Among the celebrations of Bournemouth’s winning the Championship title and securing promotion to the Premiership, it is easy to forget the difficulties that the club faced before the takeover by Russian owner Maxim Demin.
In 1997 the club was on the brink financially. Lloyds Bank had extended the debt, which amounted to £2.5m. The total debt was £4.4m, the club struggled to attract more than a few thousand fans to games, and could not pay the players. In December 1996, the chairman quit and five other directors followed.
Among the celebrations of Bournemouth’s winning the Championship title and securing promotion to the Premiership, it is easy to forget the difficulties that the club faced before the takeover by Russian owner Maxim Demin.
In 1997 the club was on the brink financially. Lloyds Bank had extended the debt, which amounted to £2.5m. The total debt was £4.4m, the club struggled to attract more than a few thousand fans to games, and could not pay the players. In December 1996, the chairman quit and five other directors followed.
The receivers were called in and the Football League told the club that they had to show enough money in five days to demonstrate that they could conclude the season or they would be expelled from the league. A bucket collection raised £35,000, which was enough to reassure the league, and £140,000 was eventually raised. 8,200 went to the next home game.
City lawyer Trevor Watkins, who now heads the sports practice at Pinsent Masons, formed British football’s first supporters trust, which was given two golden shares for its contributions that gave it 51 per cent of the voting rights. He became club chairman for a while.
However, further challenges followed and the Cherries fell back into administration and almost out of the league six years ago.