Stuart James
Saturday January 5, 2008
The Guardian
Chasetown's tiny Scholars Ground will host the biggest game in the club's history today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery ... =331962572
The chief executive took three months off work to build the main stand, the treasurer arrives early to make the players' sandwiches, the president serves in the club shop, and the groundsman does much more than mow the grass.
There is not one full-time employee and, apart from the manager and players, only two members of staff get paid. Welcome to Chasetown Football Club, the lowest-ranked team ever to appear in the FA Cup third round.
Around 2,030 fans will cram into Chasetown's tiny Scholars Ground today when Cardiff City, six levels and 135 places higher than their British Gas League Midland Division opponents, arrive for a match that makes David and Goliath look like a fair contest.
Cardiff ought to win at a canter, although no one at the Staffordshire club sees it that way. "I never go into anything to lose," said Mike Joiner, Chasetown's chief executive.
The non-league club, conquerors of Port Vale in the last round, have taken part in nine matches to reach this stage - Chelsea required fewer games to win the trophy last season - and operate on an annual playing budget of around £40,000 (Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, the Cardiff striker, lost that much in one night at a casino) with only two Chasetown players on contracts and the rest of the squad earning barely enough to cover expenses.
Those working behind the scenes pick up even less. "We don't have the luxuries like many football clubs in terms of the infrastructure," said Charlie Blakemore, the Chasetown manager who started as a player at the club 22 years ago. "There are about eight or nine people who run the club and it's all done for the love of the game. The people are very genuine and, if any of us were in any bother, we'd all help each other out."
Help of another sort will arrive through the financial windfall that comes with an FA Cup run. Joiner, who first became involved with Chasetown in 1966 and "had three-and-a-half months off work without any income to build the main stand", claims it has cost £30,000 to get the game staged at home, with ground improvements, stewarding and policing accounting for much of that sum, although more than £100,000 has travelled in the opposite direction.
"The first thing to do [today] is break even," he said. "We have put the tickets out at £20 for adults and £14 for senior citizens and concessions. We're selling 2,030 tickets which will bring in around £30,000. We could have done with the match being live on TV, because that is £300,000 shared. That's an amazing amount of money and would keep us going for a few years. But we'll get £18,000 for the highlights and there is another £9,000 from Radio Five Live."
All of which means Blakemore should get the new stand he was promised in the summer. "Pre-season we sat with Charlie and we talked about the season ahead and the budget and building a new 500-seat stand," said John Donnelly, Chasetown's chairman. "Mike and I said to Charlie, 'Go and get us a Cup run and we'll get that stand sorted out'. Charlie keeps reminding me of the conversation now."
That is not difficult to believe, given Blakemore's extraordinary passion for the club. Like his players, the manager has to combine holding down a full-time job - a senior position as an operations director at BAE Systems where he oversees five factories and 1,100 people - with semi-professional football. He "loves" both roles but also admits that managing at non-league level is more challenging than some would imagine.
"When people have finished a hard day's graft - some of them have got really demanding jobs, me included - it's very difficult for them to get to training on time, so you have to give some leeway," he said. "And, of course, in preparation for games I have only one-and-a-half hours on a Tuesday night and the same on a Thursday. Very often we have to train on the pitch. And if the pitch is in a bad condition, we have to try and do a road run or find another area."
It will be some time before those issues are resolved but, buoyed by their FA Cup run two years ago, when Oldham were held at home in the first round, Chasetown continue to move forward, with attendances steadily climbing. "When I first came as chairman, just over three years ago, there were 60 people and I knew 40 of them," said Donnelly, who has recruited his friend, the comedian Frank Carson, as a director at the club. "We are averaging 350-400 now."
Those numbers would have been inconceivable when Brian Baker, the president and joint-founder of the club, played in Chasetown's first-ever match. "I cannot believe what's happened here," said Baker. "We started this in 1954 through the [Chase Terrace Old Scholars] Youth Club. We played Huntingdon Youth Club in the first match. We were rag-tag Rovers, because we were playing in someone else's shirts. We even brought our own shorts and socks."
Now Baker is selling Chasetown shirts from the portable building which is shared with the local pigeon flying club. "This is our first experience of having a club shop. We've done this out of the back of the office previously. We've sold badges over the top of the bar. Now everything is on show and people are heading for it. We've shifted 30 shirts in the seven weeks it's been open. But the big seller is the scarves and ski-caps. We've probably sold 250."
Professional clubs might make light of those figures, but as Baker points out: "Whatever business you do, even if it's only £5, that's £5 covering the cost of something." There is no chance that any of the profits will go to waste. Non-league football is replete with stories of clubs that have overstretched themselves - something the Cardiff chairman, Peter Ridsdale, can relate to - but Chasetown will not throw away money.
It is notable that the players have not asked for any bonuses for their FA Cup exploits, although Carson, who has cancelled a gig to attend the game, has promised to hand over £1,000. Not that money is the incentive. "We'll have to play out of our skins and Cardiff will have to have a real off-day," said Joe Williams, tax collector and central defender. "But if we do win, I think it would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of football."
I LOVE THIS GAME
