Chester City: The Death Rattle and the Wrexham Contagion

On Tuesday afternoon, the Chester City team coach was scheduled to travel for a Blue Square Premier fixture against Forest Green Rovers. It never left. Some reports claimed the players refused to board; others that the coach company, still unpaid, refused to move. Either way, the outcome was the same. The match was off, another line was crossed, and the shambolic, protracted demise of Chester City lurched into what must surely be its final phase.

Relegation has been a formality for some time for a club so far adrift at the bottom of the table. The result against Forest Green would have been immaterial. But for the club’s owners, the Vaughan family, it is another mark of shame upon a carcass of a club. A payment of one week’s wages, reportedly in Scottish bank notes, was enough to get the players on the pitch against Ebbsfleet United last week. That luck has now run out.

Forest Green Rovers, left in the lurch, now face serious financial consequences from the late cancellation. A club statement from their vice-chairman confirmed he had received assurances from Chester at 2pm that the fixture would be fulfilled, only to be telephoned at 5.11pm with the news that it was off. The lost revenue is a significant blow, compounded by recent issues with money owed from Notts County. The Gloucestershire club is now seeking to recover its losses and noted that the Football Conference will be looking at Rule 8.6, which covers the failure to fulfil a fixture and can lead to expulsion.

A Rival Boycott Brews

The chaos at the Deva Stadium now threatens to spill over and consume the club’s bitterest rivals. Wrexham are due to visit Chester for a league derby on Sunday, a volatile fixture for which the away ticket allocation has already sold out. With stewarding and police costs high for such a game, it seems impossible that Chester will find the funds to open the gates.

Wrexham supporters, however, may soon be joining their Chester counterparts in a boycott, albeit for entirely different reasons. It has recently emerged that two Wrexham employees, Andy Garside and Lisa Colford, were previously involved in running a company called Chestnut House. The company was exposed by the Daily Mirror for selling goods under the near-pretence of charitable donations, with a charity called The Honeyrose Foundation receiving only a small commission.

Garside and Colford now work in the retail and financial departments at the Racecourse Ground. Some Wrexham fans have declared they will boycott the club until the pair are removed, while others are targeting the club shop and weekly draw in protest.

An Uninspiring Defence

The club’s reaction has been peculiar. An initial silence was broken only when the Daily Post North Wales ran the story. Wrexham’s board then released a statement that has done little to calm the situation.

The Directors of Wrexham FC were disappointed to read the article… and would like to issue a statement in response to the inaccuracies printed about two of its employees. The club was aware of the allegations against the two employees and following internal investigation noted that: 1. Neither had broken any laws. 2. The Honeyrose Foundation negotiated and agreed with the 5% figure… Geoff Moss, Chairman of Wrexham FC said: “Spurious newspaper allegations can sometimes be very damaging to the individuals concerned. Neither have been charged with anything and we will be supporting them in this difficult time.”

The statement does not specify what it considers a “spurious newspaper allegation”, as the facts of the report appear to be correct. Indeed, the founder of The Honeyrose Foundation, Lynn Duffy, is quoted stating she terminated the arrangement with Chestnut House and has urged the Wrexham board to “get rid of these two, and quickly”. A full board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 17th February to discuss the matter further.

These problems pale next to the terminal condition at Chester, but they represent another failure of governance. The football authorities allowed Chester to start this season, despite the club having never agreed a CVA. The FA even issued the Football Conference with a suspended fine for that decision, an admission that they knew it was wrong. Chester Fans United have been a brilliant exception in a saga where no one else has shown any indication they give a damn about the supporters.

The cautionary tale of King’s Lynn shows that the death of a club does not guarantee the smooth birth of a new one. Any future for football in Chester will be a long road back. The most saddening element has been the humiliating, undignified manner in which this has all been allowed to unfold.