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The latest example now being Plymouth Argyle, is enough being done to help debt crippled clubs?
The football club is the ultimate get away experience from life's anxieties and troubles. It's the 90 minutes on that big green rectangle that matters, not bills, deadlines or lovelife. But what happens when that is snatched away? Of course there are other forms of escapism, but football is more than that. Supporters of Plymouth have built a relationship with their club throughout a number of years, a bond with a football club is like no other. 'You can change your friends, your wife, your home... but you stand by your club' is the phrase often touted by fanatics. 'It's only a game' touted by casual realists, which although true in theory, is a lazy and emotionless view. When a person loses their outlet for stress or anger, it is only natural for that to affect their every day lives. Football is much more than a game. Not many sane people scatter their Grandad's ashes on a Monopoly board.
Of course my club - Bury FC - has been through rough times much like Argyle, yet thankfully had a romantic ending. Football fans all around the world pulled together and contributed to the SOS (save our shakers) campaign. Bury had saleable assets such as David Nugent and Colin Kazim-Richards; or Kazim-Kazim as he is known in Turkey. This, along with the support of lovers of the game, carried the Shakers out of their mire and, eventualy, on to a firm financial footing. But is that fair? Numerous clubs have overspent and mismanaged to reach dizzy heights in the league tables only to come crashing back down to reality (or League 2 as it is known in native English football language). The main aspects of a club are as follows:
The fans
The artery of the football club, yet in most cases have no say in how the club is run. Therefore if their club overspends and are subsequently punished, the fans are then seen as the victims of the situation. Merely innocent bystanders as three centuries of history hangs in the balance.
The chairman
Usually the man held responsible, yet is rarely punished; even if he is a con man as we saw at Notts County (though County were lucky enough to escape their overspending unpunished). Usually jumps ship as the club reaches the beginning of a sticky financial mess.
The players
Often are given no sympathy due to their stereotype as the stupid, lazy rich kid who couldn't care less about the club they earn a wage from. However, in the case of Plymouth and many others, they are doing their job without pay for a number of months. In the most extreme of cases, Neil Ashton joined Chester City in 2009 and was not paid in his time there. He had to take a job as a taxi driver to pay the bills - football is a different world outside......continued at The Death of a Football Club
The football club is the ultimate get away experience from life's anxieties and troubles. It's the 90 minutes on that big green rectangle that matters, not bills, deadlines or lovelife. But what happens when that is snatched away? Of course there are other forms of escapism, but football is more than that. Supporters of Plymouth have built a relationship with their club throughout a number of years, a bond with a football club is like no other. 'You can change your friends, your wife, your home... but you stand by your club' is the phrase often touted by fanatics. 'It's only a game' touted by casual realists, which although true in theory, is a lazy and emotionless view. When a person loses their outlet for stress or anger, it is only natural for that to affect their every day lives. Football is much more than a game. Not many sane people scatter their Grandad's ashes on a Monopoly board.
Of course my club - Bury FC - has been through rough times much like Argyle, yet thankfully had a romantic ending. Football fans all around the world pulled together and contributed to the SOS (save our shakers) campaign. Bury had saleable assets such as David Nugent and Colin Kazim-Richards; or Kazim-Kazim as he is known in Turkey. This, along with the support of lovers of the game, carried the Shakers out of their mire and, eventualy, on to a firm financial footing. But is that fair? Numerous clubs have overspent and mismanaged to reach dizzy heights in the league tables only to come crashing back down to reality (or League 2 as it is known in native English football language). The main aspects of a club are as follows:
The fans
The artery of the football club, yet in most cases have no say in how the club is run. Therefore if their club overspends and are subsequently punished, the fans are then seen as the victims of the situation. Merely innocent bystanders as three centuries of history hangs in the balance.
The chairman
Usually the man held responsible, yet is rarely punished; even if he is a con man as we saw at Notts County (though County were lucky enough to escape their overspending unpunished). Usually jumps ship as the club reaches the beginning of a sticky financial mess.
The players
Often are given no sympathy due to their stereotype as the stupid, lazy rich kid who couldn't care less about the club they earn a wage from. However, in the case of Plymouth and many others, they are doing their job without pay for a number of months. In the most extreme of cases, Neil Ashton joined Chester City in 2009 and was not paid in his time there. He had to take a job as a taxi driver to pay the bills - football is a different world outside......continued at The Death of a Football Club
