Weymouth FC Going Down the Tubes?
Posted by Bill Door on 10th January 2007 in Sport | 680 views
A lot of us got into non League footy whilst at Uni. Morecambe's ground, Christie Park, was a five minute walk from our student house. So it was great when post Uni Morecambe finally managed to get promotion to the Conference.
Weymouth is now plying their trade in the same league as the mighty Shrimps (Morecambe), giving the league a bit more excitement for us old Lancastrians. Given that I also have Stevenage and St Albans in my neck of the woods, the Conference is looking quite interesting at the moment.
But there are problems at Weymouth. The manager and his assistant have just been sacked as part of a major restructuring operation. And the owner has basically said he's not pumping any more money into the club and that it has to survive on gate receipts and sponsorship.
In reality this means they'll probably have to sell their best players to stay afloat or they'll risk going the same way as Canvey Island who dropped out of the Conference because they couldn't afford to stay in it.
Still, the St Albans fan sitting next to me wont shed any tears. He's mates with the Company Secretary of St Albans FC and tells tales of chicanery and dishonesty from the West Country team.
St Albans are still part time but do have a few good players. One of these is Hakim, a striker. Before Christmas Hakim went AWOL and was sighted at Weymouth. Understandably St Albans were a little put out at this and pointed out that he was under contract and they weren't going to sell him. This lead to a telephone tirade against St Albans officials who were told they would regret not playing ball.
There are obviously two sides to every story and as Kev has pointed out in the comments, the FA apparently told Weymouth there was some scope in sidestepping a badly written contract and signing Hakim on the sly. This didn't pan out in the end. I have also found out there is previous bad blood between the now ex manager of Weymouth and St Albans, involving the gentleman in question reporting St Albans for fielding an ineligible player in a cup competition a few seasons back
Still, this restructuring seems to have put the kibosh on any sort of deal and it looks like Weymouth might be about to fade back into obscurity. Unless Kev knows better...
(EDIT) I've just been informed that Weymouth have effectively gone part time, and will in the future look to recruit local players.
6 comments
Not wishing to cast doubt on the knowledge of your St Albans supporting chum, but there are 2 sides to every story. I too am friends with the company secretary of WFC. There was an irregularity in the paperwork held by the FA regarding Mr Hakim, and WFC were advised by the FA that we could approach him. Turns out that this wasn't the case, and following an investigation by the FA, both clubs were cleared on any wrong-doing.
The relationship between SACFC and some of the officials at WFC has been strained for some time and things were becoming a bit silly, but perhaps you could add the WFC perspective as a post script to ensure that you don't perpetuate a misleading idea that we were the baddies in the affair. Some of the statements issued by officials at SACFC also make for interesting reading, and could cast shadows over their integrity and professionalism .
To be honest, I don't think anyone at the club is thinking too much about SACFC at the minute. The whole Hakimgate saga seems a long time ago at the minute.
Martyn Harrison came on board at the Terras about 3 years ago, offering to invest to help the club grow. Since then he's put in something north of £2m in one form or another (shares/loans).
For some time, we've been negotiating with a supermarket group to sell the Wessex Stadium in return for a new stadium development and a few quid in the bank. The new stadium would be designed to provide income 365 days a year, rather than the current white elephant that provides income only on matchdays.
The local council have been less keen on supporting this, with the outcome that a self-sufficient club seems a long way off.
After winning the Conference South championship last year, we've made a strong start this season, and with no-one now staking a firm claim on this year's championship, promotion to the Football League was, until Tuesday, a real possibility.
We've reached a crucial point. The January transfer window is open and manager Garry Hill had identified the players who could have given us the push into the league.
Martyn has weighed up the added cost of doing this, with the likelihood of having to bankroll the club to a greater extent for a longer period of time, and has realised that now is the time to accept that things have probably gone too far. There's no point in risking his main business, and the jobs of 350 people, just to see us playing in a higher league. Which I find it hard to disagree with.
So, reality check.
