Now I dont believe you some how Pooliebri!

Yes there would, why kill a club that is basically ran by voulenteers and people who pay to play there, if that report is to be believed Pools have put up a closed shop to them and it stinks.

Most of the points you make on here can be taken with a pinch of salt anyway.

do you honestly believe ior will tell us the fans whats going on??

we,ll see

youd rather throw the pump away then stop going to POOLS!!

you know me well but this has pissed me right off

Stop flapping......

It's not a question of having a go at the owners, nor of who's in the right. Even if we have a good reason to do this, I can't see why we would want to see such a small club go to the wall. A number of us don't wish to see football run exclusively as a business but instead want a degree of integrity (and solidarity) to return to our sport. If success at all costs is what you want (and to hell with everyone else) then go and support one of the premiershite lot who revel in their ability to generate income without a thought for what it's doing to the game.

Some might see this as irrelevant, but our schadenfreude about Darlo relates to how they saw themselves as above us ("we'll never play you again") and we all know the reason why we don't like the smoggies. Football is cyclical and our time in the doldrums will come again. Acts like this will ensure that we'll have few friends when that time does arrive.

So what can we do about it?

If Pools are in the right and the money is owed I reckon IOR will pursue it.

And I don't disagree with your cyclical comment, however IOR won't be over worried about that as they'll be of the opinion (quite probably correctly so) that that would only happen if they ever left here and it wouldn't therefore be their problem.

Solution?

Does the problem go away for everybody if Billingham pay Pools £10k? Or is the £10k the tip of the iceberg?

If the £10k makes everything ok then what are Billingham doing to raise it? Is there a collecting point and fund raising? If there is can they point us in the right direction of it and we can chuck a few quid each in and try and raise awareness to get other Pools fans and other footie fans to chuck into it too? I'm sure that between us we could piss £10k but only if it was going to make everything ok and another 10 or 20 thousand wasn't going to come out of the woodwork.

But it all comes back to the original point of needing to know the details to not only determine your viewpoint but also to be able to consider helping.

If Ten grand needs to be raised then the people of Billingham are going to have to get off their arses and start fundraising.
It's not a great amount and considering quite a few of them probably give money to the boro then they can start by repaying the people they owe first.
If they really want the football club to continue 10k is a small amount to raise.
I'm sure judging by comments on here there's a few crusaders willing to put their hands in their pockets!!!
Anyone for a bungee jump off the transporter:)

Hi all, I'm from Billingham Town and I've received this from a club official trying to put some clarity over what the dispute is about:

"The previous chairman of Billingham Town F.C. signed a document to pay Hartlepool a sum of money for the upkeep of the ground. This was done without the knowledge of the director of the club Mr. T. V. Donnelly, who is the sole director and the only person with the authority to sign any documents on behalf of Billingham Town Football Club Limited.

Hartlepool have been aware that this document was not recognised by Billingham Town F.C. Limited and Town have been in dialogue with H.U.F.C. all season trying to resolve the situation.

Hartlepool have been aware of Billingham Town's financial situation and have been kept informed. As a club B.T.F.C. ltd. cannot see any reason to wind the club up as this will prevent H.U.F.C. from recoving any alledged debts as B.T.F.C. assets are 5 match balls, 12 kick in balls and 2 football strips."


If anyone has any questions I'll try and answer them as best and as truthfully as I can.

I'm with you on that Chip

PS Paul Mullen will be turning in his grave - in fact I'm pretty sure he could have persuaded folks at HUFC never to have considered this in the first place

sounds like a plan

Im glad the council has so far refused to sell the ground to the club. I hope they never do. I wouldnt trust ken as far as i could throw him.

ps, Im willing to boycott the match as above but not sure what good it will do. Perhaps we could donate some of the saved cash to BTFC?

I agree Chip. I am not bothered whether we are in the right or not, I think we are past that now. I do not want to be associated with putting another local club out of business, regardless of the debt which, incidentally, we allowed to accumulate. It has reached the national media now and no matter what the outcome we are going to be seen as the bully boys.
Come on IOR, show a bit of fellowship with a neighbour.

