Chester City FC gone in 60 seconds

It took less than 60 seconds for Chester City to discover their  fate. After being kicked out of the Football Conference at the end of February, the club were wound up because of an unpaid  £26,125 tax bill owed to the HM Revenue & Customs.

With fans boycotting home games in protest to the way the club had been run by the owners, the Vaughan family, the 126-year-old club’s demise was staring them in the face. Already facing financial problems because of badly failing attendances, the average home crowd at the Deva Stadium dropped from 2,964 before relegation from the Football League in 2006 to 1,290 for the first 12 league games of this campaign.

Following the boycott, only 425 fans - the lowest league attendance in the club's history, turned up for the Salisbury game on 19 January. and, for what proved to be Chester City's last-ever game at the Deva Stadium on 6 February, there were only 460 on hand to see a 2-1 home defeat by Ebbsfleet.

With so little money coming in at the turnstiles, the club being denied discretionary parachute payments by the Football League and their overall reported debts understood to run to close to £200,000, the Chester players went unpaid.

And when after two previous threats of strike action, the players opted not to board the team bus to Forest Green on 9 February, that effectively triggered the beginning of the end for City.

With the national media so focused on the footballing elite, The Seals barely gained any attention for their slide into the abyss as the financially-dominated sport coughed up and spat out City - the club where a certain Ian Rush began his career.

Southend and Cardiff were both in the winding-up court on the same day as Chester, pleading for understanding and proof they can afford to survive. And although there is little sympathy for ailing football clubs, Southend were given 35 days to pay their outstanding bill and Cardiff 56 days to satisfy the court, but not one soul showed up from Chester to contest their winding up order and the club were no more.

Chester supporters group City Fans United now intend to start a new 'phoenix' club in a lower league. Working closely alongside the local city council, the CFU have already put in an application to the Football Association for a licence to start playing next season.

But how can lower league clubs survive alongside the glamorous riches of the Premier League?

Portsmouth are paying the price for their gamble at breaking the elite. Unable to pay their mounting costs, the club is now facing almost certain relegation and are in the middle of administration whilst fighting to stave off their own winding-up order.

Even Manchester United and Chelsea are producing record-breaking losses season after season. Surely now is the time for the football authorities to take hold of the matter and enforce sanctions and rules into the future of the game, or Southend, Cardiff and Portsmouth will be following Chester into the forgotten gutter.

By Mark O’Haire