The manager and coach, who have done exactly as asked in putting together a strong team within a set budget, have moved on. The first team squad are all on the market.
Reading our forum earlier gave me an impression of how Man Utd fans must have felt when they heard the news about Munich. There's a list of players, who I was cheering a couple of weeks ago, who seemingly won't now pull on a Weymouth shirt again. The club have stated that they'd like to clear out as many as possible as soon as possible to reduce the considerable overheads, and brings outgoings back in line with revenues.
Which is all a bit of a shame.
I took my 10 year old cousin to the game on Boxing Day. In the bar afterwards, some of the players came through to meet friends & supporters. Ben Smith, our captain and best player came over to my cousin, had a short chat with him and signed an autograph. Luke was delighted.
Luke's interest in football has combined with the upturns in fortunes at the club. He joined the WFC youth setup as under-8 goalkeeper and has stayed with them now to the under-11s. He gets as excited seeing the players off the pitch as I would be to find Keira Knightly in my bath. He's unlikely to see any of these players again. Hopefully his interest in playing won't diminish - he's a promising keeper.
The whole thing feels like a death. I feel quite empty thinking about it.
The last few days seem to have split the town. Half think Martyn is a crook, who has orchestrated this to get his hands on the land around the stadium, half are trying to rally round to keep the club going.
I'm with the latter camp. I feel for Martyn. If he had any hidden agenda he could have achieved it a million quid ago. He held up his hands at a press conference on Wednesday and apologised, saying he got "carried away".
We all did. Anyone who stopped to think realised that this would happen eventually. We reportedly had a wage bill higher than many clubs in League One. The collapse of the stadium deal was the final nail in the coffin.
Still - there's loads of positives - Martyn isn't demanding that the money he's put in is repaid. Assuming we can stay debt free, and can offload some of the hefty playing contracts, the club could be a pretty good shape.
We're getting average attendances of about 2400. We've got a good revenue stream from the commercial side. We've got a massive asset in the stadium and land, if we can find a way to develop it to drive further revenue.
The last couple of years have been a great ride - 5 years ago, we were playing dull football, in a dull league, infront of 700 people. In the last year, we've had 3 televised games, gained a draw at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest, and won a championship.
I've seen the Wessex Stadium filled for the first time (in the FA cup replay against Forest), and seen half a dozen crowds of 4-5000.
I've realised my ambition of seeing Weymouth play at Morecambe (even if it did piss down all weekend, and we lost 2-0). I've been to grounds I've never been to before.
Talk now is of replacing the departing players with local yougsters - so who knows what the second half of the season holds for us. Give it a couple of years, and if things continue to go wrong, we could be in the western division, looking forward to playing Tiverton on Boxing Day.
But we've been there before, not too long ago. And if you offered me th chance then to do what we've done over the last couple of years, I'd have called you a dreamer.
It's been a fantastic ride, but it's time now to get off the rollercoaster and queue for a while for the next one.
See you for a beer sometime...?
Kev
Next time you're in the London/Essex area give me a shout and we'll go have a pint.
Players all off the transfer list. Caretaker manager that was appointed a couple of days ago has been replaced by new player manager & Martyn has pledged funding to get us through the rest of the season.
We've offloaded at least 4 players, plus manager and coach, which should save us around £5k/wk, so sounds as though the finances are a bit more sustainable.
Interesting few days - I'm sure the next few weeks will throw up more changes though & not sure what happens in the summer.
Still - looks as though the immediate fear of not seeing any of the players again has been allayed.
Ref beers - Bill/Harry - I'm in London tomorrow evening, staying with friends in Wood Green - prob too late notice for you to join us for beer? Harry - you've got my number.
Failing this, I'll be around again sometime soon - lots of work to do in South East over next few months.
Jimbo - York still part of my plans - depends on what else is going on down here. Lots happening at the minute. I'll be in touch...
L and I are in the middle of trying to find a new flat at the moment, but once we're settled somewhere new I will be available to join you for what passes as beer in this heathen location.
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