Lewes FC is supposed to be ‘Run by the fans, for the fans.’ This is through the annual elections to the Board that any member can apply to do. In theory. In reality the elections to the Board are now a farce, not fit for purpose. This year they seem to now merely be a throwaway conduit for the tiny cabal involved with the club with money. Their agenda seemingly of turning a tiny football club into their own political football. This is represented by their election addresses to become a club Director at the recent board elections.
Board members under our constitution are allowed to sit for 3 years before having to seek re election, crazily up to 12 years, 4 terms. At our level according to James Mathie, head of club development at the Supporters Trust, the Government de facto head of ‘fan owned’ clubs this system is not fit for purpose. In reality the election system does not work. Hence in reality actual vote casting elections are rarely held as there are not enough candidate so prospective do gooders get to simply take up a place unelected. When there is an actual election the turnout is a derisory 20-25%.
Familiarity breeds contempt at Lewes FC. Elections to the Board were once all about prospective Directors selling their qualifications for being in the role largely along the lines of how we can use our excellent constitution to manage and develop the club. Standard ideas of how we can try and achieve our core aims such as self sustainability were mooted plans to develop the first team.
In the recent elections it is all change. Rather than selling down to earth ideas and their credentials to fulfil the community fan owned remit, we got a succession of politician speeches from 3 of the 4 candidates. An embarrassment of hypocrisy and a far cry from previous years where a punt at actually running a non league football club properly was a pre requisite to stand as a director.
Let’s have a look at their addresses.
CHARLIE DOBRES
Charlie tells us what he has for ten years, that he helped save the club. He didn’t, there was no threat according to the previous owner. I was around and aware of the processes via the Lewes FC Supporters Trust and know in reality there were various options available to sort out the mess. Then we are preached. ‘But it’s not only about football for me….football has to change society for the better.’ Of course nobody standing at out tiny ground thinks that, how about football being used to raise more money to buy a better striker ? We are told of his good deeds in linking up with local charities, good stuff, but where’s fresh funding for the men’s first team coming from ? The Lewes FC marketing ‘gimmick’ Equality FC is what Lewes FC is all about. Mmmm getting the men’s first team into Conference South worth a shout Charlie ?
The humdinger is the dreadful ‘This club has already shown the power it can have to both affect people’s lives for the better’….with that the seas parted and the fan on the terrace pondered, ‘does that mean we’ll get some decent service in the bar at last.
Of course, as with most politicians there are the genuine good things. Charlie spends 40 hours a week at the club working for it and he is ever present on the terrace. However long out of the mix has gone the aim of fulfilling the core aims of our constitution, creating a proper fan owned, self sustained and properly democratic football club. But what sanctimonious clap trap we have instead. This is selling a political philosophy not how we can run our cash strapped club properly.
STEVE KEEGAN
Steve is the odd one out. Yes there is some of the politicians spin ‘we really are using football to make a difference’ No you are not, you have embarked on marketing gimmick. However Steve goes onto talk about how his personal skills can help the actual running OF A FOOTBALL CLUB. At last. Steve has taken over the catering and has doubled sales. Now we’re talking. At last something tangible, a difference to the fans experience and club’s finances through traditional methods. Everyone at the club recognises the Board have taken their eyes of the ball re the men’s first team but deny it. Steve tells us straight though and tells us ‘I will not settle for how we are currently supporting the men’s team’. At last a breakthrough of the politicians waffle, somebody standing for the Board of a small non league football club without delusions of grandeur and a quest to change the world but simply to help run and improve Lewes FC.
KAREN DOBRES
Surely a pre requisite to be on the Board is some empathy with the club ? Here’s Karen Dobres, wife of Charlie, who has been doing some genuine great things with the women’s set up. But what ideas does Karen have for the development and improvement of Lewes FC and how would she propose we honour the core aims of our constitution ? Well it wasn’t, according to Karen, until 2017 that Karen had any interest in Lewes FC. Having little previous interest and it would appear pretty much zero interest in the Equality part of her husband’s project ‘Equality FC’ and any other running of the club that involves empathy with our the core aims of the club is of little concern in her politician’s address.
In a long speech it isn’t until the last line…’And also to nurture a recently kindled interest….in the men’s game ;-)’ (yes that quaint smile maybe suggests it is all a bit of a joke) but great finally that a prospective vital cog in the wheel of Equality FC recognises there is a men’s team! But the politician’s address is superb. Having explained why she had no interest in football until 2 years ago, a bit like Chukka Ummuna explaining so slickly another change of tact, we get one of those dreadful ingratiating insulting diatribes the club regularly belts out that we are now accustomed to… happy clappy, aren’t you all stupid, isn’t this fun…. as if we aren’t just a struggling tiny non league club. Cool Lewes FC could happen but not with a false manufactured product and the current lot running it. ‘I have a previously unknown ability to make contact with Chief Execs (aaaagh that ditsy throwaway Execs is nauseating) of companies who might want to sponsor the club. Spoken like a true politician, seeing fit to not point out none have wanted to sponsor to any significant degree. We get the CV which of course has no relevance to running a grass roots football club.
It is slick and persuasive but like a true politician’s speech largely irrelevant to real the life nitty gritty needs of a non league football club.
ED RAMSDEN
Ed Ramsden tells us he has been a Director for 10 years. He is apparently fit for purpose as a Director despite telling us 6 yeas ago ‘I rarely attend games and know less about football than you do.’ So how the hell can he possibly sit on the board ? According to the 2018/19 accounts he loaned and wrote off a £150,000 contribution to Lewes FC. Gifted a quarter of the club’s turnover. So he can pretty much say anything. Politics is power and so is money, especially in the hard up world of grass roots football. There is no real mention of the community values he and Charlie espoused when they set up the fan owned franchise 10 years ago. No grass roots, now soundbites. Lewes FC’s goal is ‘to be an exemplary football club on the largest achievable stage’ Not exemplary community fan owned club, because his and Charlie’s wayward projects and investment have taken us way past that. But like true politician what does that matter ? It is now about their own interpretation of what the club should be. Then a breath taking quote ‘Should football clubs focus solely on football though ?’ Er, yes, you don’t think so because you are not interested in the game. He draws our attention to a Financial times wraparound cover ‘Business must make a profit but serve a purpose too’ seeing fit to forget to ignore we have the turnover of a pub, we are not a ‘business’ but a community football club and that the whole article has no relevance to non league football.
The delivery is slick. The content wayward and irrelevant.
Three of the addresses wreak of arrogance, self entitlement and represent a sad drift away from the three dominant forces at the club, Charlie, Karen and Ed, chasing the pipe dream of becoming a true community fan owned football club and instead developing their own ‘political’ agenda and spinning it out like consummate politicians as if it really does not matter and is no longer relevant to them anymore.
They all have a lot to give and given a lot. I’d suggest though that their contribution has been backward and as they bankroll the club they should not be involved with the day to day decisions of a Board where clearly the agenda is set now on which area they want to chuck their money at and not following the core aims of our constitution.
Have the politicians taken over ? The bad politicians certainly have.
The Rights of Fans. 