Football Diary
by Patrick O'Connor
THE fifth round of the FA Cup has just been played but I make no apologies for once again focussing on the financial crisis affecting English football.
Take the example of Chester City who joined the Football League in 1931 and have spent most of their time in the lower divisions before being relegated to what was then called the Conference National (outside the Football League) in 2009.
Like many smaller clubs, they have been blighted by money worries and matters have recently escalated.
Their trip to Forest Green for a Blue Square Premier fixture last Tuesday was called off at late notice after the club's players, who had not been paid for three months before receiving only a week's salary the previous weekend, refused to get on the team bus. Chester's gates, already considerably down following relegation last season, have slumped even further following a boycott by supporters.
Last season their average attendance was 1,972, but in the last two home games Chester have attracted less than 500 each time. "To get only 450 here doesn't even cover the overheads," managing director Rob Gray told BBC Sport.
Chester are due back in the High Court in London next month, as they face being wound up over an unpaid £25,025 tax bill. Chester's clash with local rivals Wrexham last Sunday was called off after it emerged the police have yet to be paid for policing previous matches.
Supporters Direct, a group who work with supporters trusts, has called on the Football Association to help shut Chester, in its current form, down. Their statement read: "The news that Chester City FC will fail for the second time in two days to fulfil a fixture surely signals the end for the club. Whilst the end of Chester City FC in its current guise may seem like a tragedy, it is not. We call on the FA to do what it can to pull the plug and enable a new supporter-owned club to rise from the ashes so the story has a happy ending."
A statement issued by the Conference last Wednesday evening read: "Pursuant to other matters currently existing at the club, the Football Conference has served charges for breaches of five separate competition rules upon the club which include the failure to fulfil two fixtures."
What a dreadful mess!
Meanwhile in League Two, Notts County's dream adventure into wonderland is over.
Sven-Goran Eriksson has resigned as director of football at Notts County following the club's takeover by former Lincoln City chairman Jim Trew. Trew paid £1 to buy the club from chairman Peter Trembling but Notts have debts which total more than £1.5m.
Munto's summer takeover saw promises of a five-year plan to take Notts to the Premier League but the new backers pulled out and Trembling took over in December. The club has since been seeking new investors and it faces a winding-up petition for an unpaid tax bill that stands at more than £300,000.
Notts were given a 28-day extension by the High Court on January 27 to settle the bill.
As for the FA Cup, there weren't any real shocks but the draw for the quarter-finals produced one bonus.
The two biggest culprits in steering the game towards financial meltdown, Chelsea and Manchester City could face each other (if City win their replay at Stoke), which means that one mega-rich owner will be sulking because his trillions won't have secured a Wembley date for him and his hangers-on.
!Note - if you "pull the plug" on something it means to put an end to it, but be careful, if you "pull the plug" on someone it can mean to turn their life support machine off.
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