that it almost forms part of your DNA, literally every club means everything to someone. Hereford United means everything to someone, so they care about Hereford United, I care about Hereford United and so should you.
In terms of Hereford’s recent monetary tribulations there is one anecdote that illustrates the point with perfect clarity. In response to the urgent financial needs of the Edgar Street club the chairman, David Keyte, suggested that 2000 supporters might pledge £100 each to meet the immediate needs of the club. The chairman of Hereford United Independent Supporters Association (HUISA) recounts that a young fan of around 18 years of age, approached him in tears to donate a signed picture of the Bulls side that won promotion from the Conference. The fan was apparently unable to afford £100 but clearly desperate to do everything he could, he told HUISA they could have is treasured piece of memorabilia if it would help.
I can identify with that sense of helplessness, when it comes to one’s own football club facing an uncertain financial future, my own club Sheffield Wednesday were in more trouble than most football fans, including many Wednesday fans, seemed to realise immediately before Milan Mandaric took over the club late in 2010. Although I did not give up any precious possessions for my club’s future – the figures to help Hereford and the figures that would have helped Wednesday 2010 being vastly different – I suspect that whatever lies ahead for Hereford this young fan will always take a degree of satisfaction from the fact that he did everything he could for the club he obviously loves.
Not long after Mandaric’s takeover at Wednesday, Hereford came to Hillsborough in the FA Cup and gave Wednesday a bit of a scare by opening the scoring, although the Owls eventually ran out 4-1 winners. A mark of the day was how many friends Hereford won amongst Wednesday fans through their support. This support has really come together in their efforts to aid the cash-strapped Bulls. A further donation of memorabilia was made of Hereford’s former player-manager, John Charles’, old Juventus shirt. Other fund-raising activities include a sponsored chest and leg waxing event prior to the home game with Luton on November 6th, and before the match against Telford on December 1st a sponsored walk will take place from the Anchor Pub in Malvern to the club’s Edgar Street ground. Downton Abbey actor, Matt Milne, went as far as to hijack an interview he did for day-time television programme ‘This Morning’, to appeal on behalf of his home-town club.
It has been reported that Hereford need to raise £240,000 by the end of November, with administration the likely result of this objective is not met. Keyte is unwilling to continue to finance the club, along with the rest of the board, in the midst of low crowds – attendances are around the 1,500 mark with the budget apparently based on 2,400 – having put large sums of his own money into the club especially over the last year or so. Within five days of appealing to the supporters £15,000 had come in including donations from Cape Town, Cyprus, New York and Norway. This return represents a terrific effort, but much more will be needed with the club counting the cost of relegation from the Football League, with drastically falling television revenues and with ten players still on Football League contracts, still on the clubs books.
The Bulls have also failed to make payments to HMRC, for which they find themselves under transfer embargo by the Conference. The club are also understood to be having difficulties paying the playing staff. Keyte has said however, that due to HMRC’s refusal of part payment that money could be used to pay some of the owing salaries. The club have been given some hope by virtue of the FA Cup, in which they have been drawn at home to rivals Shrewsbury. The chairman hopes that this is a draw that could see the club break even for December.
So what is special about Hereford United? Nothing and everything. Every club in our system has a unique history, fan base and local pride. This fact was astonishingly lost on Andre Villas-Boas when he suggested that Premier League teams should be able to field B teams in the Championship, as in the Spanish system. A typical display of the Premier League-centric arrogance that misses the very roots of where English football comes from. It forgets the founders of our teams in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It ignores the generations that have passed the tradition down. It denies the deep love that some supporters feel for their club. Hereford are no different and that paradoxically means that to someone they are exceptional.
Since falling out of the League Hereford have seen the money they receive from television deals drop by a drastic amount. When they were a League Two team they obtained just £743,000 from Premier League and Football League television money. It is here that we hit on the real arrogance of top-level English football. £743,000 is nothing to Premier League clubs – for some players it is a few weeks wages. English football should be looking after itself, not damaging its own heritage. Clubs should not be heading for administration or worse, over such comparatively small sums, when there is so much money in the game. There needs to be a fairer distribution of wealth within the sport to stop the rich getting richer while the poor go bust. Hereford United are by no means alone in experiencing financial trouble in these tough times.
We are talking about a football club, with some wonderfully loyal supporters, and almost 100 years history potentially going into administration for barely any more money than one Premier League millionaire was fined for calling another Premier League millionaire names, and that situation has to be wrong. Hereford United and any other club whose very existence is threatened deserve better than to be treated as an unwanted aside to the trivial playground dramas of the Premier League.
