Tag: Kettering Town

One of the great conceits of recent years in terms of the way that football clubs are run has been that there is a greater degree of transparency in the way that football clubs are run. There are examples of transparency within the game which are extremely impressive – consider, for example, the decision of Lewes FC of the Ryman League Premier Division to publish their annual accounts online – but, on the whole, this new air of openness often feels like little more than a veneer of democracy in action while business carries on very much as usual otherwise. Clubs continue to live beyond their means, make bafflingly bad business decisions and then walk away from the all too predictable results of their mismanagement, whilst shaking their heads and muttering, “But what else could we do?”, as if their behaviour as businesses is as natural and inevitable as the passing of the four seasons. So it was that last night, for the second year in a row, the supporters of Kettering Town found themselves in a public meeting after the final whistle had blown on their season. Last year, Imraan Ladak was polling supporters over whether the club should leave its Rockingham Road home and decamp eight miles away to Nene Park, the former home of the late Rushden & Diamonds FC. The results of that evening became...

In the end, Kettering Town’s wretched season ended with a whimper rather than a bang. They finished the season with just thirty points, rooted to the bottom of the Blue Square Bet Premier, and under the same ownership with which they began the season – albeit under the apparent control of a new “acting chairman” – and with the future of the club hanging in the balance to the same extent as it has been for much of the last nine months. Yet the summer months can bring shark-infested waters for football clubs that have been flying by the seat of their pants throughout the season. Season ticket sales may provide some liquidity and many part-time clubs will at least have the relative breathing space of not having to pay any wages for a few weeks. Some financial liabilities, however, remain ongoing all year round and if season ticket sales prove sluggish, a critical source of income may be lost for another year. Much of this may be playing on the mind of George Rolls this week. Rolls is always careful with his words. As recently as the middle of February, he was telling the Dorset Echo that those concerned that he was set to leave Weymouth FC that “Unfortunately, some people make things up and put two and two together and don’t always come up with four”, the...

It has, as many of you will already be aware, been a long few months for the supporters of Kettering Town Football Club. During this period, their club has been uprooted to the former home of their defunct former local rivals, they have been promised the earth and have seen only the delivery of unpaid bills and an uphill battle to avoid relegation from the Blue Square Bet Premier. Amid the accusations, counter-accusations and recriminations that have accompanied this story, however, there has, perhaps, been no single, defining moment to draw our attention to their plight, and still less has there been a moment which can only make the casual observer stop and think, “Wow, I really did not see that coming.” Not any more. A message posted to on the website of the Northamptonshire Police earlier today set the clubs recent problems into the starkest possible terms. Due to the non-payment of policing bills so far this season, the police have been forced to declare that this weekends league match against AFC Telford United will have to be played behind closed doors. It is a situation that is, to the best recall of memory, unprecedented in the recent run of smaller clubs finding themselves in serious financial difficulty, and it can only be regarded as an absolute, utter humiliation for those that have managed to run this one...