Phoenix clubs which have been re-formed after clubs have run into financial trouble have been an increasingly prominent feature of non-league football. Recent examples include Nuneaton Town (replacing Nuneaton Borough), Farnborough Town (replacing Farnborough) and AFC Telford (replacing Telford).
Phoenix clubs which have been re-formed after clubs have run into financial trouble have been an increasingly prominent feature of non-league football. Recent examples include Nuneaton Town (replacing Nuneaton Borough), Farnborough Town (replacing Farnborough) and AFC Telford (replacing Telford).
The story of Telford is one of a benefaction that went wrong. Local businessman Andy Shaw joined the board in 1998 when Telford were struggling in the Conference and short of cash. He announced a five year plan to reach the Football League, re-developed the ground and by 2003 he was funding the club at a rate of £1m a year.
In 2004 the club went out of existence. The Telford Supporters Trust formed AFC Telford and negotiated a lease on the ground. In 2005 they were admitted to the Unibond Division One. After two promotions in three years, they seemed to be stuck in the Blue Square North but then won the play offs at the end of last season.
Up to now re-formed clubs have had to drop two steps down the pyramid but there has been some criticism of this as insufficient punishment for defaulting on debts. So the Football Association is now proposing that clubs would start again in Step 5 of the non-league pyramid at best which would mean that a Conference club that went bust would drop four levels. Clubs at Step 4 or 5 would still drop two levels.
This move certainly has quite a lot of support in non-league football as it is seen as a way of curbing overspending and dealing with cheating at the expense of small local businesses. However, there are counter arguments. First, it is over ambitious and prestige hunting businessman with inflated egos who often initiate the excessive spending. Admittedly, fans don’t usually object but it is they who suffer from demotion.
The American sports franchise system is unpopular in Britain and one would not want to see it introduced here. But there is a kind of logic to it: that a town or city of a certain size deserves a sports club playing at a particular level. Take the case of Telford again. It was formed as a new town and saw a big surge in population (the club was originally played under the name of one of the predecessor towns).
It isn’t easy to get a club off the ground in a new town. Fans have allegiances to existing clubs, often Wolves or other West Midlands clubs in the case of Telford. Stevenage and Crawley have now made it to the Football League, but Basildon is nowhere and Cumbernauld had to import a team from Glasgow (Clyde). Most controversially of all, Milton Keynes was granted the Wimbledon ‘franchise’ leading to the formation of the most successful supporters’ led club of all, AFC Wimbledon.
In the case of Leamington after one time Conference (and works) side AP Leamingon folded and the ground was sold for housing it took a band of stalwarts 13 years to form Leamington at a new site in the country. Arguably a town of any size suffers a loss of identity without a football club, although I would be the first to admit that there are many people in Leamington who don’t know or care about the club, especially in CV32 (north) as opposed to CV31 (south) Leamington (think Oxford in terms of the social composition).
The new rules may be fairer, but they also make it harder for phoenix clubs. Step 5 in the non-league systems is difficult to get out of.