StockportFan
Newbie
Hi. Just to introduce myself, as the name probabaly suggests, I'm a Stockport Fan. (In peace).
I've actually come on here just to spread a bit of information about financial issues, but before I start, I'll just say a bit of a piece.
14 months ago, other Stockport supporters, myself and other football supporters in general wouldn't have bothered giving one about what happens to Southend United, and to be completely honest, after some of the hostility that was shown to some supporters the last time we were at Roots Hall, I did consider not bothering. Some of us were made to feel unwelcome and that's a shame because as football fans we all have the same passion. I have seen a post on here about the Stockport supporters 'not speaking English'.... I presume that was a reference to a chant called 'after the turn of the century', which nowadays is sung so fast that half of our supporters don't even know the words, but I can assure you, we do speak English and in Stockport we're not the stereotypical Northerners -ie scruffy farmers that don't know how to string a sentence together. (That's Lancashire and Yorkshire, ****holes).
However, as you may or may not be aware, 14 months ago, Stockport County entered into administration after avoiding a winding up petition and almost paying off urgent debts - but ultimately failing. The club was placed into administration over a £300k debenture debt that was held by a firm, ironically, not too far from Southend on Sea.
The company in question did not trust that they would see a return on their money, and after the team had secured enough points to avoid the drop into League Two even with a 10 - point deduction, at the end of the 2008/09 season, they placed us into administration. The most infuriating thing about this was not the administration itself, but what had been going on at the club at the time.
Back in 2009 SCAFC Limited (Stockport County) was owned by the Stockport Supporter's Trust, ie. we were a fan owned club. The Trust had its board, but they had nothing to do with the running of the club, as they were essentially ordinary fans. Therefore, they appointed a club board to run the club for them, even though the Trust Board were the owners. It later turned out that the Trust board, the owners, were not even made aware of the said debt that resulted in administration.
In addition to this, we no longer own Edgeley Park, it is owned by Sale Sharks and their greedy owner Brian Kennedy. Kennedy knew full well that the club was sliding under and that we had nowhere else to play, and so ripped the club off to play at EP and ultimately is held as one of the key reasons why the club had no money - to the extent that Kennedy forced the club into a contract that made them sign 30% of all player transfer fees over to him.
There was however a clause in this contract that said if the club could pay off it's debt to Kennedy from when he used to own the football club, he was obliged to sell Edgeley Park back to us for £1. To raise this money, a scheme called Ground For A Pound was set up, where 4 million pixels of an online picture went on sale, for 1 pound each. This money was then supposed to be ringfenced and used only to buy back EP, but the club went back on this deal and used it to pay wages. Again, we were not made aware of this until after the money had gone and the club was in admin.
Finally, most shockingly of all, the ethos of trust ownership was that everything was supposed to be clear for everyone to see. Upon entrance into administration, the former Managing Director had stated that the debt was just that £300k. It eventually turned out the real debt was £7,800,000.
This led to the administrators, as incompetent as they were, taking drastic action. Within a week they sacked our manager and club legend Jim Gannon who looks set to return to County in the next few days. They conducted a fire sale over the summer of all the club's best and bright players, and brought no - one in as replacements. Then, along came a man called Jim Melrose, with a consortium, and put a bid in for the club. They then attempted to take control of the club and convinced us all to buy season tickets, etc., and even appointed last season's manager, Gary Ablett. However, their proposed 'takeover' never went through and they were told to do one eventually by the Football League in March.
Gary Ablett tried his best, but was under embargo and restricted to only 20 players as per the rules of administration. He tried to use the loan market, and really did put in every effort, but was ultimately out of his depth. Gary was a fantatsic defender in his day as you may well remember, but couldn't manage. The result was the most embarassing and humiliating season we have ever endured, finishing bottom of League One with just 25 points and 5 wins all season. We twice bbroke a club record fort consecutive defeats and in March had our heaviest home defeat in sixty years, being murdered 6 - 0 by Huddersfield. Every time we went away from home, we tried to get behind our team, and we were mocked and humiliated, week in, week out.
