Morecambe 0:0 AFC Halifax

[thedoc]

No Shay-me for Halifax:

http://d3d4football.com/morecambe-0-0-h ... ch-report/

[SHAYMAN]

Hi, thanks for your interest in our club but your report contains so many serious factual errors about our history as to render it almost worthless, and possibly libellous.

1) In their seventy-two year League history, Town came bottom of the pile of ninety-four Football League clubs an astonishing twelve times – and survived. My Maths is far from brilliant but I think that equates to being in the worst position of all every six years on average. - We NEVER finished bottom of a national Football League until after automatic relegation was introduced for the bottom club in 1987. We had to apply for RE-ELECTION 12 times, as did, I believe Hartlepool and Crewe (both of whom DID actually finish bottom!). True, we ONCE finished bottom of the old 3rd Division North, which as the name implies, was a regional division. So as far as finishing bottom goes it was, at worst, once every 67 years up to 1987, and twice thereafter resulting in relegation from the Football League. We're very proud of our history as a Football League club, we know we were very far from being the best but please, get your facts right!

2) How ridiculous was that when far better – and more progressive – teams right across England and Wales – Bangor City springs immediately to mind as far as the Principality is concerned – had no chance of replacing them? Applying for re-election involved presenting a business case for continued membership, which was considered alongside new applications for membership. One of the criteria looked for was "sustainability" - the last thing the League wanted to see was clubs folding mid season, which had happened several times and besides creating administrative chaos also damaged the credibility of the League. Existing members, which had already demonstrated this quality in abundance by the actual fact of their continuing existence, always had an advantage over the unknown quantity of a potential new member. On field success was pretty low down in the priorities of the process. Also, the League was a club, owned by its members: the idea that other clubs had a "right of entry" simply isn't the case, the member clubs could set any rules they liked, as long as they could agree on them. The "old pals" conspiracy theory has holes in it too, as it implies the clubs unanimously voted to re-elect their "own" regardless of any other consideration- as the articles states, new members WERE elected, and votes against existing members weren't neccessarily on the grounds of geographical isolation- Huddersfield Town consistently voted to boot us out, no doubt with an eye on picking a few hundred disenfranchised Shaymen, just a few miles over the hill.

3) But in 1992, the club which has always lived in the shadow of the Rugby League team whose stadium it shared found fate belatedly catching-up with them. It all ended in tears at that point. Halifax had just won their way back to Division Three but then the wheels well and truly fell off. Support in the town is split fairly evenly between the 2 clubs- as a purely regional sport RL is not particulary appealing to everyone. And it should be noted the record sporting attendances in the Town are for The Shaymen. These are well over 30k, a benchmark HRLFC has NEVER achieved. As for "sharing" the rugby club's stadium, I DARE you to come to The Shay on a match day and put that suggestion to some Town fans! We have NEVER shared the rugby club's stadium, indeed when a shared stadium was first proposed, they blocked our potential move to THRUM HALL on the grounds that there was some clause in the deeds to the land which specifically stated that football was prohibited there. Thus, they offered to sell THEIR ground and share OURS at The Shay. When they promised to put the money from the sale into developing The Shay for the benefit of both clubs, we snapped their arms off. However, they "forgot" to tell us they owed all of the money to the taxman-a fact which only became known to our club after we'd got ourselves into hock to match the money they'd promised us, and they arrived at The Shay empty handed and homeless, (but debt-free). An episode which has poisoned relations with our now joint tenants ever since and contributed towards the end of our club 10 years later, still owing the money we'd borrowed. So please, less of the "lived in the shadow of the Rugby League team" please.

4) Halifax had just won their way back to Division Three but then the wheels well and truly fell off.

They were absolutely humiliated in the FA Cup by the part-time and non-League team to whom Morecambe owe an eternal debt: Marine. Halifax lost on Merseyside by all of four goals to one.
Indescribably worse, though, in the first year of the Premiership, Halifax Town transformed themselves into… Halifax Down. Yes they did. They finished the season bottom of the division.
Instead of being simply relegated back to Division Four, however, the club was actually booted out of the Football League altogether. This was due to what my lawyers have advised me to describe as `creative financial spreadsheets’. I honestly don't know where to start with this- is this guy on drugs? We were promoted ONCE as a Football League club. That was in 1969. We were a 4th Division club from 1976 until 1993. In 1992/93 season, for the first time in our history we finished bottom of the national Football League and were relegated as per the new rules. The club was promoted back into the FL as Conference Champions in 1998, and stayed there until relegated again in 2002. Due in large part (but not solely) to ITV Digital going bust mid season, and thus the club NOT receiving the £1m sponsorship money due to each club as part of the company's deal with the FL and duly budgeted for, the club went into administation at the end of the season. They soon entered into a CVA (creditors voluntary arrangement?), diligently paying off their debts, until the closed season in 2008, when a new consortium, seeking control of the club, put the club back into administration hoping to make a new arrangement with the creditors. However their advisors failed to appreciated that the taxman, who was owed money in to original CVA, would deem that the club had failed to meet its obligations under the CVA and would add on interest to the original debt plus penalties, taking the debt to over £2m and making the taxman the majority creditor- as such the taxman had the veto over any deal and his policy is insist that every penny was paid. Unable or unwilling to pay off debts they had no part in accruing the consortium allowed the club, or more correctly its holding company to be dissolved. They immediately created new holding company called FC Halifax Town. Whether this constitutes a new club or not has been a matter of debate. Other clubs have pulled off this particular trick and continued to operate without let or hindrance- (I'm thinking of Bradford City 1982 Ltd, Bristol City 1982 Ltd, Middlesborough 1986 Ltd, Leeds United 2007 PLC. For their own reasons, the consortium claim it is a new club, no doubt for commercial reasons to distance themselves from the poor local reputation of the "old club". However, the FA made a distinction between "new" and "reformed" clubs at this time, and deemed that FC Halifax Town was a reformed club and was a continuation of Halifax Town AFC. As such the club was allowed to enter both the FA Cup and FA Trophy immediately, without the 2 and 3 year delays imposed on, for example Chester, who folded mid- season and resumed the following season and are designated by the FA as a "new" club.

All of this information is freely available on the internet.

Oh and by the way, many of us still struggle to think of clubs like Morecambe and Macclesfield as "Football League" clubs, still less as "more illustrious".

Thanks for listening.

[Seasider9601]

A very, very well educated response.

[Slanester]

Very good of you to put the records straight. Not sure how many of us at the league side, yes league side, Morecambe, really needed or cared, for you to put yourself out though.

[Seasider9601]

Not sure how many of us at the league side, yes league side, Morecambe, really needed or cared, for you to put yourself out though.

I disagree.

How many times have we seen our own arse when, for example, we get called The Shrimpers??!!

If we read inaccuracies about our club, we always want to set the record straight !!

In my humble opinion.

[RedRedWine]

fair play Shayman - very interesting.

Morecambe applied for election to the football league 10 times between 1958 and 1970 - generating 9 votes in total, and never more than 2 in an application. It was a system that favoured the existing league sides.

I do wish people saved any intended satire at the expense of our opponents until after the result of the tie, or better still try not to take the piss out of other clubs at all? I don't think it paints a good or fair impression of our support base.

[Slanester]

Fair enough, your opinion. Never seen my arse about being called The Shrimpers. If somebody wants to come on to the Morecambe forum to correct inaccuracies, that’s fine. If they then choose to also end it with a dig at our club, then they will get the reaction they are due. Kept it fairly tame.