Background to the ISA

The Story of The Blues – Mark Howell (with a little help from his friends!)

Cast your mind back 25 years. Beer is 5p a pint, Manchester United are in the second division, David Soul is at number one and Leeds United are champions of England. Chester FC, who had been in the bottom division since they joined the Football League in 1931, had quite a tasty team. Manager Ken Roberts had them playing open, attacking football, and they were enjoying good crowds and a good run of form. Having beaten Walsall, Blackpool and Preston in the first three rounds, Chester drew out Leeds in the fourth round of the League Cup.

Leeds brought their championship side to play at Sealand Road, and in front of a 19,000 full house, they were played off the park. Chester won 3-0 in a game during which the late Billy Bremner was substituted for the first time in his career. Chester went on to the semi finals that year, losing to a Brian Little goal in the away leg at Villa Park, the odd goal in nine on aggregate. The club ended their run of 44 years in the basement by gaining promotion to Division Three that season.

Fast forward fifteen years to April 28th, 1990. A greatly decayed Stadium, albeit with the new 1979 built Main Stand, plays host to its last Football League game. Chester (now Chester City) entertain Rotherham United in the Barclays League Division Three. Chester win 2-0 with first half Gary Bennett and Graham Abel goals in front of a packed Sealand Road end.

The club, including the ground and land that it owned, were sold to Morrison Construction Ltd, an Edinburgh based development company. The old stadium was to be demolished to make way for an out of town retail park, and a new ground was to be built. Morrissons were to wipe out the clubs debts, set to rise to over £2million after two years exile in Macclesfield.

Home games were played in front of barely 1,000 home fans at Moss Rose for two seasons. This was an eighty mile round trip, and, as the transport to Macc was laid on by the club, the buses would leave the old ground. This ground stood untouched for another three seasons, finally being cleared in January 1993. This, coupled with the lack of any progress on building a new ground, supporters morale was at rock bottom. Any links that the club had with the local community were severed, as City lost at least one generation of supporter.

The date is now April 23rd 1994, Chester are playing Hereford at the Deva Stadium in Chester. Four thousand home fans watch Graham Barrow's City side win 3-1, and gain automatic promotion to the Endsleigh League Division Three. The club announce that the local consortium, put in place to take control of the club from Morrisons, are doing a deal that night. Chester fans paint the town Royal Blue. Sparkling new ground (albeit only 6000 capacity, and built half in Wales), local owners, a great young manager, an excellent squad and money to spend. We were a club on the up, for a month or so.

August 1994. The sale of the club had hit a last minute hitch, which left Morrisons in control over the summer. They vetoed all of Barrow's agreed contracts, lost Barrow and all of his players and, with only one month to the start of the season had only five players signed on. It took Chester, with ex-Everton players Pejic and Ratcliffe as manager and assistant, eight games to win a point. It was ten until their first win.

The club was finally sold in August, not to the consortium of local businessmen, but by mysterious Manchester based property developer Mark Guterman, and partner Ian Morris. Pejic was sacked, with caretaker manager Derek Mann taking over, who handed over to Kevin Ratcliffe three games from the end of the season.

Under Kevin Ratcliffe (left) the playing side grew. Chester became (and remain) a good passing side who were always likely to entertain. The youth system flourished, with homegrown talent becoming regular fixtures in the first team set up. It was off the field that the club had problems.

Rumours that Chester are in alleged financial difficulties are confirmed in November 1997 when it is leaked that the club face a winding up petition in the High Court in 'early-December'. Mr Guterman insists that this matter, filed by the Inland Revenue, had been settled that week. A televised F.A. Cup defeat by cross border rivals Wrexham helped to stem this particular cash flow problem. This was the beginning, not the end. In January of this year Mark Guterman went on record as saying that the club is losing £350,000 a year, had an £80,000 bill to pay, and that he had put 'over £1million of his own money into the club'.

In February, with Morris long gone, another consortium of local businessmen announce their interest in taking control of the club. They propose to Mr Guterman that he contact them if, as he says he is, he is interested in finding investors. This consortium was to become known as the Pickering consortium, named after figurehead David Pickering, a local businessman and councillor.

