One of the biggest changes in football over the past 20 years, since the post-Italia 90 “gentrification” of the working man’s ballet, is how young fans become involved. Time was you were either taken by a (usually male) parent to watch the team they supported, or selected your team, gathered your like-minded mates together or set off on your own for the turnstiles, where you could pay on the day….
The Facts The Extraordinary General Meeting of Chelsea Pitch Owners took place in the Harris Suite at Stamford Bridge on Monday 23 July 2012. Before the meeting was called to order, CPO’s lawyers objected to one shareholder distributing copies of a leaflet detailing the identities of shareholders who made substantial purchases between 3rd and 20th October 2011 and making a number of claims in respect of the original Prospectus of…
Main developments from today’s EGM:- Wise and Sewell in no-show Plea for early vote on Resolution 3 denied Board promises to “vet” future share applications Row over debt repayment rumbles on Pledges to investigate fund-raising options Today’s hotly-anticipated Chelsea Pitch Owners EGM ended in uproar after many believed Steve Frankham used the chair’s proxy vote to sink Resolution 3, which called for voting rights to be limited to a maximum of…
Having put the trial of John Terry behind us, Chelsea fans face another ordeal in the next week as as the continuing vexed issues surrounding CPO come to the fore again. For those of you who are new to this column, or have been living in a cave for the past ten months, a brief recap. The board of Chelsea Football Club proposed to purchase the lease from Chelsea Pitch…
Over the past year, especially since the launch of Chelsea’s ill-fated proposal to purchase the lease of the pitch at Stamford Bridge, I have had the good fortune to meet many more Chelsea fans. Amongst these decent, upstanding citizens are not only those who spend their spare time entertaining their fellow supporters by blogging and podcasting, but those who are involved with trying to make things better for everyone. A…
It must be about a month ago that I had a notification on Facebook (or “The Face” as Old Mother Baby refers to it); “Ross Mooring has invited you to an event”. The event in question was marked “KTBFFH pre-climb drinks” in Balham, and not having any previous engagement for the evening concerned, I accepted. The event in question was a send-off for two fine, brave, Chelsea fans, Clive Osgood…
The alarm clock on my mobile rang. I was surprised. Why was I using my mobile as an alarm? I reached out and looked at the time. It said 06.00. Why was I in an unfamiliar room? Suddenly I realised I was in Stuttgart and in less than two hours I was going to be on a train to Munich to watch my beloved Chelsea play in the Champions League…
This night had it all. There was hope. There was despair. There were tears. There was joy. And that was just the three and a half hours after the game it took from the time we got on the U-bahn until the time the 03.25 Munich to Stuttgart express departed Hauptbahnhof. At 04.25. But most of all it was a night at the end of which, for all those who travelled…
A “Travels” is a rare visitor at this time of the year; however as we have reached the Final of Europe’s premier club competition what better way than to mark it with recollections of what was, for many of those who went, a very favourite European trip. The 2010 – 2011 Champions League campaign began with exceptionally smooth progress through a first stage comprising Marseille, Zilina and Spartak Moscow, ending…
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was print. James A. Catton was the earliest significant figure in football journalism, writing for the Preston Herald in 1875. Forty years later, he recalled “”In days long ago when Association football players wore beards and breeches, instead of being clean shaven and donning shorts or running pants, newspapers, as a whole, took very little notice of matches. The reports were…