March 25 – Fans Save The Minstermen
LET’S face it, there’s not many popular chairmen out there. Although the fans are usually out for their board’s blood, it’s very rare that a chairman actually wants his club to fail. But, there’s always an exception to the rule, so today OTFD takes a look at the events that went on at York City, today in 2003, when the club was saved from the evil clutches of the worst chairman since Mao, Douglas Craig.
Aside from a few cup upsets, such as Arsenal in 1985 and Manchester United in 1995, York City have never really troubled the attention of English football. However, the story of their 2003 takeover is an under-reported tale where the good guys won and where the fans stuck it to the moneymen good and proper.
Douglas Craig took over as chairman for the Minstermen in 1990, after former top-dog Michael Sinclair was involved in a car crash while away at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Sinclair took this chance to reassess his life, becoming a priest and passing his 123,000 shares to Craig for a nominal fee. On the field York were doing well under Craig, as they progressed into the second division, although the club were hit with controversy when the former Tory councillor Craig was the only chairman in the league to refuse to sign up to the “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football” campaign. He also referred to himself in his Rothmans Football Year Book entry as ‘Douglas Craig, OBE, JP, BSC, FICE, FI, MUN E, FCI, ARB, M CONS E’, so you know he’s an idiot.
Things then got sticky on the pitch, as the Yorkies were relegated to Division Three and as players and managers came and went, the wage bill increased astronomically, reaching 151% of turnover in 2001, which is always bad news. Craig didn’t like the way this was going and sensationally announced in January 2001 that if no-one came forward to buy the club for £4.5million he would withdraw them from the Football League, selling the prime real estate the stadium was on and pocketing all the money for himself.
This ranks as one of the most shameful acts in recent football history, as Craig was willing to deprive the local community of their football club, pulling down a stadium where fans contributions following the death of striker David Longhurst had paid to complete a stand in 1990, all for personal gain. Showing that they really aren’t good for much in these days of power-hungry clubs, the FA didn’t do anything, merely saying they had ‘concerns’ over the flouting of the rules designed to protect clubs.
Eventually the club was bought by another of the shady characters that the beautiful game seems so good at attracting: John Batchelor, a former racing driver who had previously changed his name via Deed Poll to ‘John Top Gear’ and ‘John B&Q’ to attract sponsorship, bought the club for £50, minus all fixed assists. He changed the clubs name to York City Soccer Club and changed their logo to incorporate his racing brand in it, angering supporters and doing nothing to reverse the club’s failing finances, breaking promises all over the shop.
York went into administration and it was then that the fans decided they had to get involved. With the help of Supporters Direct they formed a trust in February 2003 and set about raising enough money to fund a CVA and complete a takeover of the club. Eventually, today in 2003, through the hard work of die-hard fans who refused to see their club die, an agreement was reached with the club’s administrators and creditors. Fan-power had saved The Minstermen from extinction. The York Evening Press hailed the fans “a remarkable body of men and women. From the Trust’s astonishingly successful launch to its takeover of the club, they have played a blinder.”
Hopefully someday soon episodes like this won’t need to be recreated, but we won’t be holding our breath while the moneymen lord over the footballing landscape.
Here’s some retro action for all you Yorkies out there, and like a certain LA Galaxy midfielder, we’ll be back on your screens tomorrow.
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[...] we’ve written about before here and here, the words ‘property developer’ should set alarm bells off in the head of any [...]
December 3 - Wrexham Wrecked | On This Football Day on December 3rd, 2008
[...] As in the case of York City, another club where fan power was enough to ruin one man’s desire to make a quick buck, an organised, loyal fan base had proven that they would not be moved and the good guys won, proving that despite all the sharks lurking around in the murky waters of the beautiful game, there’s still the occasional feel-good story to be had. [...]