It was in March that things had started to go very seriously wrong. Guterman admitted to another IR winding up order, this time to the tune of £100,000, and it becomes known that the players have not been paid. This he blames on an 'administration mix up', but the players are more vocal. One spokesman stated that "the club is a shambles and it has reached crisis point. No-one at the club has been paid, and our pension money hasn't gone in either". The player went on "He gave us assurances, but never came up with the goods…We are all in utter disbelief". The Guardian reports the possibility of a players strike at City, and quotes Guterman as saying that "There is no point in me putting more money in just to end up in the same position in a few weeks time. I do not know what the answer is, but I am still looking for it".

Deadline day offers him one answer. Centre half Julian Alsford and club captain/Northern Ireland international Iain Jenkins (left) sign for Dundee United for a reported £250 000 joint fee. Veteran of five first team appearances Matty McKay, product of Kevin Ratcliffe and Dave Fogg's blossoming youth system is sold to Everton for a fee of £250,000 rising to £750 000 with appearances. These sales enable Guterman to announce his 'Five Point Plan' to save the club, and ensure it's future. The fans, players and club staff are thanked for their support and patience. "I would like to say to the fans that I have always been, and always will be, completely committed to Chester. Even though I personally have had to take some bad press during the past few weeks, particularly from the local press in Chester, the most important thing is that we have managed to save Chester City FC", stated a proud Mr Guterman.

On the first of April 1998, Chester City Football Club are fined for not filing company accounts for 1996-97. The parent company to the club, the Mark Guterman owned Dovedene Ltd, had been struck off for non-compliance in November 1997. A set of accounts for Dovedene was never issued. Guterman is due in court on 2nd April in Northwich for motoring offences (in a club leased car), but is unable to attend as he is in the High Court on behalf of CCFC. It all starts to really get to the fans after a heavy defeat at Exeter on the fourth of April, and a series of angry exchanges between players and fans ensue. A players spokesman addresses the travelling contingent at the end of the game and blames the chairman for the clubs predicament.

Although Guterman has told the fans that no money is available for players, we learn that the club has been under transfer embargo all season anyway, due to the PFA paying players wages. This just adds to the fans respect for the management duo of Kevin Ratcliffe and Gary Shelton. Mark Guterman steps inside the Deva Stadium for the last time in May.

At the Football League meeting in June, Guterman is just beaten to the post of Division Three representitive on the board by Leyton Orient's Barry Hearn. Mr Hearn was a late candidate and Mr Guterman was said to be 'devastated'.

With City due to play Tranmere Rovers in a friendly that night, North West water turn up to disconnect the supply to the Deva Stadium. This is due to an 'administrative oversight' by the club (according to the Chairman). Kevin Ratcliffe jumps in his car, drives into Chester, draws out the required £5000 from his own account and pays the engineers. The water board would not accept a club cheque. The whole farce does not end there. The players, with the backing of the newly formed Chester City Independent Supporters Association, threaten to boycott the sold out pre-season home friendly with Everton if they are not paid by 12 noon on the day of the match (only a week late). Guterman is contacted and arranges to meet a players representitive at a Cheshire hotel with the money. The game goes ahead.

As the season starts, Ratcliffe is able to strengthen his squad after making drastic cuts to the wage bill, and all seems to have calmed…until the August wages do not go in. Players who had signed only weeks before had not received their wages. The Chester City Fighting Fund was launched at the Port Vale Cup game in August, after the ISA had paid some money to enable the players to travel to training. The players finally got paid two weeks late, the club staff a week later.

After a series of phone calls, Guterman called the ubiquitous 'meet the fans' meeting, arranging to meet a delegation of the by now very active Independent Supporters Association. He would not come to Chester for the meeting, but requested it 'somewhere in the middle' which happened to be a hotel in Warrington. The meeting did not start too well when Mr Guterman's credit card was refused for a £10 drinks bill, and continued in a heated manner. Upon parting, Mr Guterman assured the fans that he had always acted in the interest of the club, and would relinquish his control as soon as he could find a buyer. He then picked up his club mobile phone (one of a number), got into his club run car (£80,000 silver Aston Martin) and drove home. He kept the drinks receipt.

The above went on and on throughout the tail end of the year, with wages coming late, bills not being paid, until the final nail came. The clubs solicitors, Manchester based Halliwell Landau, had had enough. They lodged a five figure winding up order, upon which the Inland Revenue tacked a six figure one on. The date for this was 10th August. The day before the club were due in court, Messrs Begbies Traynor Ltd were appointed as acting administrators, and were given a stay of execution to come up with a solution. Guterman had had the club up for sale, but had received no serious offers. The Pickering Consortium had set up Chester City FC 1998 Ltd ready to take over, but still nothing happens.

