Is the council at Scarborough fair?
Liquidation, administration, financial difficulties - certainly a subject that, whilst not dear to the heart, is only too familiar to East Midlands football; and indeed, particularly Nottingham as Notts County almost went under not all that long ago. Forest, of course, have had their own well-documented fiscal problems, solved by an excellent youth academy and a benevolent chairman, the Sheep are still grappling with a debt, and Les-da cheated their way out of theirs, thus unleashing harsher punishments on subsequent teams with financial difficulties.
So spare a thought for poor Scarborough - they are on the verge of folding, and are actively trying to pay their way to get out of it, but are encountering problems with their local council. Basically, they want to sell their ground to a property developer to raise funds to both relocate, and clear their debts - unfortunately the local council have a covenant in place on the land which states it must be used for sporting activities - which seems a bit silly, because if they enforce it, the club will fold.
They’re in a whole world of problems on the pitch, with an enforced relegation and a ten point deduction due to financial issues - I must admit, it’s maddening to hear of regulators and bureaucratic lunacy preventing a small club from trying to proactively solve its own problems - so if you follow this link, you will find the full story and also a link to a petition, please sign it and help out Scarborough in their quest to maintain their existence.
Apologies firstly for the crap headline (it was meant to sound a bit like ‘are you going to Scarborough Fair?’ - it patently is a bit rubbish) and that the post isn’t about Forest for any of you picking up this story on news feeds or aggregators, but I do feel it is something relevant to all supporters of football. Thanks to Gareth for dropping me a line with the link. Sign the petition, it’ll only take a minute or two, and then pass it on.