Spot on Parmo.
I have said on numerous occasions that we should have a Poolie walking the corridors of power at the VIC. Never has that been more obvious than now.

I don't know all the facts and not read all the posts yet, but felt I had to reply to this bit of it.

BTFC say they own 4 balls, 2 strips and the nets, so presumably Stockton Council own the ground. Therefore we would have to negotiate with them for the ground. Now unless the option is to purchase Bedford Terrace if the buying of the Vic falls through.

In terms of Bedford Terrace - it's owned by Stockton Council and leased to BTFC, so if Pools were thinking about getting it all to themselves for a training ground or whatever they've got to persuade another council to play ball - and losing what might be described as a community asset is not likely to help their case. I would be surprised if this was the reason.

Pools may well be legally in the right here. Quite how the debt reaches five figures may be a mystery, but it's clearly not impossible. However, the legal/financial side of this is only one aspect and unless they can come up with some seriously good arguments about why they've got to this point and quick - it may already be too late - Pools will find themselves portrayed as the bully all over the place. It may not be justified, it may be, but the longer Pools go without saying a word the worse it will get.

Whatever the whys and wherefores, Pools are handling this badly. The last thing the club needs at the moment is a storm of bad publicity - did they really think that this would pass with the bare minimum of notice? For all the good IOR have done for Pools over the years, communication has never been their strong point; right now, we desperately need to hear something to let us see the club's side of this this and the silence is deafening. Is it any wonder that people who have been committed fans for years are finding this to be the straw that breaks the camel's back? Unless Pools can somehow convince me that what they are doing is not just legally right but morally and ethically defensible, I will find it hard to back IOR in future, and this is coming from someone who has always striven to make what criticisms I have of them reasoned and constructive.

I was angry when I read this at 10am, I was more angry when I found out it was about a sum of money lower than our club pisses up the wall on useless journeymen players that are unable to cement a place in our team or even a loan move to non league.

I was quite impressed when I heard HUFC were paying for work at BTFC as it was a positive step and could have lead to us gaining a long term low league feeder club. But as fate would have it Uncle Ken and his Autistic approach to public speaking has struck again, and has annoyed our near neighbours and a town that is a good source of much needed extra supporters. He or the rest of the board have also managed to upset an already dispondent set of fans by not issuing a statement in public about yet another decision that makes HUFC unpopular in the game generally.

I am aware we don't know the facts but in the absence of any statement from our club can we assume anything other than spiteful unpleasant behaviour?

I agree with Chips suggestion of a boycott or at the very least a few organised collections at or outside the ground along with some banners showing support for BTFC in this.

If the Manager can slag the fans off on more than one occasion I think it is about time that the fans stuck 2 poolie fingers up at the lunatics running the asylum.

My feelings exactly. Obviously we need to wait to hear what IOR's take on this situation is but I cant help but feel they have seriously shot themselves and our club in the foot

I've just found out about the dispute between 'Pools and Billingham Town and I must say I'm quite appalled at the prospect of how this could develop.

I'm not going to discuss the subject further until IOR make some sort of statement about this.

And they MUST in my opinion make a statement about this.

This is something that could potentially ruin the good reputation that IOR have built at the Club in the last 11 years. It would be a disgrace for that to happen and as a lifelong supporter, it would damage the immense pride that I have felt supporting this Club since I was a lad.

I would only hope that BTFC and 'Pools can work together to come to some sort of settlement on this.

A very good post Mr POk, I really, really hope Pools are reading it.

A triumph of Dalek like logic over common sense.
In years to come, the A level exams in PR will include this as a blatant example of how not to win friends and influence people.
Saturday .....? I'm sure I'll find something to do.

See, I told you we could piss £10k if we put our minds to it.

Ralf get your head out your arse. If we owed say Chelsea £100,000 and they were doing this to us you'd be the first to moan like fuck. Saying its not alot of money to someone like Chelsea. Yes 10k is 10k, but a club going bust for it?

