Hard Times of Old England

Two eventful moments in the history of English football happened to coincide on the same day today. Portsmouth FC entered administration (the first Premier League club to ever do this) and Chester City was ejected from the (non-league) Football Conference for various rules infractions rooted in serious financial problems. It is a tragedy for the supporters of both teams, who have innocently been paying their money to these clubs for years, only for the owners to.......

Sorry, I grew so bored with that opening paragraph I started yawning involuntarily.

I don't mean to be insensitive to the upset that Porstmouth and Chester supporters are no doubt feeling, but I just can't summon up the shock and outrage that other football commentators are today. There are two reasons for this.

One is that I read stories in the press about English clubs getting into financial problems with the same reaction my wife reads about Katie Price's life in the weekly glossies: it is titillating but stopped being surprising long ago. Today's events were unexpected only if you were a hermit or very, very forgetful. The only surprise to me is that it was the top bulletin in the news tonight.

The other reason is that as a non-league supporter I react to clubs going into administration, or being liquidated, the way a grizzled veteran sergeant reacts to a bullet cracking over his head. I've seen it too many times to get excited about it (and I've only been following non-league football for two years!). Last year the Conference South lost two clubs to financial problems (Fisher Athletic was wound up by the courts at the end of the season, and the unlamented Team Bath collapsed after swinging budget cuts by the University of Bath). This year newly demoted clubs Lewes and Weymouth have flirted with bankruptcy. Conference North side Farsley Celtic were wound up earlier this year, only to miraculously find the money to reopen their doors after only missing one match. Last year Bognor Regis Town may have set the record for the most calamitous season of all time last year by not only having a financial crisis, but also getting docked seven points for fielding an illegal player, having an arsonist burning down their clubhouse, going through three managers and fifty-four players, and, of course, relegation. When you get used to this sort of story it is hard to get excited about a simple case of administration.

In fact, if anything I feel sorry for the Portsmouth fans that their club only went into administration. There is a possibility that Portsmouth may shed its debt during the process, but not all of the people, like chief executive Peter Storrie, who were running the club as it spent itself into a big financial hole. Do Portsmouth supporters really want to pay their money at the turnstiles to fund the activities of the very same people who let them down the first time? How much better would it have been for the old club to be wound up, and a new, supporter-owned club to have risen from the ashes?

The brave supporters of Chester City have chosen the other path - effectively turfing the devil-they-know out on his ear. They will start a new club over the close season, starting near the bottom of the non-league pyramid. The only way this will succeed is if they all pull together and work very hard. This journey will lead them to new grounds of tiny clubs they are unfamiliar with, and possibly many years of frustration as they attempt to climb the slippery slope back into the Football League. How tragic? No. I say well done for accepting the challenge.

One thing I've learned this season in particular is that it is the supporters that make the club. Not the club itself, mind you, but the club as it is experienced. When the club is small, though, the lines between the supporters and the club itself are blurred. Tomorrow morning I will climb aboard a supporters coach headed for south-west London which will include the club program editor, the supporters club president, a director, and countless other volunteers who help keep the club ticking over. Being a supporter at this level is not just a matter of providing money as a customer. It often literally means supporting the club with your time, effort, and abilities. How much richer an experience is this than what any Premiership club fan will experience?

I know I shouldn't, but I struggle to find sympathy for Premiership fans who are up in arms about their club's finances. Go ahead and wear your green and gold, hold your protests, and moan about how the modern game is all about money. I wish you well (really). It is the non-league supporter, the ones that volunteer as program hawkers, operate turnstiles, spike the pitch on rainy days, and sweep the terraces on the days following matches that I will save my sympathy for. When their clubs go to the wall they don't face a points deduction, worry about relegation or suffer the indignity of playing in the Europa League. When their clubs are threatened they risk losing a bit of themselves. You see, in non-league football the game isn't all about money. Some day, if they are lucky, and their club is wound up, Premiership fans might get the chance to find this out for themselves.