With a board made up of 100% men, the women’s attendances haemorrhaging, and dwindling resources, should our finances be targeted according to necessity rather than probity; is it time to call time on Equality FC?
Is the formerly ridiculed Equity FC a better and more realistic option? Certainly, the board and respective hangers-on were in agreement in Autumn 2023 that this is the case. So before the usual suspects drearily get on their high horses—ra ra ra another anti-club blog—think again.
While the principle of Equality FC may seem like an appealing and straightforward goal in governance and ahem…marketing, it often fails to account for the complex and layered realities of operating a football club. Equity FC, by contrast, would be grounded in the understanding that fairness is not about treating both teams the same financially, but about giving each team what they need to succeed, albeit in our case with limited resources. Resulting in a more cohesive, efficient and indeed competitive club.
At Lewes FC, we are also known to operate under the moniker Equality FC. The principle refers to the idea that both the men’s and women’s teams at Lewes should receive the same resources or opportunities, predominantly the same budget and access to facilities. This sets us apart from everyone else. But is this simply unworkable and unrealistic?
The first hurdle to replacing one with the other is the historical perverse interpretation of our constitution by the Lewes FC board. For many years, the board practically did the opposite of the core aims within our constitution because it suited the naïve agenda the few people on said board.
This is not a dig, well maybe a bit, the above is a principle and ideology, changing from equality to equity will only work if the people implementing it do as they are supposed to do. Really important with any change is being able to trust the people instructed to oversee the change. I currently don’t. So any change would doubtless be hit or miss. But change we must. With caveats.
Let’s have a quick look for readers who do not know the club.
Equality FC was Introduced about eight years or so ago by two club directors. Perceived by many as a marketing gimmick, one of the directors made a small fortune in marketing, it grew into a genuinely fantastic force for change that dramatically raised the profile of Lewes FC in the football community.
For a number of years, the Lewes FC Women were one of the top twenty-five women’s clubs in the United Kingdom, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Manchester United…. Lewes!
However, despite this rise to prominence, the expected sponsorship and investment never materialised, despite huge investments in human resources to achieve those ends. One of the directors, now former, had been essentially writing huge cheques to balance the books and he had decided his generous contributions were now maybe counterproductive and the rising costs of operating such a model prohibitive.
The upshot was that in the autumn of last year, 2023, Lewes FC sought investment from an organisation called Mercury 13. But Mercury 13 only wanted to invest in the women’s team, thus ending the very principle of Equality FC. The investment also would have ended the fan ownership model that Lewes FC has enjoyed, if not introduced properly.
It would have meant huge a change at the club, which was an unpalatable option for many at the heart of Lewes FC.
So it was presented to the two and a half thousand members of Lewes FC that the way around this was to drop Equality FC and replace it with Equity FC. Which for most parties who took an interest in the proceedings was a total cop out and was seen for what it was.
Mercury13 pulled out of the deal, and all chat of and excuses for introducing Equity FC dissipated.
Leaving us in a financial mess.
As an aside, it would be interesting to see how many of the people involved with the Lewes FC Women in Autumn 2023, seeking to change our model from equality to equity in order to get a deal through to fund the Lewes FC Women, would be so keen on the idea now that, presumably, the change would mean greater funding for the men’s team. You can’t say it is a good idea and then change your mind because it does not suit you. I digress.
Anyway, the chat of change soon dissipated; maybe handily for some.
Recently, though, former chairman Stuart Fuller has been mooting the idea of maybe reviving Equity FC on the fan’s forum.
For the last three seasons, the men’s team has coasted in the Isthmian Premier League with a large budget and nothing to show for it other than three years of pretty football. Missing the playoff target and some underwhelming cup performances, to many, myself included, a waste of money; if some of those resources had been diverted to the women’s team, the women may well still be in the Championship and wouldn’t have been relegated last season.
