CHERRIES, HATTERS AND MILLERS

Some say the top four in the “world’s greatest league” should breakaway and play with themselves all season…at least I think that’s what those gestures meant. Others say the Football League is test-driving this scenario in reverse by deducting 64 points from Luton, Bournemouth and Rotherham.

Their tales have had deceit, greed, financial and administrative stupidity, complete injustice…and the answer to the fundamental question: “Whatever happened to the Chuckle Brothers?” All of which has produced a mini-league, with league status for the champions.

Luton got most publicity and lost most points. They’ve been in administration forever, it seems, hence the 20-point deduction for failing to reach agreement over debt repayment, the ‘company voluntary arrangement’ (CVA). ‘CVA’ is fast-becoming football’s best-known acronym and the league clearly believes that Luton should have got one right by now.

‘LTFC 2020′, the supporters consortium which now owns Luton, say they are being punished for historical misdemeanours and they are playing the “innocent fans’ suffering” card. This card has, ironically, only EVER worked for West Ham during what it’s not yet legal to call the “West Ham cheated but they’re Premier League so it’s OK” affair.

LTFC 2020 has effectively applied to join League Two in place of the ‘existing’ club. To argue that they should be permitted to do so unencumbered is like arguing that MK Dons were rightly allowed to take Wimbledon’s league place without sanction – and I don’t suppose many Luton fans did that. LTFC 2020 also portrays itself as club ‘custodian.’ But custody means you get the lot, warts, points deductions and all and the deduction for not exiting administration properly is consistent, 20 rather than 15 because, as the League noted, “this is their third insolvency event in…ten years” (makes them sound like the Badminton Horse Trials).

By accident or design, Luton’s two punishments have merged in people’s minds. However, while the 20-points is about right, 10 points for the dodgy dealings of ex-chairman Bill Tomlins and others is wrong enough to be, in legalese, ‘perverse.’

Tomlins’ misdemeanours were designed to hide payments to agents that would have made then-manager Mike Newell’s head explode. They were channeled through his company, Jayten Ltd – formed to deal with Luton’s relocation to land near the M1’s Junction 10 (J10 – geddit?).

Some payments weren’t in themselves illegal. Others, to unlicensed agents including something called Skylet Andrew and Hatters’ legend Ricky Hill, amounted to a mere £160,000.

Tomlins and other Luton directors were fined and/or banned from football - the club themselves fined £50,000. So far, so fair. But to suggest that Luton somehow benefited by ten points as a result is rubbish. I’d love to see the evidence that it did but I suspect I’d be looking at a blank sheet of paper.

It was shocking reward for the honesty of Hatters’ club secretary and long-time good-egg Cherry Newberry, who told the authorities what was going on and saw her club made an example of in return. She, and others like her, would be forgiven for thinking: “I won’t do that again.”

It’s especially galling for Luton because the sanctions on Bournemouth and Rotherham have reeked of common sense. Both have ‘insolvency event’ histories, hence their 17-point deductions, splitting the difference between three-timers Luton and first-timers Leeds.

Some Leeds fans still insist their club was ‘picked on’ by the league. The “let’s see what hey do to other clubs” brigade (commander-in-chief: K. Bates esq) claiming that other clubs would avoid punishment. Hopefully, they’ll shut up now…and hopefully Bates wil…no, I’ll stop there.

Bournemouth’s latest troubles stemmed from a lie. Local businessman Jeff Mostyn was heralded as saviour in March 2007 for his £750,000 ‘investment’, which the Supporters Trust soon outed as merely a loan. Mostyn failed to prevent Bournemouth’s slide into administration and couldn’t get them out of it. HM Revenue and Customs were owed 17% of Bournemouth’s debt and were voting against CVA’s on principle. And with both small and significant shareholders alienated by Mostyn’s deceit, the 75% support required was beyond reach.

Mostyn lacked the financial wherewithal to, in modern parlance, ‘take the club forward’ and he alienated suitable business partners like Elizabeth Taylor used to alienate husbands. Yet he was named ‘preferred bidder’ in the wake of the failed CVA.

He’d apparently been funding the club throughout administration. Yet he’d failed to prevent much-vaunted striker Sam Vokes’ sale to Wolves. And it was claimed that his latest business partner, local property developer Alan Pither had provided much of that funding…until, surprise, they fell out.