Administration tore the soul out of our football club. Then, in May, the Grimsby Town chairman went to the Football League and requested that County were thrown out of the Football League altogether, so that Grimsby would survive. He was, naturally, ridiculed, told to buy a better squad and was sent home.
It was only the efforts of the supporters - or supporter, as it was, Mr. Dave Schofield, first organising a protest to the administrator's office to reduce their fees, who for 6 months had been charging \County a staggering £300 per hour, and then eventually bringing together the consortium that saved Stockport County in June. If it was not for Dave, there would be 23 teams in League Two next season and Southend would have matchday 1 off.
There's still a long way to go - we have no manager and just 7 contracted players at the club, but we now have a stable financial backdrop. We served our points penalty in 2008/09, suffered like you wouldn't believe in 2009/10, and we will most likely be relegated to the Conference in the coming season, but the point is that we have a football club to support, thanks to the determination and power of the fans, and one man in particular.
Now, I appreciate that that was long - winded and most probably gave up long ago, but I came on here to say this: Stockport County fans know full well that you at Southend are struggling, to put it lightly. I don't know the ins - and - outs, but I've heard about the winding up orders, only having a handful of players, the Sainsburys issue with Roots Hall etc, and I can assure you that we are doing everything to help highlight your plight to other supporters, especially with that letter to Sainsburys on Vital.
We might not see eye to eye at times, but we, after the 14 months we've had, wouldn't wish what we've suffered on anyone. The only way, in my eyes at least, to save a 'small' football club is through the power of fans. The first bitter pill is to accept that you are a small club, and that most businesspeople will walk away. Consortiums come and go, and the first ones almost always fail. Also, if it sounds too good to be true, it will be. But if you, as a fanbase, pulll together in the same direction, and either stand behind your chairman Mr. Martin, or put into place actions that will lead to a secure future, then regardless of what happens on the pitch in the short term, then will be a Southend United for you to support in years to come.
I, and my fellow supporters at County, really do wish you all the very best in securing a bright future and having success. Apart from on the opening day of course!!
I've actually come on here just to spread a bit of information about financial issues, but before I start, I'll just say a bit of a piece.
14 months ago, other Stockport supporters, myself and other football supporters in general wouldn't have bothered giving one about what happens to Southend United, and to be completely honest, after some of the hostility that was shown to some supporters the last time we were at Roots Hall, I did consider not bothering. Some of us were made to feel unwelcome and that's a shame because as football fans we all have the same passion. I have seen a post on here about the Stockport supporters 'not speaking English'.... I presume that was a reference to a chant called 'after the turn of the century', which nowadays is sung so fast that half of our supporters don't even know the words, but I can assure you, we do speak English and in Stockport we're not the stereotypical Northerners -ie scruffy farmers that don't know how to string a sentence together. (That's Lancashire and Yorkshire, ****holes).
However, as you may or may not be aware, 14 months ago, Stockport County entered into administration after avoiding a winding up petition and almost paying off urgent debts - but ultimately failing. The club was placed into administration over a £300k debenture debt that was held by a firm, ironically, not too far from Southend on Sea.
The company in question did not trust that they would see a return on their money, and after the team had secured enough points to avoid the drop into League Two even with a 10 - point deduction, at the end of the 2008/09 season, they placed us into administration. The most infuriating thing about this was not the administration itself, but what had been going on at the club at the time.
Back in 2009 SCAFC Limited (Stockport County) was owned by the Stockport Supporter's Trust, ie. we were a fan owned club. The Trust had its board, but they had nothing to do with the running of the club, as they were essentially ordinary fans. Therefore, they appointed a club board to run the club for them, even though the Trust Board were the owners. It later turned out that the Trust board, the owners, were not even made aware of the said debt that resulted in administration.
In addition to this, we no longer own Edgeley Park, it is owned by Sale Sharks and their greedy owner Brian Kennedy. Kennedy knew full well that the club was sliding under and that we had nowhere else to play, and so ripped the club off to play at EP and ultimately is held as one of the key reasons why the club had no money - to the extent that Kennedy forced the club into a contract that made them sign 30% of all player transfer fees over to him.
