‘Crisis club’ is a term often used out of context. ‘Crisis club’ Arsenal narrowly lose games against their title rivals. ‘Crisis club’ Leeds sell their captain. ‘Crisis club’ Blackburn Rovers are generally rubbish with a manager that could probably see the bright side of life even when Satan’s hot pokers are jabbing him in the arse.
The saying starts to lose meaning after a while until something really bad and out of the blue happens to a club. This particular month we could be talking about any number of non-league clubs – Croydon have disappeared, Kettering look to be following suit and Darlington managed to dramatically stay their execution last week. These are genuine crisis clubs of football.
Another genuine crisis club is Northwich Victoria. It is rare in football that a club can have the rug pulled from underneath it so quickly. In the space of 24 hours they had lost their manager Andy Preece to Airbus Broughton UK and were evicted from their ground of just seven years, the Victoria Stadium.
Whilst the first piece of bad news is not exactly club threatening, it does show some of the long term problems that have faced the club. Preece left the club he had been with for three years as they were unable to offer him a long-term contract. This financial instability stems from two periods of administration, in 2004 and 2009, and he is a big loss to the club having stabilized them and then built them into a championship challenging side.
Then we come to the second piece of bad news – the sale of the stadium and subsequent eviction of the club. It was during the second period of administration in 2009 that the club lost the ground to the bank when former club chairman Mike Connett’s company Beaconet Ltd went under. Cyldesdale Bank allowed the club to carry on playing at the stadium until the newly formed Northwich Victoria Devlopments (NVD) could purchase the ground again. The bank then left Deloitte Ltd in charge of recouping the money that had been lost so far and it all went quiet for a few years.
The club were hit by the bombshell of eviction last week. At first the matter was further complicated by the mystery of who had bought the ground. Two days after the eviction notice had been served it emerged that Thor Specialties Ltd, an international chemical company that is based next door to the Victoria Stadium had bought the ground.
Expansion for Thor Ltd is the obvious reason why they have bought the ground but what is less obvious is why they wanted to immediately evict the Vics and North West Counties league team Northwich Villa. No-one, as yet, has given any particular reason why the Vics can’t stay there for the foreseeable future. After all Thor will have to lift the covenants currently in place on the land and also gain planning permission – both lengthy processes. Maybe they have some bodies to shift? They’ve also said that the Dane Bank Stand and the floodlights will be gifted to the club in their move so a quick demolition seems off the cards too.
Common sense emerged yesterday thankfully. Thor have given the club permission to remain at the stadium until the end of the season.
All this has left fans wondering why NVD and Rushe didn’t act sooner to secure the long term future of the stadium. Fans are rightly angry that the club seemingly had no real plan in place to secure the funding quickly. Effectively the blame for this lies squarely at Jim Rushe’s door. After all it wasn’t that long ago that the club beat Charlton live on ITV and reached the third round of the FA Cup.
Thor Ltd also tried to buy the ground in early 2011 and had a verbal contract in place which was cancelled as Deloitte thought that the Vics were in a position to buy the ground. Rushe still did nothing despite having the knowledge that there was another interested party.
The club is currently working towards staying at the Victoria Stadium for the long term with various legal routes being explored. At the moment a ground share next season looks the more likely option. Their immediate future has been secured however and they can continue their promotion push as they currently sit in second in the league.
Whether the Conference leagues would let in a club with no ground isn’t exactly clear but then the club will have to start looking for a new site to build a stadium on. Looks like it’s going to be a long journey for Victoria fans before they feel safe from the rug being pulled from under them again.