Should anyone reading this wish to help Hereford United:
Donations can be made to Hereford United via the clubs online shop http://www.idsports.net/shop/Hereford-United-Club-Donation/
To join in or sponsor the waxing event tweet @Squin4 or @StefanDavies91
To join in or sponsor the walk email hadopolythene@btconnect.com
Sponsored walk. 1st Dec, 20 miles Malvern to Edgar Street, Hereford, please donate to save a real great little club.
#hufcwalk
thanks @ndydave
Brilliant article, brilliantly written. This should be the lead article of all the national newspapers’ sports sections. This is what matters to the vast majority of football supporters. Who did or didn’t shake hands with whom, should be the stuff of gossip columns or ‘celebrity’ rags, not the subject of front or back pages. We need much more of this kind of reporting.
Hi Max – Thank you. I think that is the most overwhelming praise I have ever had and I am very grateful. As pleasing as personal praise is obviously the main thing is that clubs like Hereford, Kettering and many others are restored to financial viability and that football should adopt a more sustainable model regarding distribution of wealth.
We need to try to prevent the inequitable situation that sees whole clubs going to the wall for the price of one player’s weekly wage, or there abouts.
@ndydave and the rest of the Hereford fund raisers – Good luck with your efforts, and good luck to The Bulls on and off the pitch!
Richard, I wrote what I did because I genuinely believe it. I’m a life long Aston Villa fan but I care about football, not just Villa. As you allude to in your article, any genuine supporter will follow their team whether they’re flying high or scratching an existence in the lower leagues. Can you imagine the FA Cup without the ‘lesser’ teams?
This is the first time I’ve read an article on this website but you MUST forward it to the nationals. Not just because it’s a brilliant piece of journalism – as a ‘punter’ and not a critic, I can say it is well executed and easy to understand – but because it gets to the soul of what real supporters believe. Jeremy Winter et al. would do well to save their hyperbole for things that really matter. (FB friends have been sharing your article like wildfire).
I’d like to forward your article to all the sports writers at the nationals but I won’t without your permission. (I’m sure you can do this without my help!). They may not see it as a story worth publishing but it really is key to the lifeblood of football. maxrjones@gmail.com [publish some or none of the above but if I can help in any way please let me know]
Comment
Hi Max – Thank you again. Feel free to try and promote anything I write to whoever you see fit. Once it is in the public domain and there is no sense in me trying to control it.
I would love for the nationals to take a proper interest in this issue (and for that matter my previous piece Reporting On Racism) so please spread the word. Be warned I tweeted the piece to several journalists though out yesterday as and when they became available on twitter. None replied which might indicate that they were too busy just as easily as it might indicate disinterest. Maybe a voice that is not that of the author might help?
My email: rjb@rjb81media.co.uk
My twitter: @rjb81media1
Thanks for your help!
I am a Scarborough athletic supporter a club born from the ashes of Scarborough who was managed by Colin addison and in 2006 gave Chelsea a scare in the f.a cup. The club now play in ncel premier division and are currently flying high.
The last thing any football fan would want is to see a club go bust and I hop Hereford get out of this mess but if the go into admin or fold it’s the local businesses and people who need to carry some blame. Hereford took 7000 to Sheffield wed in Fa cup but can barely scrap 1500 now in the league and the manager budget is for 2400 crowd very optimistic even for a top conference club.
So people of Hereford who when the club has gone will moan and blame others stand up now and put your hands in your pockets and hufc board reduce prices £16.00-£18.00 for adult in conference is daylight robbery.
Great piece, thank you. COYW!
Really good article, you’ve nailed it. When you really think about the figures involved, especially the weekly wages of so-called “word-class” players (who consistently fail to impress at International level but that’s another story), and what English football has become, it is most definitely wrong.
Thanks for the write-up. The various football journalists of the national newspapers could learn a lot from your article!
Hi Andy – You make many interesting and pertinent points that Hereford will need to consider at some stage and coming from someone who has been there and seen it I am in no position to disagree. Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Bob and Mike – I am glad you appreciated the piece. If that is the kind of thing you think our top football journalists should be writing for you tweet them and link them to it. If the astonishing 222 people who have liked this did that, it would be difficult for them to ignore. It would raise the profile of Hereford’s position and the wider concerns it seems many genuine football fans, including Premier League fans, seem to share.
Thanks for your kind words.