Bucks Stop Here

Telford United Supporters Trust have announced they will hold a vote to surrender their ownership of AFC Telford United after 12 years in charge of the club.

The Club had been seeking outside investment for the past year, with the Trust willing at the time to part with a minority stake in the club in exchange of a six-figure investment. However no party was keen on the deal and rumours of financial issues have swirled around the club ever since.

Last Saturday the Bucks' players took cars for their away trip to Bradford Park Avenue, a 220 mile round trip, with the club unable to fund a coach. That was the latest in a string of visible cuts at the club. Stewarding numbers at matches have been reduced, and the club even attempted to vastly reduce the number of turnstiles open at one game - leading to queues and hundreds missing kick off.

The club, in a statement, says it is not in a 'terminal state' but it does need funding with cashflow 'extremely difficult' and a 'reducing ability' to pay trade creditors. £25,000 by the end of October and the same again by the end of November, the statement says they are looking for.

Attendances have fallen dramatically with the club's on-pitch performances, somewhere more starkly than some clubs, from an average of 1,800 to barely 1,000 at some matches. A disastrous managerial appointment has seen the club slip from a mid-table National League position to being at the wrong end of the National North table, and current bosses Rob Smith and Larry Chambers have seen their efforts to revamp the squad largely hog-tied by financial restraints and having a string of higher earners on contracts they cannot dispense with.

It's the classic case of one mistake compounded by another. The wrong manager, backed by the Board that hired him, signing too many of the wrong players to the wrong deals. When it goes wrong, there is no room for manoeuvre and panic sets in.

Having been one of the early adopters in the brave new world of fan ownership, Telford will now seek to revert to a more common form, with their statement hinting at the 'limitations' of the model.

Those 'limitations' are more than likely due to the clubs they are surrounded by. Clubs that aren't fan owned, that have a backer, that can call on a somebody to bail them out. Until that changes in football, the model will remain limited.

The TUST Board have announced the vote will take place in the near future, after an initial call for this coming Monday was deemed to be legally unsuitable. They also acknowledge an 'apparent decline in people willing to get involved' and 'a record level of apathy felt towards the organisation'. They also noted that they have a 'record number of vacancies' to fill on their Board. There is a long list of good people that have quit their volunteer roles due to criticism from dark corners.

The club host FC United this coming Saturday, then Salford City on the 29th. The level of attendance for those fixtures may determine their future.