Gillingham FC Forum

Now he was a proper chairman. Put over 30 million of his own money in, rebuilt the ground and sold the club for £10 so the new owner could invest in the club.

Hi Gills fans,this is Jack Haywards son Jack, could someone organize a " Bucket Event " at the gates on Saturday, Dad spend all our money on that stupid football club and gave away my inheritance and my pension doesn't go far these days, so if anyone is feeling charitable??

Proper chairman ? I'm not convinced. Just a very wealthy man spending his own money as he wanted.

Does the chairman of, say, Sainsbury or Unilver put his own money into the business; I don't think so

You don't think a Chairman should put money into his club ? You must be a happy man right now. Why on earth would you not want someone with the commitment, both practical and and emotional,to support the club that he heads up ?

Cadburyman; first there is no comparison and secondly he completely rebuilt an ailing club.
I wish I was surprised at the crass comments from some posters, but hey ho!

Not sure a chairman's job is to add funds to the club? I think there are plenty of chairmen running clubs and getting paid a tidy salary whilst a wealthy benefactor or owner puts their money into the club. Unfortunately we don't have a wealthy owner or benefactor, just a chairman doing what other chairmen do at any other organisation.

"Does the chairman of, say, Sainsbury or Unilever put his own money into the business; I don't think so"

Perhaps someone can explain to me why the chairman of a business called Gillingham FC Ltd has to put his own money into the business when the chairman of Unilever doesn't. I don't really see a difference between the two animals; perhaps my view is far too simplistic but I like things to be black and white.

If you can't see the difference between the two there is scarcely much point carrying on the thread but let' s have a go. You don't become Chairman of Unilever because you have a passion for soap powder or because you were born close to the company's offices. You don't have a 'product' that focuses on 90 minutes of excitement and physical endeavour, unless of course that's how long it takes to clean your kitchen work surfaces. You don't become Chairman of Unilever because you have a tribal allegiance to Fairy Liquid as opposed to Sainsbury's own brand.

As a football club Chairman you have all your regular customers round to your place of work every week or two; you have no supply chain to deliver the product, no logistics apart from the players coach, no distribution network, no wholesalers or retailers to deal with As Chairman of Unilever you don't sell your top performers to rival companies and you have thousands of product lines, not just one.

I can't remember exactly the last time that thousands of Unilever customers packed an open air stadium to roar their approval at the cleaning power of bleach or the soft hands they get from your soap.

Becoming Chairman of a football club is NOTHING like becoming Chairman of Unilever. For many it's not even the main provider of income and for the overwhelming majority it's not on their 'career radar'. You don't study 'Football Chairmanship' as an alternative to Law, Accountancy, Marketing and Business Studies.

The comparison is just daft.

In fact I would imagine the first chairman of Unilever (whatever it was called then) and Cadbury did in fact put their own money in to start and grow the business. My comment was about a man who had made his money, but was passionate about his local team, put money in, used his contacts to rebuild a club on the brink, build a new stadium and then when it was time to go sold it at a huge loss so the incoming chairman could invest further. The Gills could do with a Matthew Harding, Jack Hayward type chairman who wants to see their club do well and grow.

Hahaha crass comments,haha,jeezz you must be a bundle of fun on a Friday night at the boozer,you make it sound like your were poor old Sir Jacks best buddy,going to the funeral are you ??

"You don't become Chairman of Unilever because you have a passion for soap powder or because you were born close to the company's offices".

You are correct Rimshot but why should football be different to EVERY other business out there? It is different to the fans by miles but why should it to those at the top? Are all chairmen out there supporters of their club? The West Ham lot were Birmingham owners recently and there is one (can't think of him name now, want to say John Madjeski but its wrong) who has been CEO / chairman of several league clubs. He puts money in but as loans to be paid back! Scally isn't unique by miles. Going one further lets say a chairman is expected to pay lots of his own money into the club "because he loves football" and then he becomes chairman of the FA or FIFA. Should he continue even though it is still the game he loves or stop because its not a club even if one he doesn't actually support anyway???

Put money in to get a business off the ground if fine, I accept that but when it can stand on its own financially the chairman is just a highly paid member of staff like at any other business. Find an investor to add funds into the club is quite different in my book.

No one buys an "established" First or Second Division club to make money, if they do they are dreaming,and by established I mean a Gillingham,Port Vale, an Aldershot,a team that has spent 99% of it's life in the 3 or 4th division,and plays in front of a small crowd week in week out .
If Scally had loved Gillingham, if he really bled blue, if he was PROUD of what he had he would have NEVER ,NEVER allowed us to be relegated from the Championship,he would have sold the farm,wife and kids to ensure we stayed playing with the big boys, this BS about not wanting to see Gillingham FC go into debt, all BS.
My guess is half the Chairman and the Board of teams in the lower divisions put their hands in their pockets every year to help the club, and I bet they loan money to the club in wads repayable over huge amounts of time at 10 quid a week.
Scally bought Gillingham to play the big shot, look at me everyone, midget made good, no more working in those Hobbit movies or Harry Potters bank for me, I'm the Chairman of a football club,bet for the first 2 weeks he couldn't even remember the clubs name.
I don't give a fig what Scally makes, I don't give two figs on how many times he gets taken to court,how many managers he hires and fires, I don't give three figs how many times he lies to the fans and Bs's himself telling the World he is going to build a new 90,000 domed all seater stadium under the Medway Bridge, all I ask is the he put a decent product on the field, a product that the supporters can be proud of, I don't care if we miss promotion but for Gods sake get us into the race, give us a team that can sit in the top 7 of the division and give us something to be PROUD of.

I've given you half a dozen reasons why it's different. Football is a mass market product but it is delivered on a field of play, live, unpredictable,in front of the customer and in front of the customer's opposition. It has physicality, confrontation, emotion, passion -it's the outcome of human endeavour without manufacturing, packaging, transport and so on.

No customer of soap powder goes into manic depression or kicks the cat upstairs if the shirt ain't white !

It's the product that makes it different and therefore the chairman's job too.

I do agree wholeheartedly with you but I think you are emotionalising a little. Your approaching, rightly, from a consumer perspective rather than a business one. Of course what you just said wouldn't happen at other businesses but that is probably with only a small proportion of your customers, there are many more who will use the business with far less enthusiasm.

"Football is a mass market product but it is delivered on a field of play, live, unpredictable,in front of the customer and in front of the customer's opposition. It has physicality, confrontation, emotion, passion -it's the outcome of human endeavour without manufacturing, packaging, transport and so on."

Again I agree with you but you could argue that this could describe multi-channel TV (the TV being the field of play, the opposition being....well the rival firms), premium car manufacturers (the road being the field of play, ok there is manufacturing and transport but that doesn't really equate to much and opposition sides will be "delivered" to their destination in much the same way). What about F1 or boxing owners / promoters? This describes everything you mention but they make themselves very rich ONLY if lucrative deals are signed as they won't use their own money.

Again, I agree football is different to other companies but I still maintain it is owners or benefactors that put the money in but in most cases the chairmen simply run the company and get paid well for doing it.