Eventually Mostyn introduced Liverpool-based sports marketing firm Sport-6, installing frontman Alastair Saverimutto as chief executive. Sport-6’s Paul Baker had ‘provided some of the finances’ to meet Bournemouth’s latest funding deadline – leaving fans wondering what Mostyn had really provided - and they were eventually unveiled as new owners.

Saverimutto, ex-commercial operations chief at Everton (not currently a plus for a CV) and Baker had previously failed to buy Chester City and had problems convincing the league of “the viability of the new company’s proposals” and “it has been asked to reflect further on its position.” The problem wasn’t immediately obvious – Mostyn was on holiday at this crucial time for the club, adding to his popularity. But with two days to spare, Bournemouth, less 17 points, were back in business.

Rotherham’s similar treatment – the league’s statements on each club were 90% identical – was down to history not current circumstance. Millers ex-chairman Denis Coleman is, in the style of the old ‘Punch’ cartoon, the man who…failed the ‘fit and proper persons’ test. Given the calibre of those who’ve passed, it’s a wonder someone isn’t stalking Coleman, shouting ‘unclean!’

Coleman failed the test through ‘involvement’ with Rotherham’s insolvency events. That he was ‘involved’ as the solution in 2006 and NOT the problem failed to register with the league. The real causes of Rotherham’s woes were ex-owners the Booth family, headed by octogenarian scrap-metal dealer Ken. He’d funded Rotherham for many years, including its spell in English football’s second-tier, before selling to fan-group Millers 05 in the wake of the good old ITV Digital collapse.

However, he kept Rotherham’s Millmoor ground and the rental agreement with Millers ’05 was part-megalomania, part-senility. In addition to basic ground and facilities’ rental, Booth’s family were entitled to thirty free tickets per game (one for Ken’s remaining friends…and 29 spares) plus all sorts of VERY fringe benefits, including free use of the club’s physio. This drained Rotherham’s already over-stretched finances. But when Coleman took over in May 2006, he had to conclude a CVA which kept those freebies untouched.

With wages in line with the club’s successful days and gate receipts in line with less successful ones, Coleman was never going to meet financial requirements that had more strings attached than a muppet octopus and Rotherham were back in administration on March 18^th (Mansfield fans still celebrating the departure of the execrable Haslam from their club should note his equally convoluted ‘severance’ package. The sign saying ‘out of the woods’ is still in the distance).

Briefly, Coleman was the only new bidder for the club, which would have tested the league’s resolve to declare him unfit and unproper - were they prepared to let a club die for their precious test? Eventually five bids emerged and, to sighs of relief from Football League HQ almost audible in South Yorkshire, Tony Stewart, head of local firm ASD Lighting, was declared new owner.

Stewart trumpeted his confidence that he’d get a CVA through, although he must have known that HMRC were owed at least a third of Rotherham’s debt and would…and did… reject any CVA. More impressive was his negotiating stance with the Booths, who were threatening to block any sale which didn’t include their freebies and stop Rotherham playing at Millmoor. Stewart’s response was: “OK, then. Bye!!”

Plan B was to play at Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium for four years, then back to a council-supported ‘community’ stadium. The league insisted Rotherham deliver this plan or lose a £750,000 bond lodged with them. Stewart bleated: “They should forget the past” but his Booth dealings suggested he wasn’t that naïve. Rotherham’s future looks solid. And, crucially, “Rotherham’s most famous fans” the Chuckle Brothers said: “we should applaud Tony Stewart for being so brave.”

Mark Robins’ neat-passing side have wiped out a third of their points debt in two games, suggesting they could do a Leeds, but with popularity. This would leave Luton struggling, although Luton South MP Margaret Moran’s comment about “effectively killing off a football club” was an insult to non-league football. Clubs like Cambridge United and Mansfield seem pretty lively to me and relegation to non-league is no bigger a setback than relegation to League Two.

Luton’s 10-point deduction is a big blot on the League’s copybook. But when the “world’s greatest league” is squillions in debt and owned by Yanks and planks, the League’s efforts to apply suitable sanction and sanity to their clubs’ oddball economics are admirable.

To Hatters, Cherries and Millers everywhere, good luck.

‘MotorMurph is written by Mark Murphy

Entry Filed under: MotorMurph Column

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