West Bromwich Albion
Another football club faces extinction
By Jemma Tappenden
April 18 2008
The days of football being for your average Joe working lad are well and truly past. Gone are the Saturday afternoon 3pm kick off’s (To a degree anyway) and the affordable father son day out. Here are the days of Sky dictation, totally unaffordable family days out and totally ridiculous player wages and transfer fees. Footballers do just not need second jobs any more.
Shame then that some of us fans do. With an all round average ticket price of £25, £3 a programme and a good fiver needed to be set aside for the pre game drink and pie, football is well and truly out spending itself.
But more worrying news to me is the announcement that yet another lower division side faces extinction unless funds can be found today by 5pm to free the club of the huge debts it holds with the Inland Revenue.
Rotherham Football Club could be no more by this evening if buyers are not found by the deadline set. The League Two Club have been financially ruined by constant falling attendances and a smaller than expected insurance pay out to repair damage caused by floods last year.
The club were docked 10 points in March of this year when they went into administration for the second time in three years. The points docked last season eventually cost them their place in League One, possibly a catalyst to the falling attendance issue.
The whole foundation on which the Premiership exists rocky to the extreme, yet I don’t see anybody rushing forward to offer assistance to these small clubs, whose debts must be tiny compared to the transfer funds clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool are prepared to fork out on just one player. One wonders what credibility the Premiership would retain should its foundation leagues slowly diminish over the years.
Rotherham’s predicament is neither new nor exclusive to them either. I remember with some sadness the events of 20th June 2007, when Scarborough FC, one of the oldest clubs in the football league having been founded in 1879, were forced to close their gates forever after failing to meet demands to pay off debts mounting to £2.5 million.
And what is £2.5 million exactly? Maybe someone like Roman Abramovich can answer that one. Just leaves me wondering how much of Shevchenko you could purchase for £2.5 million. Point made I believe.
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This could have been us in the 80s (twice) which is why the matter is so important.
What exactly is the FA doing to support the unique structure of English Football?
i went to rotheram a few years ago and had a good day out so its a shame to see clubs in so much trouble
3 more months of freedom
...and all because it represents EVERYTHING I detest about football these days. It's unchecked greed and pigs' snouts in the trough where that division is concerned. That, to me, is NOT football -it's commerce. Don't bother telling me that "real" football died years ago; I'm quite aware, thanks.
So, why would I want my beloved club to be part of that set-up? A division that couldnt give a flying f*ck about anyone or anything except themselves? The whole concept is fundamentally wrong, wrong, wrong. God, I wish Murdoch had never come along.
As for the exorbitant admission fees in the Prem....well, do I REALLY want to fork out such vast sums in order to watch vastly overpaid, egotistic, "couldn't give a f*ck", mercenary footballers? I'm not sure I do, to be honest.
...which brings me to poor, little Rotherham:
As a Wolf, I can sympathise and empathise with their fans. I aint forgotten what happened to my beloved club all those years ago. Until it happens to YOUR club...until you've personally experienced it...well, you've no idea of the shock and pain it causes fans. An eternity without ever again seeing your heroes in action is hard to stomach, at any level of the game.
Football clubs are much more than just hosts to our nation's favourite game: they are the bedrocks and foundations of their communities. So, the prospect of losing the Millers isn't just sad from a sporting point of view...it's devastating at a local level.
My heart goes out to the Rotherham fans. I just hope that a miracle is forthcoming. One thing's for sure, though: those bigwigs of inflated self-importance at our top Premier League clubs won't so much as give it a passing thought....
...and, you know, that not only says plenty about such people and the game itself, but it also says much, much more about the soulless, compassionless society we live in.
B*ggies, on reflection, you're welcome to your promotion. Maybe for the sake of 'real' football, my much-loved Wolves are better off where they are. As the old, Buddhist saying goes:
'Beware of what you most desire, for you may get it'.
Perhaps along the way, and in treasuring your new-found status, your club, too, will lose sight of what's important and what's not. When and if that day arrives, you'll have lost your club in the spiritual sense, if not in the physical.
So, spare a thought for Rotherham as you celebrate, won't you? Personally, I'm already mourning them.
COME ON YOU WOLVES....GERRIN' TO UM, AND F*CK 'EM OFF!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:04:19:10:06:20 by King Kenny Hibbitt.
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