Friday Freebie: How close is your club to closing?

Times get tougher and definitely not easier

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With the news in the last couple of days of the immediate closure of Essex side East Thurrock FC the question in the title is I believe much closer to home than a lot of people realise.

Back in 2020-21 I thought the game managed to do very well not to lose too many clubs in that period, no income, no fans allowed, streaming trials, seasons curtailed, it all happened and didn’t do the game any favours.

As we know though football clubs are treated like businesses but follow very different rules to the likes of you and I if we had our own venture. Very little carry reserves and every penny counts at nearly all levels below the Premier League.

That period really saw a few sail very close to the wind, I don’t think we’ll ever know how close many were to pulling down the shutters and saying that’s it all over for good.

You can head right on up to the Championship and find insolvent clubs. It’s amazing that their rules allow their clubs to lose millions of pounds per year as if it’s confetti so long as they don’t go over a certain amount. It’s pretty unbelievable that this exists in any shape or form but being the modern game it doesn’t surprise me either.

Clubs just don’t live within their means anymore and that’s been brought on trying to compete with the money awash at the top level, spend loads to get there and spend loads trying to stay there, get relegated and spend a fortune to get back there, the circle never ends. There are however those who are run extremely well but in the main they are hard to find and in a minority.

Rich owners and increased TV money deals have sent the game into the stratosphere, now they’ve been priced out of the market at the top end and are now looking towards lower league clubs.

Of course we are well aware of this happening in the non-league game for years before the owner gets bored at the lack of quick progress and walks away leaving others to pick up the pieces and in some cases it goes to the wall.

I’m not suggesting however every club is run poorly, nor are they all the victim of those rogue owners, some simply now can not survive due to rising bills, lack of crowds or too many clubs in a small area.

When you look at what is happening at Southend Utd makes you wonder if clubs at our level minimum are returned to the fans and run by them or is it too late now because you need some level of investment to compete if you went through non-league and into the Football League?

Is it mergers for those close and others with two clubs in the same town? Those bring their own issues with a lack of identity and where the amalgamated club actually plays. It won’t be the ideal solution, far from it, but at what cost instead? Both clubs going to the wall?

It’s one to tread carefully with, especially if one is doing pretty well and the other is a struggler, but personally what else is the answer to the problem? In the case of East Thurrock Utd historic debt caught up with them, I would be surprised if any club or very few carry any debt at all across the non-league game but it has come to something for one to start the season and be liquidated just a month into the new campaign.

More protection is needed and more guidance from the governing body itself in how to sustain a club at each different level, they are so far behind it’s no wonder it’s each one for themselves, but it has to change before we find we’re losing a club a week all over the country and the landscape changes for good with no return, it’s a dangerous games to be playing.