Fish fingered

Andy Medhurst reports on bleak times for fans of Hull City

The name of the Needler family appears in several chapters in the gloriously unsuccessful history of Hull City AFC. The late Harold Needler, a wealthy businessman and chairman of his beloved Tigers, pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into the club in the 1960s as they just failed to grab a place in Division One.

His memory lives on as a wealthy benefactor who loved his club, putting his money where his heart most certainly was. However, at the moment it is his son, Christopher, who is threatening to finish off the never-great East Yorkshire club completely. The situation is as simple as it is at most other lower division clubs. Hull City are skint.

Interest in the team is at an all-time low – two relegations in five years under the leadership of Terry Dolan (16 wins in the last 78 League matches – ten of them by a single goal – and scoring a far from free-flowing 64 goals in the process) has seen to that.

The 1,775 v Torquay in November was the lowest ever league attendance at Boothferry Park, and the average for the season looks set to drop below 3,000 for the first time (not including the massive 553 for the Auto Windshields tie with Chester). That in one of the largest cities in the country with a catchment area of over a million people is a disgrace.

Following last season’s dreadful relegation, Terry Dolan was offered a three-year extension to his deal, and he is now amazingly the fifth longest-serving manager in the country, occupying the comfy chair at Boothferry Park since 1991.

Add to this the financial chairmanship of Martin Fish which has seen 2m in received transfer fees alone ‘disappear’ during this period and you’re beginning to see why an action group – Tigers 2000 – have been formed with the intention of restructuring the whole club from top to bottom. Following a recent petition the group now has over 4,000 signatures of support.

Hull City are currently a million in debt, rising at a reputed £ 17,000 a week as current attendances hover at just over a third of the required 6,000 break even figure. Scandalous for a club which had “virtually cleared its debts” only last May. It is only the generosity of the Nat West bank who are now keeping the club afloat, currently paying the players wages.

Fish himself is adopting a siege mentality. Threats of legal action were recently issued against the fanzine Tiger Rag, and both the local newspaper and radio station have suffered bans of some sort, both of them being described as “against the club”. Hull City legendary players Ken Wagstaff and Chris Chilton were banned from Boothferry Park’s 50th birthday party for their support of the Tigers 2000 group (Wagstaff is President), and Fish stated that anyone else supporting the action group were unwelcome at the ground.Ever since thousands have responded to his call and stayed away in protest.

Christopher Needler – the majority voting shareholder and effective owner – wants to cash in on the non-voting shares he set up when he invested £750,000 in 1982 by selling Boothferry Park. All very well if plans to build a new ground were at an advanced stage, but they aren’t. He wants to sell the ground, pocket his cash, and wash his hands of the club completely.

The fans contention is that Boothferry Park belongs to Hull City and not Christopher Needler, but we appear powerless to stop him get his way. The local council has frowned on talk of a new stadium, and nothing will happen unless they give the nod, which looks very unlikely. Needler is reported to be having talks with Hull FC in an attempt to ground share at our rugby league neighbours in their tin-pot Boulevard ground. A move to such a small ground (it has no segregation or car park) would condemn us to Third Division/Conference football forever more.

Ex-wrestler Don “Dr Death” Robinson, a former Hull City chairman in the days when they were successful and profitable, has offered to bail the club out, pumping in £1.5 million, the majority of which would be used for immediate team strengthening. After a hastily arranged Board meeting in which the chairman was amazingly asked to wait outside for 20 minutes whilst the other two board members – and brother-in-laws – argued it out, Don’s rescue package was turned down amongst accusations that he was trying to buy the club on the cheap.

The very next day Needler bizarrely offered Robinson the club for a mere £1 – but this would only buy him the club’s debts and the players. Christopher wanted to keep the ground to sell for himself. Suspiciously soon after news broke that a large supermarket chain had offered 5m for the site. Understandably Robbo turned down this farcical offer, and the club continues to stagger towards death with no other bidders on the horizon.

Tigers 2000 are now employing lawyers to investigate how – and indeed why – the club is being run down with such apparent ease. Anti-Dolan stickers are everywhere, and one even turned up on the match ball at a recent game, much to the bemusement of an opposing player about to take a throw in.

The protesters have been branded “childish” by chairman Fish, for his part failing to understand how anyone could criticize the excellent job his manager is doing whilst conveniently failing to understand why the Boothferry Park terraces are now so sparsely populated each fortnight. He tells those protesting against the way the club is run to keep away from games, then criticizes the Hull public for not attending games in large enough numbers.

Bournemouth’s reaction to the threat of a winding-up order shows clubs can come back fighting after being at a low ebb and there even appears to be a hazy light at the end of the tunnel for Brighton. But I doubt whether many people living west of Goole even realize that Hull City are in trouble. Local businesses have long since abandoned sponsorship deals with sports teams in Kingston-upon-Hull, using the worn-out excuse that if they give money to one club then they’ll have to give something to them all, so they just don’t bother with any of them anymore.

Unless a buyer comes in it’s difficult to see Hull City surviving past the end of the season, such is Christopher Needler’s desire to claw back his money and sell the ground. His father once again turns in his grave in disgust.

From WSC 122 April 1997. What was happening this month