St. Albans City Football Club Up For Sale

[.Ian]

Press Release issued by St. Albans City FC<p>St. Albans City Football Club Up For Sale<p>St. Albans City FC Chairman Lee Harding resigned at a board meeting at the ground on Tuesday evening. Harding, who has owned an 80% share-holding in the Club for almost four years announced that he felt it was in everyone’s interest for him to step down as Chairman and to

offer his share-holding in the Club for sale.<p>“The past six months or so have been tough for the Club with falling gates, etc., but, with the help of my fellow directors, we proposed a final

solution to the debt burden we having been wrestling with for years. We offered the Club’s creditors a new arrangement where some £45,000 would be introduced to satisfy our creditors and this was unanimously accepted by them,” said Harding.<p>The board of directors then turned their attention towards planning for the future. The board believed it was vital for everyone with the best interests of the Club at heart to pull together, but Harding was disappointed at the response from the supporters.<p>“I understood that recent events have made me unpopular with a section of our supporters and that they were concerned as to the future of the Club. With our proposals to clear all debts agreed, the board of directors offered to transfer the day to day running of the Club to an elected management committee of supporters. However, the unanimous decision by supporters to reject these proposals while I personally retain the majority share-holding left me with few options. I believe that for the Club to make

progress it has to be united and the Club’s future is more important than my wish to remain as majority share-holder.”<p>Harding has therefore stepped down and offered his share-holding in the Club for sale and said: “I shall be resigning as a director of the company and will be advising both our League and the Football Association of my decision.<p>I will listen to any reasonable offers for my share-holding in the club and hope that a new investor or a group of investors can complete the

process of clearing the Clubs’ debts, hopefully with the backing of the supporters, and then plan for the future. Any interested parties can contact me via the Club on 01727 864296 and I will provide them with the necessary details.”<p>Harding remained up-beat about the Club’s future: “I am certain that I relinquish control of the Club with it in a far healthier position

than I inherited. When I took over, our facilities prevented any possibility of promotion, but we have improved the fencing, terracing, seating, lights, etc., to obtain that coveted Conference grading. We were within sixteen minutes of Wembley two years ago and have had a couple of concerted

attempts at winning the league. I remain convinced that the City of St. Albans can sustain a Conference club and that the Club has tremendous potential. We’re sitting comfortably in the top half of the table and I hope that everyone can now get behind Gary, Steve and the team to consolidate the progress of recent years and push the Club onto bigger and better things. I am proud of the progress the Club has made and if I can offer any help or advice to my successors I would be delighted to do so. I will remain a supporter of the Club and wish everybody well for the future.”

[Colin, Germany]

If St. Albans have any assets, like a ground for instance, then I could imagine that somebody who does not mind being unpopular with the supporters and who does not really care about football might be very interested.<p>I hope for the sake of football that the share will only be sold to someone who genuinely cares about the football club.

[Badger]

I could be wrong, but I think St Albans can't be assett-stripped in the same way as other clubs have been. Their ground is in a Victorian Park where all planning decisions need to go through not only the local council but the Park Council as well. That is why, I believe, it took so long for them to get permission to remove the tree that was stopping them getting a Conference grading.

[SteveP]

I thought the tree had to go when it mysteriously got a case of Dutch elms. It previously had some kind of protection order on it.

[Badger]

I recall reading in one of their programmes from a few years back about the problems getting the planning permission to rebuild the toilets. They had to be 'in keeping' with the Park.

[Colin, Germany]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Badger:

<strong>I recall reading in one of their programmes from a few years back about the problems getting the planning permission to rebuild the toilets. They had to be 'in keeping' with the Park.</strong><hr></blockquote><p>Does this mean that they had to rebuild the toilets in Victorian style? How quaint!

[Badger]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Colin, Germany:

<strong><p>Does this mean that they had to rebuild the toilets in Victorian style? How quaint!</strong><hr></blockquote><p>Quite possibly!! I think they were going into detail about the type of guttering that would be allowed. I'll have to see if I can dig out the programme sometime.

<img src="graemlins/icon29.gif" border="0" alt="[icon29]" />

[Ali (K's)]

Quite convenient that the poor tree picked up the disease one day... But in all fairness, had it been at our ground, someone would have dealt with it too <p>When talking about how one can appearently demand route through Aldershot's ground (public footpath?) someone did point out that similar rights exist at St Albans and one could in theory refuse to pay admission - is this true?

[Guest]

<img src="graemlins/arcadefreak.gif" border="0" alt="" />

For goodness sake don't let anybody at Billericay know you have been talking about toilets behind their back as they have an 'anorak' who specialises in taking photo's.(see previous thread)

<img src="graemlins/bounce.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="graemlins/bounce.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="graemlins/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" border="0" alt="[rolleyes]" />

[The Invisible Man]

St Albans could have killed two birds with one stone, so to speak, if they all just p1ssed up the tree!<p>But how nice to hear of a chairman that decides to resign in the best interests of the club when the supporters express no confidence in him. <p>If only..........