There was a time when works teams were a familiar feature of non-league football. Westland Yeovil, Lovells Athletic, Betteshanger Colliery, where are you now? (In the latter two cases, the business folded).
In continental Europe it was not unusual for major clubs to be associated with a company, e.g., PSV Eindhoven. In Communist states, such an association was common with the armed forces and even the secret police having teams.
There was a time when works teams were a familiar feature of non-league football. Westland Yeovil, Lovells Athletic, Betteshanger Colliery, where are you now? (In the latter two cases, the business folded).
In continental Europe it was not unusual for major clubs to be associated with a company, e.g., PSV Eindhoven. In Communist states, such an association was common with the armed forces and even the secret police having teams.
Now it looks as if one of the most senior works clubs in non-league football is going to be the Metropolitan Police. In the past paternalistic employers thought (probably sensibly enough) that providing sports facilities and encouraging teams helped to recruit good staff and keep them motivated and identified with the company. There might also be a publicity boost for the brand.
Of course, it could all end in tears. My local team was Automotive Products Leamington as befitted a town where a poster on the outskirts proclaimed ‘There is a part of Leamington in every car.’ However, as the company declined, the ground was sold for housing and it took thirteen years for dedicated volunteers to re-establish the club on an out of town site.
My father, who played non-league football, always asserted that there was ‘something funny’ about works teams. I think that what he meant by this was that the players were given good jobs in the factory and were then allowed time off during the week to train or travel to away matches.
The most senior remaining works team, Vauxhall Motors, has now hit trouble. They will quit the Conference North at the end of the season in a bid to save the club, the ECHO understands. The Rivacre Park side can no longer afford to run a team in the second tier of non-league football and will resign from league at the end of the campaign.
The Vauxhall board hope to save the club – formed in 1963 – once their financial difficulties are sorted and then reform for next season in the West Cheshire League.