Never Underestimate The Fans Luton served as a warning to all would-be football profiteers: never underestimate the fans By Jim White Telegraph 30/10/2004
Have you heard the one about the bloke who bought control of a football club and still got change from a fiver? Now that is what you call a bargain. And it happened to John Gurney, a property developer so ruthless in pursuit of profit he probably looks in the mirror to shave in the morning and tries to charge his reflection rent. Gurney's chaotic few weeks in charge at Luton Town in the summer of 2003 was the subject of a behind-the-scenes assessment on BBC2 business programme Trouble at the Top on Thursday night. The piece began with Gurney's �4 steal, and ended with the club emerging from enforced bankruptcy. In between, it was the equivalent of one of those war-time public information films. After this was shown, the next time he fetches up at the doorstep of an ailing football club offering salvation, nobody can say they were not warned about John Gurney. "He's going to destroy us without a shadow of a doubt," Luton's indefatigable secretary, Cherie Newbury, said to the camera at one point as Gurney left a meeting in the club's aptly named Eric Morecambe Suite. At the time she was the only member of staff still speaking to him. Gurney maintained he was fronting a consortium of wealthy business folk who were anxious to develop the Luton brand and take the organisation to the next level. But the only levels that widened his eyes were the prime green expanses of development land the club owned alongside the M1, on which, he said as he ran the long grass between his plump fingers, "a number of as yet unspecified retail opportunities" would be built. Eventually he wanted to change the name of the club to London Luton, presumably to maintain continuity with the airport. But in the meantime, he sacked the popular manager Joe Kinnear and then conducted a Pop Idol-style public vote to choose the next one. By an amazing coincidence the plebiscite came up with the same decision that he had already made and Mike Newell was installed as manager. The camera brilliantly undermined the chairman's protestations that everything was entirely democratic by showing him negotiating a contract with the new man an hour before polling had closed. Like all would-be football profiteers, however, Gurney hugely underestimated one aspect of the business he hoped to exploit: the fans. Just like the shower up the road in Milton Keynes, who thought they could uproot Wimbledon FC without anybody noticing, Gurney assumed that the fans' loyalty to their club was nothing more than an exploitable resource. But the Luton supporters, showing significantly more nous than an allegedly ruthless property magnate, easily out-flanked him. First they arranged a boycott of season-ticket purchases, effectively starving Gurney of cashflow in the middle of the close season. Then, in a splendidly organised coup d'�tat, they bought shares in a sleeping company which held a debenture on Luton's ground in order to call in a multi-million-pound debt. It worked a treat. As they knew all along, Gurney � who, for all his claims of financial canniness, had not actually spotted the loophole when he handed over his four quid � would have no option but to bankrupt the business. Gurney left with a snarl: "If they expect me to walk away with nothing, I'll make sure there is nothing to walk away from." Unedifying as it was, the look on his face as he spat out the warning was not the most alarming aspect of the episode. Far more worrying was the complete absence of governance from the football authorities as he set about his scheme to use the club as leverage in a property deal. Early in his brief reign, Gurney was summoned by the Football League to give details of his backers. It appears their investigation into his arrangements went no further than accepting his explanation that he was bound by a confidentiality agreement and could therefore tell them nothing about his mysterious consortium. Why the books were not called in, why auditors were not appointed, why alarm bells did not deafen anyone within earshot of Bedfordshire, only the Football League authorities can explain. As far as protecting their customers from rapacious marauders goes, clearly those who run the game do not regard it as part of their brief. Despite it all, Luton Town survived. At present the club are top of the table in League One under the one positive legacy of Gurney's time, the astute management of Newell. That they are still in business is thanks to supporters who appreciated they could not rely on those in charge of the game to look out for them. "Potential owners have to realise that they cannot mess with supporters' emotions," Gary Sweet, of Trust in Luton, the pressure group who co-ordinated the property developer's eviction, told BBC2's cameras. It was a warning that would be well heeded by, to pluck a name out of the ether at random, Malcolm Glazer. The American carpet-bagger may think he can simply walk into Manchester M16, mortgage everything he sees up to the hilt in order to pay for it, sell the name of the stadium to the highest bidder, double admission prices, treble the cost of burgers, do everything he wants to 'exploit the brand' and then slink back to Florida with pockets laden. But as the bizarre case of John Gurney demonstrated, in football you can do nothing without the fans. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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