Hereford United

It's just been announced that Hereford United have been wound up by the High Court in London.

A sad day for football that and, of course, we greyhaired ones will remember their victory over Newcastle in the FA Cup back in the 70s.

 

The winding-up petition was brought by HM Revenue and Customs, which is thought to be owed £116,000.

I know there are a number of factors relevant to this action but in general terms it reflects the disproportionate way in which football distributes and receives money when you consider, for example, none of Chelsea's first team will be on less than this per week.

It's a business I know but it is also a community thing and for the community it's a crying shame and another example of how the "owners" are ultimately "temporary caretakers" of the Clubs for the community and have to look after the Club for the benefit of the community.

 

So much for the owner going to put money in the club ( fans detested him ). I think he bought the club in the hope of re developing the ground for housing. Sad day for football.

 

Sad news. Saw a few games with Luton playing them. They sadly won't be the last of clubs down in the conference that will end up that way.

 

Too many Football Clubs in the hands of Blood Sucking Leeches, only interested in how much money they can make out of the fans.
They come along saying the right thins initially, but, are just a 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing'. <bastards>

Another sad day for football.

 

To be honest, and I do feel a bit of a twat, but I couldn't give a toss. For 40 years I've cringed every time I hear their name mentioned. I was quite happy when Luton went out of the league. Johnny Aston tortured us at home around 78 if I remember correctly.

 

Hmmm they didn't deserve to have 3 back to back relegations - two coming from 40 points taken off them in 2 seasons. The punishment was beyond all measures of Draconian severity.

Yes I hate the whole Radford **** they show every year but I wouldn't wish the demise of their club.

 

Sad day for the local community. Hopefully a new club can rise out of their ashes. Never like to see any club go out of business, but that is the way of the football world now. PL clubs do **** all for the smaller clubs. A friendly could probably have been played, which gate receipts alone would probably have helped clear the debt.

 

Speaking of Conference Football, Bristol Rovers against Gateshead on BT Sport tonight.
A club like Rovers have fallen in recent times.
Looks a decent crowd.

Heed doing well 1 - 0 up at HT.

 

Good stuff.

 

Gateshead lost 3-2. Don't like Hereford, but wouldn't wish what has happened to them on any football club. You could argue as far as that game goes Newcastle only have themselves to blame for not doing their job properly, unlike Newcastle.

 

People forget that the 2 -1 defeat was a replay, following a 2 - 2 draw at SJP.
Long time ago now, and besides its happened to most clubs at one point or another.

 

100%

 

This REALLY disturbs me. Individual players earn more in ONE WEEK than a the 'value' of an entire club's existence in the league (including the impact on fans). This is what I truly hate about modern football, with dodgy billionaire owners, Sky TV money, etc. football has completely lost its soul, beyond all sense. When a player's weekly wage is worth more than 100 years or so of history for many, then something has gone seriously wrong.

 

Hereford's ground would be a prime location for development as it's just a hop, skip and a jump from the city centre. The last time I met with their traffic system I realised that it was about five minutes walk (or twenty in the car) from the centre.

If every premiership player earning over £20k a week chipped in 0.5% of their salary each week to go into a fund to save clubs like this it would make a massive difference to the game and to the public's impression of the players and the sport.

 

It's a shame the footballing community couldn't do something, I agree.

 

This is where it gets complicated.

Why should any individual employee, eg a premier league player, have to pay for another club/company/business to stay in business?

The root of the problem is with the authorities that "run" football and the Clubs/Owners in:
1. How the money paid into football, eg Sky, is distributed between the Clubs.
2. The wages Clubs pay to the individual players. The amount paid is not the fault of the player as most people would look to get paid as much as they can. It's for the Owners to stick to a budget which ensures the Club is solvent despite what groups of fans want when signing new players both with regard to transfer fee and wages. One point I fully agree with M Ashley on.
3. The Authorities not being active enough in ensuring Clubs stay within budget and punishing those that don't.

 

Very sad.

 

Treveor, I do appreciate your point. But when you are on £100,000 a week (a week!) then somehow that is far different to someone on £500 a week and trying to survive on that.

That a player on £100,000 a week can't afford £500 of that to keep the game going is beyond my comprehension.

Yes, the money coming in from Sky has a lot to do with this by making the game top heavy and thus making it harder for the little clubs to survive. The only ones in position to do anything are the footballers. Most of the owners can't afford anything as they're trying to balance the books paying out these mad wages.

When players were talking about, not too long ago, buying out the clubs that they used to pay for you know that things are wrong. I couldn't work for ICI one minute and then buy them out when I left at 35.

But I do appreciate what you say that players should look after their own but there should be some form of accountablity somewhere. If the league structure loses clubs at the bottom then where will it end up? One possibly scenario is the Major League system of 'sports' in America where the top teams play in their own league and don't get relegated and, more to the point, no-one is allowed to join the top table. There there's money for the top teams and then nothing for the rest; the rest of the sports structures are there as feeder clubs only and that cannot be healthy for any sport.

And we're getting that here with the television money making the big clubs bigger. But when these big clubs, the players and, the bloody agents, aren't doing a thing about the grass roots of the game (and forget the FA they are only interested in jobs for the boys) then the game gets eaten away from both ends at the same time.

And we then have clubs like Hereford go to the wall. These are clubs with some history and now they're gone for the sake of some loose change from a whiparound in the changing rooms of the top clubs in the country.

The sooner that Sky leaves this country the better we'll all be. But until then the game will continue to be poisoned by the imblance of power.

 

I can't understand how the F.A. have let a club die for the sake of a six-figure sum.

The F.A. are sat on a mountain of money that they cream from the Premier League clubs.

A sickening and sad day for football.