Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Be careful what you? no REALLY!

I live in Switzerland. The football club of a local town in which I do some of my business has ? in Swiss terms ? a prestigious past, both in domestic and European competition. But, in recent years, the club has fallen on hard times, more on the pitch than off, and the glory years had become little but a distant memory.

Until, that is, the club was bought, in the spring of 2011, by an extremely wealthy businessman from The Chechen Republic. He would, he promised, restore the club?s image and take it back to its rightful place at the summit of Swiss football, with regular European campaigns ? Champions? League football, no less ? to boot.

The rumour mill turned and churned out a seemingly endless string of names? hope stirred. For several years, the club had been stagnating and had even spent ? the unthinkable ? a season out of the top flight. Unthinkable, particularly, given that it was playing in a brand spanking new all-seater 12,500 capacity stadium. We could discuss how the stadium was a fine excuse for a retail development ? a prime arm in the war between the country?s two domestic retail giants? we could discuss how it was one politician?s legacy (or vanity)? we could talk about how the price of tenancy of on-site non-football facilities (such as the local fire station) might be bankrupting the town? or about how hopelessly ambitious the stadium itself seemed, when the average attendance over the past 20 years hovered around 4,000. But all that became history when ?our millionaire? came to town.

Things get off to a promising start. The club plays on a synthetic pitch and he doesn?t like that. He wants a real pitch and he?ll pay in full, but the stadium actually belongs to the town and not the club and after heated negotiations and exchanges in the press, he settles for a real pitch to be laid in January during the winter break. Fifteen-love.

Then, in May, having narrowly avoided relegation, the club loses in the domestic cup final. After the final whistle, the regional press has the new owner in the dressing room threatening to kill everyone in the team, before getting into a brawl with the team?s goalkeeper. The following day, he sacks the club?s entire administrative staff.

He sacks the manager and coaching staff shortly afterwards and hires ?his own men?.

Within barely a month, he breaks contracts with all the club?s sponsors, many of them local.

Non-football customers (those, for example, hiring conference facilities) begin to abandon the club.

Creditors, including the club?s previous owners, start to talk about taking the club to court for non-payment of salaries and other fees.

He tries to change the club?s name to include a word in Chechen, but backs down.

He fires more players.

The club loses its first game of the season and he fires a handful of players and transfers others. He brings in a player from Brazil, registers his player?s licence and plays him once before sending him home a week later. The club loses its second match of the season and he fires the entire coaching staff. And the club doctor. And two players. But then changes his mind about one of them. Maybe.

Meanwhile, discontent grows among supports and citizens alike. While the French-speaking part of the country prides itself on its liberal principles, racial discrimination is quite common (many French speakers seem to particularly hate their German-speaking compatriots ? the majority), so much of the unrest is probably racially driven. But it?s fuelled by a particularly virulent ?anti? campaign from the regional press. The kind of campaign which is so overdone that you end up asking yourself what personal vendettas are actually driving copy.

The club has now played only two games of the campaign, but has used ? partly due the sackings ? at least fourteen of its permitted seventeen licences for players who ?evolved abroad?. It has only one recognised striker (the one that was fired, but wasn?t, maybe). It has no coaching staff and no sponsors. It?s playing in a stadium that?s been, since it opened, around 70% empty. A stadium that has never once been full, even when matchday entrance was free? to all.

Don?t get me wrong. This isn?t some kind of veiled reference to what might happen if Everton?s current owners were to sell. I just thought it was funny (unless you?re a fan of this particular club) and maybe you?d like to know. As one of the training staff said in a newspaper interview given just 48 hours ago ? ?We thought we?d seen everything in football. But then there?s always?? (But then I?d never tell you the name of the club!)

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