There was however a clause in this contract that said if the club could pay off it's debt to Kennedy from when he used to own the football club, he was obliged to sell Edgeley Park back to us for £1. To raise this money, a scheme called Ground For A Pound was set up, where 4 million pixels of an online picture went on sale, for 1 pound each. This money was then supposed to be ringfenced and used only to buy back EP, but the club went back on this deal and used it to pay wages. Again, we were not made aware of this until after the money had gone and the club was in admin.
Finally, most shockingly of all, the ethos of trust ownership was that everything was supposed to be clear for everyone to see. Upon entrance into administration, the former Managing Director had stated that the debt was just that £300k. It eventually turned out the real debt was £7,800,000.
This led to the administrators, as incompetent as they were, taking drastic action. Within a week they sacked our manager and club legend Jim Gannon who looks set to return to County in the next few days. They conducted a fire sale over the summer of all the club's best and bright players, and brought no - one in as replacements. Then, along came a man called Jim Melrose, with a consortium, and put a bid in for the club. They then attempted to take control of the club and convinced us all to buy season tickets, etc., and even appointed last season's manager, Gary Ablett. However, their proposed 'takeover' never went through and they were told to do one eventually by the Football League in March.
Gary Ablett tried his best, but was under embargo and restricted to only 20 players as per the rules of administration. He tried to use the loan market, and really did put in every effort, but was ultimately out of his depth. Gary was a fantatsic defender in his day as you may well remember, but couldn't manage. The result was the most embarassing and humiliating season we have ever endured, finishing bottom of League One with just 25 points and 5 wins all season. We twice bbroke a club record fort consecutive defeats and in March had our heaviest home defeat in sixty years, being murdered 6 - 0 by Huddersfield. Every time we went away from home, we tried to get behind our team, and we were mocked and humiliated, week in, week out.
Administration tore the soul out of our football club. Then, in May, the Grimsby Town chairman went to the Football League and requested that County were thrown out of the Football League altogether, so that Grimsby would survive. He was, naturally, ridiculed, told to buy a better squad and was sent home.
It was only the efforts of the supporters - or supporter, as it was, Mr. Dave Schofield, first organising a protest to the administrator's office to reduce their fees, who for 6 months had been charging \County a staggering £300 per hour, and then eventually bringing together the consortium that saved Stockport County in June. If it was not for Dave, there would be 23 teams in League Two next season and Southend would have matchday 1 off.
There's still a long way to go - we have no manager and just 7 contracted players at the club, but we now have a stable financial backdrop. We served our points penalty in 2008/09, suffered like you wouldn't believe in 2009/10, and we will most likely be relegated to the Conference in the coming season, but the point is that we have a football club to support, thanks to the determination and power of the fans, and one man in particular.
Now, I appreciate that that was long - winded and most probably gave up long ago, but I came on here to say this: Stockport County fans know full well that you at Southend are struggling, to put it lightly. I don't know the ins - and - outs, but I've heard about the winding up orders, only having a handful of players, the Sainsburys issue with Roots Hall etc, and I can assure you that we are doing everything to help highlight your plight to other supporters, especially with that letter to Sainsburys on Vital.
We might not see eye to eye at times, but we, after the 14 months we've had, wouldn't wish what we've suffered on anyone. The only way, in my eyes at least, to save a 'small' football club is through the power of fans. The first bitter pill is to accept that you are a small club, and that most businesspeople will walk away. Consortiums come and go, and the first ones almost always fail. Also, if it sounds too good to be true, it will be. But if you, as a fanbase, pulll together in the same direction, and either stand behind your chairman Mr. Martin, or put into place actions that will lead to a secure future, then regardless of what happens on the pitch in the short term, then will be a Southend United for you to support in years to come.
I, and my fellow supporters at County, really do wish you all the very best in securing a bright future and having success. Apart from on the opening day of course!!
