by Chris Harris
For years, my view of Lewes Football Club has been pretty consistent: we’ve had too many directors who treat the club like their own personal fiefdom. Yes, we’ve also had brilliant directors too, people who understood exactly what Lewes is supposed to be: a club owned by the fans, run on behalf of its members, and accountable to the people who actually own it.
But what’s become painfully clear now is this: the current board may be elected, but they behave as if the club belongs to them. The real owners, us, the members, can go hang. So, what is the answer, Lewes FC: Officially Fan-Owned In Name Only? Is it just a useful branding moniker? Yes.
1) Financial Crisis… and Total Silence
At the AGM at the end of last year, we were told bluntly that the club is in the financial shit. Fine. Hard truths are better than comforting lies. But what beggars belief is that two months later, we’ve had no meaningful update at all, no clear financial statement, no proper explanation, no plan, not even the courtesy of acknowledging the continued scale of the problem.
When a board goes quiet during a crisis, there are only two explanations: grotesque arrogance or grotesque incompetence. Either way, it’s a disgrace the owner’s of Lewes have been left to guess what’s going on.
2) The “Second Coming” and the Missing Plan B
While members are left in the dark, we’re seeing player movement. People coming and going. Uncertainty everywhere. It forces the obvious question: why?
Is it because the so-called rescue deal, the “second coming” isn’t actually happening? Because that’s what this is now: a kind of whispered mythology. A hush-hush saviour figure we’re apparently not supposed to know about, being discussed behind closed doors while the membership is treated like an inconvenience.
At the AGM we were told that if this “second coming” hadn’t arrived by the end of last year, redundancies would be happening. So what’s the situation now? Are redundancies happening? Are they planned? Has the money arrived? Is the club still haemorrhaging cash? No one knows, because no one tells us.
The most alarming part of all this is what it suggests about the club’s direction: there is no Plan B. No emergency cost reduction plan. No rallying call for volunteers. No serious fundraising push. Just waiting for salvation. Waiting for someone else to rescue the club while the board refuses to level with the people who own it.
3) A Club That’s Starting to Stink
We do know one thing from the last accounts: there was beneficiary movement. Somebody has clearly bailed the club out to the tune of £90,000 in the last tax year. Was that the “second coming” making an early move? Was it a loan, a gift, a short-term lifeline? If it was a lifeline, why is the board not explaining it properly?
Because here’s the real point: it’s not just the money. It’s the contempt. The contempt shown by a board that apparently believes it can run a fan-owned club like a private company. A board that thinks members don’t deserve to know what’s going on.
This breaks every principle the club claims to stand for. Lewes FC has a constitution, and it makes one thing abundantly clear: the board is answerable to the membership. Not the other way around. So how can it possibly be acceptable that a club admits it is in serious financial trouble… and then goes silent?
It stinks of arrogance. It stinks of institutional rot. And it stinks of people who think accountability is optional. If the financial investment doesn’t come in, fan ownership is essentially over. The club will either be forced into a private takeover or slide into administration. That’s not melodrama, it’s basic arithmetic. How can members come to any other conclusion when we’re not being given information, we’re not being shown a plan, and we’re not being treated like owners?
So here’s the question the board must answer: what the hell is going on — and why do you think you don’t have to tell us? Because this club is not your fiefdom. It is not your private project. It is ours. Get your act together.
Nobody is suggesting details of the “second coming” need to be disclosed, but an update on whether it is still happening, the deadline date being worked towards, and what plan B is, are matters the very least the board have a constitutional duty to be transparent about. By ignoring this they are being totally disrespectful to owners and eroding all remaining levels of trust. What a disgrace.
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The Rights of Fans. 