The Archive

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally is up in arms at Charlton’s attempts to win fans on his patch, aided by the launch of a bus service. Haydn Parry reports from the Kent Badlands

“It goes against the grain of ethics, custom, practice and principles in the business in which we oper­ate. They will be sorry for this behaviour.” That was the reaction of Gillingham chairman Paul Scally to neighbouring Charlton’s ongoing plans to enlarge their fan base in Kent. The Addicks recently expanded their community scheme into the county as part of the club’s “Target 40,000” campaign, a bid to attract more supporters, including those in the Medway area in which Gillingham are based. Since January, supporters can travel to The Valley to watch Charlton’s home matches courtesy of a special coach service and Gillingham is now one of 30 pick-up points visited by the “Valley Express”.

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Lower-division clubs up against the big boys have their eyes firmly on the prize these days.  the prize being financial survival rather than a serious chance of glory. David Harrison reports

Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and… well, Watford actually. The last four of the Carling Cup surely comprised precisely the mix that the sponsors would have ordered up. Three of the self-styled Big Four, plus one of those lovable minnows – lauded and patronised by the media in roughly equal proportions.

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In the past four years the number of supporters’ trusts in  the lower divisions has rocketed. As Matthew Brown reports, eyes are now cast higher, for fan involvement even at the FA

Supporters Direct is the government-funded body that helps establish supporters’ trusts. Its annual conference at the end of October was hailed by its organisers as a moment for celebration. When it was set up four years ago only a handful of trusts existed and few had any real influence in their clubs, let alone board representation. Now, there are 122 supporters’ trusts at clubs in England, Wales and Scotland, 59 of which hold equity. At 39 clubs trusts are represented on the board and at eight (two in the League and six non-League) supporters have ownership or control.

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Steve Menary looks into investing in football clubs

Football has provided a poor return for City investors, but for fans the stock market is an opportunity. Go to a stockbroker and for a flat fee as low as £12.50 you can buy shares in your club, whether they are listed on the Stock Exchange, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) or Ofex, the less regulated third level of the UK stock markets.

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He was a World Cup star for Bulgaria, but totally bewildered by two years playing for Reading. Roger Titford recalls the man with football’s most famous wig

Borislav Mihailov is the greatest footballer in the history of Reading FC, according to the most objective of criteria. No one else in the club’s record books can boast of a World Cup semi-final appearance or more than 100 caps, many as captain of his country. Yet, in a recent internet poll, fans selected him as the most inept or underachieving player of all time.

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