Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We’re far from over at Dover.. I will NOT bankrupt this club
PARMENTER
SAVIOURS are popular at this time of year, and the next cross for football to bear is always just around the corner.
But Dover Athletic chairman Jim Parmenter’s stand against an “unjustified” 12point deduction and £40,000 fine for shutting down the club’s National League season at Crabble feels like a battle for the game’s soul.
And the response from fans across the spectrum on social media suggests he will have a huge groundswell of support to help him roll away the stone.
For the National League to remain a credible gateway into the EFL, it must be seen to operate an evenhanded toll. But Dover’s fate for curtailing their season six weeks ago, in the face of insurmountable costs, does not appear to follow an equitable path.
At face value, Parmenter’s stand is principled enough: He pulled the plug on the 2020-21 season to save his club from going out of existence. And the National League’s response appears to be the equivalent of finding a homeless man in a shop doorway on a freezing night, charging him with vagrancy, and relieving him of his coat as a fixed penalty.
Dover’s protest is an important line in the sand.
And Parmenter, whose fruit-and-vegetable import business is battling to absorb the madness of
Brexit red tape, has put £1.9million of his own money into the club since 2006.
National League clubs kicked off the season late, in October, only after receiving Government grants to tide them over until the New Year.
When the promise of further financial support turned out to be loans from Sport England, and not another bursary, Parmenter rejected the £450,000 debt Dover would have incurred.
With the fixture schedule ravaged by Covid-related postponements, he pulled up the drawbridge at the end of February, ceasing all football operations for the season at Crabble.
“There are a few clubs who think we should be punished, but the response we have been getting from supporters far and wide has been extraordinarily supportive,” said Parmenter.
“Under company law it is illegal to trade when knowingly insolvent, yet that is what we were being told to do. Our income streams had completely dried up in the pandemic and the grants we were promised by the National League to keep playing did not materialise.
“When there is no gate money because fans are not allowed to attend matches, no income from our function rooms because weddings and parties are banned under lockdown, and sponsors withdraw because they have been hit by Covid-19, what are we supposed to do?
“The National League expected us to take out a £450,000 loan which would have made us insolvent.
“But I’m not paying the fine –- and I’m not going to send Dover into bankruptcy.
“People talk about the ‘integrity’ of the league, but where is the integrity when certain clubs have been allowed to furlough highlypaid players and bring in replacements on less money?
“There should have been alarm bells when we were unable to start the season until October. We were always going to be hostages to a second wave of the pandemic and when games were being called off, clubs were left to pay contracts with no income to honour them.
“There are 16 clubs in National League North and South fined for failing to fulfil their fixtures – even though their seasons were declared null and void! How does that work?”
As things stand, manager Andy Hessenthaler (below) will begin next season with minus 12 points and a financial handicap. Dover will appeal, and Parmenter said: “The National League is the gateway to the Football League. But it’s also become a very expensive league desperately under-funded.
“For 15 years, we balanced the books here and the club ran without a penny of debt. In exceptional times, when there are reasons for clubs being in difficulty, we would expect to be treated with some understanding by our own league.”
‘Where’s integrity when clubs have furloughed players and replaced them with cheaper ones’