This season is a season of conciliation for the women after relegation, and the men’s team is punching well above there weight under Craig Nelson’s brilliant management. The argument would be that the club’s financial resources should be diverted to support Craig Nelson and push Lewes FC back into Conference South.
Surely, the need and long-term success of the club would have been better served with more financial resources going to the women prior to last season’s relegation trying to maintain Championship status and this season supporting the shot in the arm Craig Nelson has administered.
Hypothetically, this season, we may again just miss out on the playoffs. A great team may fall by the wayside, but if Craig knew, for instance, right now that the club’s agenda would be to increase its budget, yes, at the expense of the women, he could start planning now.
But under Equity FC, the club must also recognize that women must have a realistic budget to compete in the third tier. Again, and vice versa.
Maybe it will work the other way: the women make a charge and look like they can get promoted this season, the men sink to mid-table mediocrity, and the women require better funding for next season. Either way, all that is important is that under Equity FC, neither team is kicked under the bus for the benefit of the other team. As I say, how you ensure that, I don’t know.
In short, equal access to budgets can be inefficient and ineffective and lead to wasted effort and money. Resources we can no longer afford to waste.
The bottom line is Equality FC fails to account for the complex, layered realities of financing a football club.
But, does the leadership at Lewes FC have the strategic and financial authority and intellect to plan ahead should we change?
We have to look at how and why we failed to attract sponsorship for investment despite throwing everything at the problem. Was it actually because of Equality FC, or was it just regarded by investors as a football schtick?
Ultimately, the reality behind the thinking of Equality FC was that businesses and fans around the world would think it was such an amazing thing they would want a piece of the cake. They didn’t. As usual, the leadership of Lewes FC was hoisted by our own petard, as usual, we think we are far greater than the sum of our parts. Still amazingly happening today as some people in the leadership have not twigged nobody is actually that interested, the cupboard is bare, yet we continue to unwisely spend money.
There seems to be a schism at the club where some people cannot get into their heads that it is time to move on and are still living in the past. A past that required millions of someone else’s pounds and failed where the dreg ends of mild interest seems to act as a catalyst for fantasy economics,
I think the greatest failing of Equality FC was not the budget parity principle; it was the ridiculous politicisation of the club. A principle of equality is a good thing for many investors aligning with those values. Still, the club’s over-the-top left-wing liberal marketing, descending to nanny-state objectives, would turn off practically 95% of potential investors. Of course, this would be denied, but after all the huffing and puffing next to bugger all investment came in over a seven-year period. That is fact.
I believe piggybacking on the Equality FC awareness, switching to Equity FC, marketing it as a realistic governance model for our times, and dropping the gimmickry and nauseating sloganeering will make us a proper sponsorship/investment vehicle. Let’s face it: potentially the largest investors we ever had, Mercury 13, were happy to chuck money at the club, but only on the basis of dropping Equality FC and switching to Equity FC as they did not want to invest in the men. Vice Versa applies here; there will be investors who would maybe like to chuck money at the men’s team but are not interested in any of that going to the women.
I think going down the Equity FC route will make us far more of an investment and sponsorship vehicle.
Realistically, you can play Equality FC when Ed Ramsden throws £2,000,000 at the club and you have the luxury of chucking money about playing morality and principles. As a leftie, I am someone who was thoroughly behind Equality FC. But in reality, when the finances are crippling, what funds there are need to be targeted for the benefit and health of both our teams according to reasonable aims and projections. Principles and ideology come second; you can afford these only when someone else wants to pay for them.
At the end of the day, Equality FC is rather like communism, an idealistic utopia that ultimately failed and is unloved and unwanted. You will all be equal, come what may. Equity, though, is a more, shall we say, nuanced left of centre realism where the governance dictates that actually different genders, in our case teams, face unique and challenging circumstances, and the governance should respect that. Equity surely can work towards a practical de facto levelling and fairness by accounting for complicated individual circumstances.
Chris Harris
The Rights of Fans. 