Portsmouth Supporters Trust Spokesman Colin Farmery yesterday moved quickly
to deny any involvement of funding from businessmen Colin Hill or Keith Cousins
as their bid to take over the ailing League One football club Portsmouth nears
its conclusion. The denial will come as a relief to the clubs supporters who’ve
seen a long list of undesirables attached to their club in what has been a
turbulent period in their history on and off the field.
Calls have been made by fans for more transparency in all areas and the
latest rumours follow on the back of moves by rival bidder Keith Harris to try
and destabilise the supporters trust bid. The linking of the names Hill and Cousins
could be considered to be another desperate attempt to derail the bid as it
reaches its last hurdle although there are no direct suggestions that they have
come from the Harris camp.
Given the importance of Property Developer Stuart Robinson to the
supporters trusts bid the tale of fellow property developer Colin Hill and his
involvement in football should serve as a warning to football clubs.
Championship side Peterborough United was sold in 2003 to Wetmore
Foundation, a company registered in Liechtenstein. Much was made that the sale
had meant the club had been saved from the hands of property developers but it
soon transpired that the club had been sold to Colin Hill. Within a few months
the club and the ground had been separated with Barry Fry taking over the club
and the Wetmore Foundation retaining the London Road ground before transferring
it to another company Peterborough United Holdings Ltd for a stated price of
£3.5 million. Fry defended the decision saying "Colin Hill is a
shrewd businessman and he didn't want the football club because he said it would
always lose money. I'm a football person, so I took it on."
In
2006 the holding company owned by Wetmore submitted a planning application to
build 96 two-bedroom and 39 one-bedroom flats on land behind the away end which had been
owned by the club. Estimations at that time put the potential value of the deal
at a potential £18 million with all profit going to Wetmore except for the cost
of a 2,000 seat stand which was promised in the planning application. Whilst
those types of numbers would have been good for the developers, the finances of
the club had continued to suffer as they posted losses of £4.8 million with
almost £1 million being loaned to the club by its Directors.
In
2010 a deal was signed to buy the London Road ground and surrounding land by
Peterborough City Council. The total cost of acquiring the site including legal
fees and stamp duty stood at £8.65 million. Whilst the numbers weren’t as high
as the estimates of 2006, the deal will still have represented good business to
Peterborough United Holdings Ltd and to Colin Hill on the original sum paid for
the land.
At
the time of writing Peterborough United lay second bottom in the Championship.
In
2006 Rushden and Diamonds avoided going into administration after being brought
by the former Peterborough United vice-chairman Keith Cousins. At that point
they had been facing relegation from the Conference. Formed by merging Rushden
Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds the club funded by previous owner Max Griggs
had won promotion to the football league and had risen as high as League One.
Alongside winning promotions Griggs had provided the club with a modern stadium
and excellent supporting facilities alongside the River Nene in
Irthlingborough.
The problems for Rushden and Diamonds
began when Griggs’ Doc Martens business ran into increasing trouble. He tried
to sell the club for eighteen months but couldn’t find a bidder. Eventually
Griggs handed over the club and most of its accompanying facilities to a
community trust. Furthermore his generosity continued as he provided the trust with
£750,000 over two years to help them get started although this in fact only
managed to keep the club going for a further six months.
The trust successfully reduced the
inherited annual operating losses of £1.5 million but was still losing in the
region of £600,000 a year. Had they not have taken over when they did the club
would have folded at the end of the 2004 / 05 season. The chair of the Rushden
and Diamonds Society, Paul Hadjuk, admitted, 'I think everyone is aware that
running a football club requires more financial backing than the Trust could
afford to commit.'
Facing certain closure the Trust looked
for potential investors, which is where Keith Cousins came into the equation
with funding coming from Colin Hill. Eventually Cousins would resign from the
club and in June 2011 Rushden and Diamonds were expelled from the Conference
with debts of round £750,000 and faced a winding up hearing. In July 2011 the
club entered administration with the administrator citing they were no longer “in
a position to continue trading.” An appeal against Conference expulsion was withdrawn
and the club had been refused entry to the Southern League.
Ex Rushden and Diamonds player Leon
Knight used his Twitter account to let his feelings known about the club and its
owners at the time;
Im gonna be going wild on twitter all
day FUCK RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS the crooks
For those who don't know Colin Hill he's the funder of Rushden and Diamonds he's the biggest crook EVER!!!!!!!
Colin Hill turned up in the changing room and gave a team talk hahahahah what has he got anything to do with Rushden?
Knight also alleged that Cousins and
Hill threatened him with physical violence as the relationship between club and
player broke down spectacularly during his turbulent time with the club which
saw him being sacked just four months into his deal due to alleged continual
breaches of the agreement. Rushden retained the player’s rights meaning Knight
was unable to register with another FA Club and he was forced to play abroad
for the next two seasons.
Rushden and Diamonds were formally dissolved
in 2011 but Cousins and Hills story continued with Nene Park as the ground became
the home of Kettering Town, although that deal came to an end when Kettering
were forced to switch their games to Corby Towns Steel Park because Nene Park
has no electricity. Whilst Corby Town are charging £1,000 per game for the privilege
of ground sharing Steel Park, it was confirmed in the CVA document filed during
Kettering Town's administration last summer that they were paying an annual
rent of £150,000 for the use of Nene Park. Latterly it has been suggested that
the ground could be used to host Coventry City’s home games as they struggle
with finances and the rent demands placed upon them from the owners of the
Ricoh Arena.
The debenture over Nene Park is held by Conalgen
Enterprises SA, incorporated in Panama. In 2009 applications were made to the Council
of the District of East Northamptonshire and Northamptonshire County Council to
erect a hotel and associated parking. Previous owner Max Griggs had included
certain stipulations in the sale contract about anyone looking to take over
Rushden and Diamonds at the time of the transfer to the Trust to try and
safeguard the future of the club. These stipulations are believed to run out in
2015 and whilst the exact details aren’t known of the deal they are said to be
centered round a covenant running with the land. Such a deal can impose duties or
restrictions upon the use of that land regardless of the owner.
To complete the story of caution in regards to
Colin Hill, Sheffield based newspaper The Star ran a story in November 2010 in
which the Multi-millionaire property developer was labelled a fraud by a judge
in 2009 after an old woman was nearly cheated out of her home. At the time Hill
was said to backing Rotherham businessman Spencer Fearn’s bid to buy Sheffield
Wednesday.
So from being labelled a fraud by a judge to a
crook by an ex-employee the name of Colin Hill isn’t one that the Portsmouth
Supporters Trust will have welcomed in association with their bid. Together
Hill’s and Cousin’s records of involvement directly in football clubs or via
business dealings through property haven’t turned out well for the clubs
involved, although the businessmen don’t seem to have done too badly from the deals
in comparison. From debentures to city councils the lessons are there to all to
be learned from. I’m sure the Portsmouth Supporters Trust will be looking to
avoid any such mistakes moving forward.
Portsmouth fans and football fans alike can donate money to help the
Portsmouth Supporters Trust at http://www.pompeys12thman.co.uk