The club continued to struggle through September, although performances on the pitch continued to make a mockery of the farce off it. When wages were not paid again, the fans started to really vent their anger in the direction of the now 5 months absent Guterman. He had continued to ignore the apparent pleas of the Pickering Consortium to see some financial details on the club, and it seemed as though bad blood remained between them. The fans could not understand why, when a five point action plan had been produced in April that year, why we could not even pay the bloody water rates, let alone the wage bill.

Things did not get any better, and the debts continued to mount. In the High Court in Manchester on 12th October 1998 Messrs Acland and Dick from Begbies Traynor Ltd were appointed official court Administrators of Chester City Football Club Ltd.

It was at this stage that the role of the Chester City ISA became apparent. Unwilling to offer any help to the much maligned Guterman, they suddenly became a well organised and highly regarded conduit of ideas between the club, it's supporters and the public of Chester as a whole. The leafletting campaign, aimed at boosting gates and raising money to satisfy creditors, was a roaring success. A double the average gate of nearly 4,000 saw Chester draw 1-1 with Swansea City on October 17th, with the Rochdale and Shrewsbury home gates also exceeding all predictions. Along with a five thousand signature petition organised by the ISA with the help of the local evening newspaper, Chester people showed that the City deserved a Football League club.

The petition was delivered prior to a meeting between Football League heads and ISA members in London, whereby the fans were able to put their case over for a fair shot at survival. Their main case was that the club had been badly mis-managed off the pitch, with the commercial department being left to fester with no links with the community re-built, and basically the club and its chairman's operating costs far outweighed the income. We had demonstrated in administration that a club run on a budget to meet its means, playing an active community role and with a sound commercial manager could not only break even, but make money in the long run.

From the FL we travelled to Westminster. City of Chester MP Christine Russell had been very active in our campaign to save the club, and had been approached to let us lobby parliament. 65 people packed committee room 6 at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 11th November. Our main ambition was to meet the Minister for Sport Tony Banks, Chairman of the football Trust Tom Pendry, and Joe Ashton, MP for Sheffield and Chairman of the all parties football commission. To say that the meeting was eventful was an understatement, and that is an article in itself! The top and bottom of it was that we managed to speak to Mr Banks for 45 minutes, the other two gentleman were very supportive and that with Tony Banks the impression was that something of a regulatory body would need be set up for football in this country. It was implied that the FA were not doing a very good job of self regulation and that the government may have to step in.

Joe Ashton also pointed out, to raucous cheers from all present, that more checks should be made on people who were trying to take control of football clubs. It was pointed out that a man attempting to take control of a Division Three club had been barred from being director of any company for seven years, but the FA were powerless to stop him. The fact about Ken Richardson attempting to buy Hull, after all the damage he did to Donacaster, was brought up. Mr Ashton felt that this should never be allowed to happen again.

So where now for Chester City. No buyer has yet been found, the club owes the Inland Revenue, the Customs and Excise, the PFA (all preferential creditors) a sum over £320,000, as well as the same amount again to non-preferential creditors. The team went through a bad patch both morale and form wise in November and the gates dipped back to the 2,400 mark due to this, and what with Christmas shopping etc. All that the supporters can do is continue to fight. A couple of good results in December have rallied the club and fans for that one last push.

According to the administrator, if it wasn't for the commitment of the players and supporters then the club would have folded by now. The Independent Supporters Association, along with Brighton fans are running 'The United Colours of Football – Fans United 3' on January 15th 1999. Run along the same lines as the previous two events, FU3 is a plea to supporters of other clubs to attend the game, or send a scarf or pennant to show your club's support. Events are being organised as we speak for the rest of the weekend as well. Fortunately, a deal to show the United Colours… game live on Sky TV has won the administrator an open ended reprieve from the courts to find a buyer, although this will only last as long as the club has money.

The Football Association do not have clean hands in this. Those same people who pay Peter Withe to coach in Thailand, who give the FAW £3million, double Glenn Hoddle's wages for failing in France etc etc need to look a little nearer home. They need to stop being impotent to act against rogue chairmen, pass some Premiership millions down and help to save the grass roots of this game. Unless a buyer is found for Chester City before the end of February, then our club will die. Unless the greed merchants who currently run the game sort their own house out, your own team could be next. Stop the rot.