Chester City FC: Turmoil drags on for Blues, but for how much longer?

Oct 29 2009 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

BLUES fans are facing another two weeks of uncertainty as the future of their troubled club hangs in the balance.

City had been told by the Football Conference that they would be kicked out of the league if they failed to pay their football-related debts by 5.30pm on Monday.

The money was not forthcoming but Chester earned a stay of execution and a new deadline – Monday, November 16 – was set following crisis talks between the club, the Conference, the Football League and PFA.

A Conference statement read: “The club has been duly informed that unless it complies in full with the conditions of membership it agreed with the Football Conference, the competition will move to consider the club’s expulsion.”

Blues supporters greeted the news with a mixture of despair and resignation, as they see their club lurch from one crisis to another with no end in sight.

One fan was removed from the Harry McNally Terrace at Tuesday’s match home loss to Barrow soon after kick-off for unveiling a ‘Vaughan Out’ banner. Another was ejected from the East Stand for standing up and voicing the same sentiment.

The Chronicle asked to speak to Blues owner Stephen Vaughan or new chairman Ian Anderson at the Barrow game to find out more about the current crisis but both declined the request. Both were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Few fans still believe the statements issued by Vaughan and the board and even the Blues’ very survival is now the subject of gallows humour in the stands.

Vaughan is refusing to pay the debts – which include money owed to neighbours Wrexham and Vauxhall Motors – while the Football Conference and Football League continue to withhold money owed to the club.

It is a classic stand-off, but a solution must be reached in the next fortnight – or else the consequences for Chester City FC are almost too dire to comprehend.