What's Going On?

The Yeti questions what is going on at Hereford United.

What a difference a weekend makes, eh? Insolvent on Friday. Season ticket sales announced (again) on Monday. This suggests that our new owners somehow found several hundred thousand pounds down the back of the Meadow End which should pay off the creditors leading on the winding up petition. Phew. That was a close one. But we all know it wasn’t really. Remember the Insolvency Practioner shares an office with our unfit and unproper Director Peter Gambrill. So the IPs words on Friday that the club would be liquidated should always have been taken with a pinch of salt. Many fans did not believe him and they were right not to. The IP spun the script that the board gave to him. And lo and behold the new owners and remaining Directors announce on Monday that all is well with the world. Unsurprisingly, Peter Gambrill also shares another office with our new owners Alpha Finance. This is not a coincidence.
The new owners are here for one thing and one thing only and that’s the development rights for the stadium. Development does not happen overnight so they are clearly in it for the long haul. But they clearly want to put in as little cash as possible upfront. Why take the risk if you can get away with putting less in? The CVA would have been a nice little payment plan spread over three years while work took place behind the scenes to move the development along. The CVA fails and magically, it appears, there will be money to pay off the winding up petitioners. Funny that. Once that’s out of sight the less aggressive creditors will be rounded up again and offered another CVA to make things nice and easy for the new owners while they work on the plans for some shops and offices on the Blackfriars End. Or maybe how to relocate the club completely and cash in on developing the entire Edgar Street site?
And what about the football? It doesn’t matter what league we’re in if all they want to do is cash in on the development rights at each end of the ground. But it does matter what league we’re in if it’s decided to relocate the club. The minimum FA requirements are that Southern Premier League grounds should be able to accommodate 1950 spectators, 500 under cover with at least 250 of the undercover spaces seats with fans accessing the ground through 3 turnstiles. Don’t be surprised if the team deliberately stagnates in the Southern League for a while. During which time the dream of the Football League, and a stadium that meets League 2 requirements, will fade.
We need to #SaveEdgarStreet for Hereford United, in whatever form, from the clutches of our dishonest owners. They will come and go but the club will go on. Previous regimes frequently spoke about redevelopment and relocation but the gut feeling was they had the best interests of the club at heart (even if they made mistakes). John, Elke and Alpha Finance are in it for themselves.
If these people we’re ‘football men’ then they would have paid up the circa £300,000 they’ve invested in football creditors and the further £250,000(ish) they are about to hand over to HMRC, Foyle and Porter back in June and retained our Conference status. They didn’t and we’ve been fed a pack of lies ever since. This is why I will find it hard to ever support the current regime. After the financial debacle of the last four years more than ever I would like to see Hereford United become a fan owned club. Sadly I don’t think HUFC 1939 Ltd will ever be this club.
The way forward is long and complex. For the time being I urge all supporters to back the Supporters Trust boycott. Don’t be fooled or distracted by the drama happening around our club.  This is designed to make us look the other way whilst the real agenda is carried out under our noses.  The new owners are only in it for the development rights so let’s pull together and be United to #SaveEdgarStreet and get OUR club back.

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