End of the day they owe Pools £10k, not our problem until they decided not to pay.

Boycotts, buckets, FFS reality check needed, get a grip. If people get there own way IUR would be gone, we would be fucked and we would be playing in the conference.

One article in the press and everybody has jumped to conclusions. 3 points on Saturday is more important to me than this matter which should be left up to the club to sort out.

I suspect we wont hear any more facts about this until May, until then chill......relegation is my worry.

Fantastic post and a brilliant idea, i'd be up for that.

When is there next home game? I'm sure if pools fans attended in numbers it would help.

Sorry not intrested

and......?

Totally agree with what Lightning Tree is saying.....

Lots of hot air being spouted about nothing, lets see if you gets your buckets out at the next match......

Thank fook for that, it'll be a good day then.

im up for helping them.

Good idea going to a BTFC home game and showing our support. I suggest Chip selects the match so we can all go to the same one.

I see we have made it on to ceefax, which means just about every footy fan in the country will know by tonight.

What a sad state of affairs.

Ceefax is that still Going!!!

Oh My team is HUFC and wouldn't dream of supporting any other team I couldn't give a shite if Billingham went bust I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Well I'm of to tell my bank, my credit card company and provi that they can sing for there money as I only owe a couple of thousand but seeing as they are bigger then me they won't expect me to pay me debt back!!!!!!

Are you sure you could manage the 3 quid entrance money.
If not I'm sure we could arrange a collection for you as well:)

Can a Billingham town fan tell me if they have been paying their players this year?

Lets hope our dark days never return eh. You wouldn't be sharp to take the piss then.

Such a shame football is not about just football anymore.

No we haven't paid the players for the last two seasons, not even expenses. I believe the manager has a sponsor from friends to pay them expenses but the full costs arn't always covered. We made the decision 2 years ago to cut our cloth and pay off all our debts and sort things out, rather than go bust and come back under a different name, and screwing the creditors.

The problem with the £10g that Hartlepool alledge we owe them is that it has come from an agreement signed by someone at the club who is not, and never has been a director. The owner and sole director of the club Mr T Donnelly (a 70 year old retired mechanic) had no knowledge of this document until this season. BTFC argue that this document is therefore null & void.

What I don't understand is why we would have to pay Hartlepool for them using our ground? We pay the electricity, water rates and gas bills. We man the gate, bar and canteen and also clean out the changing rooms after the game. We don't charge Hartlepool for any of this, and we don't make any profit from hosting the reserve games.

The good thing is that you can tell us what you like and providing it isn't libelous our club will just not respond, it sad really but true. I do hope this all gets resolved before the court date regardless of whether it is the fault of BTFC or HUFC.

I am saying a lot of people are getting their knickers in a twist and jumping on the clubs back before they even know the facts. This is a sign of the times lately.

Until then all we know for certain is Billingham Town owe our club 10 grand and we want it back.

How do we know that for certain? it is disputed by BTFC.

there seem to be some contradictions here. neil, you say from your clubs point of view the money isnt owed due to what you said. Yet in the evening gazette it has a quote from someone from your club stating they do owe money, but cant afford to pay it back.

This really, really needs to be commented on quickly by ior.

I think for Pools to issue a winding up order on the club it is pretty much nailed on that they owe us the money. IOR will have a huge legal team behind them and they would not issue it unless it was water tight.

Get your tongue out of IOR's arse.

No you don't know that for certain. Hufc *CLAIM* Btfc Ltd owe them £10,000. It is not a fact unless the court rules that this document it's all over is all correct and legal.

The facts are:

1) Hufc have a documents saying BTFC Ltd will pay them a specific amount of money for ground maintenance.
2) The document was signed by the ex-chairman of the football team who is not, and never has been a director of the club.
3) Billingham Town claim that the document cannot be held up as it was not signed by the director and owner of the football club and also that there was no knowledge of it before this season.
4) Hufc have had a Winding up Order set for BTFC Ltd and a court date is set.