Salisbury City's chairman tells us how an FA Cup trip to Sheffield United can bring to a close a chapter in the club's history
The tie against Sheffield United is fantastic, it's the first time we've ever been in the third round of the Cup. Salisbury have had a chequered history during the past decade or so, with nearly being closed twice, bankruptcies and administration. But since myself and the two directors ? Chris Brammall, who has now stood down, and Jeff Hooper, took over in summer 2010 ? we've put the club back where they should be, and this tie gives us money to go to war with now; we can get players in.
About 10 or 12 years ago I tried to acquire the club with Alan Ball, who was a great friend of mine, God bless him, but the owners sold them for �1 to some local people. But Salisbury started to lose nonsense money for a non-league club. We got called back in and took them over, put the accountants in and found big black holes everywhere.
We decided we'd get the balance sheet sorted out first. They posted a loss of �500,000 the year before we took over, it was down to �200,000 last year, and this year it'll be a 50 or 70 grand loss, which in a two-and-a-half year period is a tremendous turnaround. Beyond the �1,000 a month paid under the terms of the company voluntary agreement to the Inland Revenue nothing else is owed, every other creditor is now paid in the normal 30 days.
We sit down with the manager, his assistant, the commercial manager, the general safety manager, even the groundsman gets involved, to see our monthly accounts and explain everything. We took on the debt of around �500,000 and at the moment, 25% of earnings from round two of the Cup is taken out to service the CVA (company voluntary agreement). So that hurts a bit. We've only got another 15 months and we will have paid it off ? we'd actually like to do a deal and pay it off sooner because it does inhibit you.
Due to administration in 2009, we were relegated two divisions from the Blue Square Bet Premier to the Southern League the following summer. But we got ourselves back up in the first year to the Conference South and, though, we are not doing too well this year and are currently 16th, we have had massive injury problems and I think we'll climb the league in time. Our purpose this year is to consolidate.
For now, there is a great buzz around this Saturday what with the publicity we're getting and everything. We've sold over 500 scarfs with Sheffield United and Salisbury on them, 1,000 tickets for the tie have been bought, and between two and three thousand are travelling. For a club that average 800, 850 in attendances, that's a huge amount of people to go four and a half hours up the road. People have been organising their own coaches, there's 15 or 20.
The key to getting it right on the pitch has been to make the club captain, Darrell Clarke, the player-manager, and he is assisted by Mikey Harris. It's a very young team ? Darrell is now 34, Mikey is 27 or 28 ? but they've got the support of the players, and their appointments went down very well with the fans. The formation against Sheffield will be 9-0-1, I expect, but it's great fun. The players are training well and everybody wants to be there, because this is their Cup final.
I was born and brought up in the area and am a self-made businessman ? I've never managed to get more than 20 miles from Salisbury Cathedral, it's like there's been an elastic band on my back and I've gone right round it twice. I'm 55 now and I'd love a draw against Sheffield United ? you wouldn't need to get me a car to go home, I'd run down the M1.
Interview by Jamie Jackson
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/06/salisbury-city-sheffield-united-fa-cup
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