Dale chief joins call for Boris to Save Our Clubs

●●CONTINUED from back some things that would help us get through this crisis.

“Every Football League club, all 72 of them, were paying PAYE in full, all paying employees in full, paying VAT – so we’d like a few breaks in that area because effectively, football is one business that has been closed by the pandemic but hasn’t been closed by the Government.

“We’re playing matches behind closed doors so we’re operating the very product that we are responsible for but we have none of the income coming in that allows us to put that product on the football field.

“That’s what we’re trying to get across to the Government.

“We’re also trying to get across that nobody wants to see another Bury or a Macclesfield happen, because football clubs like ours with a history of 113 years have got a great value to the community. Not just a value in terms of all the things we do in the community, whether that’s going into going into schools or working with refugees or tackling obesity, but recognising the value financially that a Football League club brings to the tow that its involved in. In Rochdale we have thousands of visitors from away clubs each year who spend money in hotels staying overnight, in shops, bars and restaurants. It adds to the whole economy.

“And, at the end of the day, we emply nearly one hundred people at this club so we’re actually a fairly significant employer in the town of Rochdale because most of our off-thefield staff live in the town. As a club we are a great contributor to rates and all those things that a town council needs to survive. That’s what we’re trying to get across to the Government, to say ‘look, the Premier League is awash with cash, you need to find a mechanic to help get the Premier League to help clubs. There is a statistic that 12 of the last England squad came up through Football League club Academies and I think that says it all about Football League clubs and why we all believe in keeping the football pyramid going.”

Mr Bottomley believes there is a train of thought among non-football followers who believe the professional game at all levels is awash with money.

“I think a lot of people who don’t really know the game well believe players at this level get paid Premier League wages. They don’t,” he said.

“Players at this level are fairly well looked after in terms of their wage structure but nowhere near their counterparts who are operating literally just 20 places above in league terms.

“Between the top of League One and the Premier League there is only 20-odd places but such a disparity in wealth between where we are and where the Premier League is at financially, yet in real terms we’re not that far away.”

Even in League One there is a huge financial divide, with some former top-flight clubs enjoying far greater financial clout than the likes of Dale and Accrington.

But the introduction of salary caps shows the desire among the lower leagues to promote greater financial prudence.

“There are eight clubs in League One this year who have played in the Premier League and there are ten clubs who have played at the highest level, if we include the old Division One, and so those eight former Premier League clubs are big hitters,” said Mr Bottomley.

“Football is getting its own act together, and that’s another of the messages we want to get across to Government – we have introduced wage caps in Leagues One and Two this year. Not everyone was happy about that, the big clubs – the Portsmouths, the Sunderlands – are unhappy about it, but it does show what we are doing to bring under control spiralling wage costs and the reasons why clubs get into trouble in the first place. We are trying to do all of that, but I still think there is an assocation that says if you’re involved in football then you are involved in billions of pounds of revenue – we’re certainly not at this level.”

Save Our Clubs’ is out to correct those myths and lay bare the struggles some clubs are facing.

“Every Football League club is trying to influence their local MP or MPs in some cases because some clubs are within very big constituencies,” explained Mr Bottomley.

“The clubs are trying to lean on their MPs to get the message to Boris and his colleagues that they need to understand the community value of football clubs.

“They need to understand how many people they employ, how much good they do in the community and the value clubs bring. We cannot afford to have ten, twenty of thirty Football League clubs going into administration or even worse, liquidation, because that genuinely is what’s going to happen.

“It’s a well publicised fact that a number of clubs had to borrow from the Football League to get through October and that’s not a situation that any of us can afford to continue with and, particularly at Rochdale, we believe in that because we are a very well run club and we’re almost worried that if we go to the League in May next year there may not be any left.”