The Great Lewes FC Swindle.

The Great Lewes FC Swindle.

Remember the last Sex Pistols gig in the USA and a fed up Johnny Rotten asking the audience ‘ever felt cheated ?’ on the Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle Film

It is ironic that the artwork from the punk and post punk era have featured so much in the, in certain circles, famous Lewes FC match posters. We are supposed to be, under the auspices of the generic term a ‘punk’ football club.

Brief explanation. Lewes FC went bust about 2008. We had been bankrolled by a local businessman who overspent taking us to the dizzy heights of the National Conference.

We were supposedly saved by a bunch of jokers who were going ‘to do things differently’. No more boom and bust we were going to be run in a self sustained manner so mistakes of the past would never be repeated.

A fan owned community club was set up with the core aims of being self sustained, democratic, transparent and prudently run.

Unfortunately harnessing the people of Lewes into the project did not happen. The board morphed into a hotch potch of people with no history with the club and many with no history of the town. Board members admitted off the record the club has ‘lost the town’  Two local businessmen on the board started calling the shots, contrary to out constitution and the other board members wagged their tails and simply went along with everything they asked, much of which was contradictory to the club’s core aims and values. So nobody bought into it.

In a vain attempt to attract sponsorship the two businessmen threw a load of money at promoting the women’s team. This is still affordable for a club like ours as the rebirth of women’s football is still at the embryonic stage and affordable. The only reason we are doing it.

But basically 10 years on from being run at a huge financial loss, Lewes FC are being run at a huge financial loss. If the two benefactors on the Board walked tomorrow we would go bust very quickly.

Except whereas Martin Elliott, the man who previously bank rolled us to success, at least had a men’s team playing amazing football with gates sometimes of 2000 before the crash poleaxed him. The current lot, probably running at a similar loss, have a team languishing further down the leagues playing mediocre football. The enormous rise in gates, sponsorship, membership and income has never materialised.

We are now a de facto privately owned club with the complicit board simply agreeing with the two benefactors. Accountability has gone out the window and two fingers have been raised to our own constitution by them all as they all waste a once in a lifetime chance to be a proper fan owned club.

They now tell us in their insulting happy clappy missives how the club is fighting for social change, for the wider good of football and raising and dealing with issues. Actually I agree with everything they say and their liberal agenda.

But I would sooner they found another platform to do this rather than my delightful little Lewes FC. I’d love to say good riddance to them, their cohorts and their political agenda and if we can’t be a fan owned club have a benefactor who will promote and back our men’s first team to some relative success and just become a football club and not a rich man’s plaything appeased by a spineless Board.

Ever felt cheated? Yes I feel cheated because we have been.