150 and Counting
As we celebrate 150 issues of fcbusiness magazine, our very first contributor, Colin Mafham reflects on some of the articles he’s written in this magazine and how football has changed over the years.
In case you didn’t notice it on the front of the magazine the message says: “Because Football Is No Ordinary Business.” And after 150 editions and close on 20 years recording many of the game’s inside stories – on and off the pitch – it’s probably fair to say we can vouch for that.
We’ve seen lots of highs and lows on a journey that started back in 2004 when a hopeful Geordie called Andrew Mullen launched his fledging publication and employed yours truly to pop down to Southampton to pen a piece about a club that, as the then headline suggested, was on course for success without breaking the bank. There was no reason to doubt that the Saints’ success story would have anything other than a happy ending. Until now, that is.
Sad to say that after producing and selling a string of superstars like Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Theo Walcott, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane to name but a few, and rubbing shoulders with Premier League highflyers for more than a decade in the process, they are now having to start all over again in the EFL Championship following last season’s relegation. My tale of their success without breaking the bank seems to have something of a hollow ring about it right now.
Ironically, if that’s the right word, their place is being taken by Luton Town, whose incredible rise from the National League to the Premier League in less than ten years, was one of the other incredible triumphs we have been proud to tell you all about over the years.
Unlike Southampton, the Hatters’ success hasn’t produced a string of household names. Just like those no-nonsense Crazy Gang playalikes from Wimbledon did in the 80s and 90s, Luton’s rags to riches story has, in the main, been down to the efforts of journeyman footballers living a dream and working their socks off to achieve it.
Only time will tell if they can stay up there as long as Southampton did, but you don’t need to be the brain of Britain to guess what the likes of those giants from London, Manchester, and Liverpool will think when they turn up at little old Kenilworth Road next season.
“We’ve seen lots of highs and lows on a journey that started back in 2004”
One thing’s for sure though the club with the smallest ground in the Premier League can expect to pocket at least £150 million over the next three years even if they are relegated next season. And CEO, Gary Sweet and his fellow board of lifelong Hatters fans are set to complete their homespun fairytale by spending an estimated £100 million on a new 23,000 capacity stadium in Luton’s town centre which they hope to move into for the 2026/7 season.
Whoever said football is no ordinary business knew what they were taking about, eh?
But spellbinding though those Southampton and Luton stories are they are just a couple among the many that fcbusiness has given me the opportunity to tell you in so many of these 150 issues.
For instance, English Football League (EFL) chiefs Rick Parry and Trevor Birch provided a fascinating insight into their hopes and dreams for the 72 clubs they represent beneath the Premier League with an ambitious blueprint for the future. That included a call for the Premier League to hand over £1 billion – on top of £1.5 billion already pledged – as part of a reformed package. They also wanted controversial parachute payments withdrawn and spread over the Championship and Leagues One and Two.
I’ll be honest their demands sounded a tad optimistic to me, and the fact that most of them don’t appear to have been realised two years after we first published them would suggest that I could be coming back to you with news of a more modest shopping list in the non-too distant future.
But the one person I have interviewed the most over fcbusiness’s 19-year life is arguably the late David Gold, former co-owner of Birmingham City and West Ham who survived a turbulent childhood in London’s East End to become a genuinely decent bloke who just happened to have a helicopter and a Rolls-Royce with a personalised Gold 1 number plate.
David, who died earlier this year, was a passionate Hammers fan who was born literally up the road from the club’s old Upton Park ground, and actually played for them briefly as a boy.
We talked about many things in our meetings, from turning the former Olympic Stadium into a top-class home for West Ham, our respective families, a nine-hole golf course in his garden, and Chinese meals on a barge berthed on the Thames. But at no time did he waver in his commitment to leading West Ham to the champions title he believed was their ultimate right; so imagine how he would have felt if he had lived to see his beloved Hammers win their first silverware for four decades in the UEFA Europa Conference League final in June.
David isn’t the only notable in the Mafham memory bank, of course. Take my favourite club Sunderland, former Chairman Sir Bob Murray CBE, and the incredible Foundation Of Light they have built together, for instance.
“One person who sticks out in particular, and you’ve got to go right back to that very first edition of fcbusiness in September 2004, … Brent Peters, who is now in his 26th season as Bacup’s boss – making him the current longest serving manager in the world”
I spoke to Sir Bob back in November 2021 about an institution that has grown to become one of the most pioneering sports charities in the world and whose heartwarming achievements across large swathes of the North East literally blows your mind given the staggering number of people it helps.
When he laid the foundations for his Beacon of Light in 2001, Sir Bob said his aim was to inspire people and change their lives for the better through education and sport. Now, 22 years later and happily retired on Guernsey, the dream is being realised with the help of professional teachers, health workers, coaches and support staff within a magnificent Foundation building next to the club’s Stadium of Light and outreach centres throughout Sunderland, South Tyneside, and Co. Durham.
Not bad for a lad who left school at 15 with no qualifications and no more than a dead-end job in the local steelworks to look forward to, but who went on to establish and run a successful kitchen business, build a magnificent new stadium for his beloved Sunderland to play in, and the Sunderland AFC Foundation that sits so splendidly alongside it.
But there is one person who sticks out in particular, and you’ve got to go right back to that very first edition of fcbusiness in September 2004, and down to almost the lowest step in the football pyramid to find him. To Bacup Borough in the North West Counties League Division One North, to be precise, and to Brent Peters who is now in his 26th season as Bacup’s boss – making him the current longest serving manager in the world.
We caught up with him after he lost his job as assistant to the legendary Kerry Dixon at Doncaster Rovers and took over at his beloved Bacup when all the committee there walked out leaving Peters to pay off the club’s debts out of his own pocket. What’s happened since seriously rivals Roald Dahl for fairytales.
The man we headlined as The Saviour at the time got a job driving at night and spent every penny of the £18,000 he earned doing that keeping Bacup afloat from a caravan he bought and parked behind one of the goals so he could keep an eye on things during the day – supported by wife, Janice, who went out to work for years to help hubby Brent live a unique dream and keep their family afloat back home.
Needless to say it’s a different story nowadays with a Business Development Manager on board, corporate facilities flourishing, and a club shop for the fans who number significantly more than when he first turned up. And Brent doesn’t have to put his hand in his pocket so much anymore.
Quite a story you have to admit, and proof galore that football really is no ordinary business!
