Running a Blue Square Side is Difficult

EBJT can't believe that Ebbsfleet got relegated.

We all know that running a football club is a difficult proposition – just ask anyone involved with Pompey over the past season. However, someone like Abramovich has the luxury of owning a club as a toy while someone like Sven-Goran Eriksson is able to move from job to job while collecting nice paychecks along the way.

When it comes to clubs in the Blue Square Premier (Level 5 of the pyramid), the fact that sides are often semi-professional means that finances play an incredibly important role. While the goal is ostensibly to gain promotion to League 2, theoretically increasing the club’s coffers, most sides are content to at least avoid relegation to Conference North or Conference South.

At the close of this season, Stevenage has gained promotion with an impressive 99 points, but of the 3 clubs at the opposite end of the table 2 are in serious trouble. It’s bad enough that they have been relegated, but Forest Green Rovers and Ebbsfleet United are also a bit of a laughingstock.

For their part, Forest Green Rovers have been outed as the “unnamed Blue Square Football League club” for sale in the Financial Times. Although some money has been raised to pay the club’s tax bills, relegation after 12 years in the top flight of non-league football has struck Rovers hard in the wake of numerous financial difficulties. The club prefers an outright sale to resolve these problems, but it has also considered a public share issue. I guess they haven’t booked enough weddings at their New Lawn facilities to pay off their debt.

Ebbsfleet United, who finished with a 12-8-24 record for 44 points (with a -32 goal differential), now face an uphill battle after two miserable seasons in the Blue Square Premier amidst the MyFootballFC experiment. With a 14th-place finish last season and a decided lack of interest in renewing memberships among the “owners”, the club had retained only 3 contract players, putting them in a difficult position to begin this season. Clearly, the financial restrictions had a negative effect and Ebbsfleet now appear to be caught in a death spiral. Gaffer Liam Daish went so far as to question whether the club will have to move to “part-time” status in attempt to reduce the wage bill.

So, next time you think that your club is mismanaging money just remember that it could be worse.