Recent news relating to the financial state of Charlton Athletic has left the future of the club up in the air, the #SaveCAFC hashtag trending on Twitter providing a chilling warning about the prospect of the Addicks ceasing to exist as a member of the Football League.
It is not the first time the south east London club have found themselves in this position. In 1984, the Division Two outfit, managed by Lennie Lawrence, may have been challenging for promotion, but off the field the story was completely different. Charlton Athletic were fighting for their very existence.
Pinpointing how Charlton ended up in the mess they found themselves in at the start of 1984 is a difficult task. Some felt the club suffered from under investment by the previous chairman, Michael Gliksten, who had held that role between 1962-1982. Certainly the deal that Gliksten arranged when he sold the club to Mark Hulyer for £1,000 did little to help matters as the new era progressed.
Purchasing The Valley for £414,000 through his Adelong Limited company, Gliksten would rent the ground to Hulyer for £27,000 a quarter. Also lending the club £300,000 to clear part of the existing overdraft, already a financial black cloud was heading towards SE7.
At first, Hulyer had grand ambitions for Charlton. Rumoured to be interested in bringing Kevin Keegan to the club, the football fraternity was left open-mouthed in shock when European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen arrived for £300,000. But it would be too good to be true.
Simonsen's stay was short and sweet, and soon the problems mounted for Hulyer. Slipping behind on his payments to Gliksten, and with crowd figures declining, the vultures began to circle. Still owed £35,000 for the sale of Carl Harris in 1982, Leeds United issued a winding-up order against Charlton a year later. And then the Inland Revenue came calling.
Gliksten, Leeds, the Inland Revenue, Rotherham, Aston Villa, the banks. The list of creditors grew and grew as the first of many trips to the High Court started in July 1983. Hulyer managed to get case after case adjourned, trying to buy time for himself and the club. He even stood down as chairman in October 1983, replaced by Richard Collins in a bid to encourage investors. But two months later, Hulyer was back, steering his ship towards the iceberg.
The gravity of the situation was revealed as further winding-up petitions were raised in February 1984. Gliksten was owed a reported £600,000; the Inland Revenue £108,000; Chief Francis Nzeribe, a Nigerian who was chairman of the arms dealing Fanz Organization and a former director at Charlton, was owed £85,000.
Indeed, Nzeribe made a late bid to rescue the club, although his bid was eventually rejected by Hulyer, as the chairman then desperately turned his attention to selling a rubber shipment in the Far East to raise funds. Eventually the inevitable could be delayed no further; on February 28, Charlton Athletic were officially wound-up in the High Court by Justice Mervyn Davies.
There was still a glimmer of hope. Details of a consortium of members from the Sunley property group were revealed, and after Hulyer's final plea for a 14-day delay was rejected, the final hope rested with the likes of John Fryer, Mike Norris, and previous chairman Collins. But it was never going to be easy.
To register their new Charlton 1984 company, the Football League had stringent criteria in place that had to be met. "The new people know that the minimum requirement is that they must put up front at least £350,000 fully paid share capital, a cash deposit of £50,000 from the directors and preferential creditors must be paid off in full," League secretary Graham Kelly revealed.
Malcolm Stanley, a member of the consortium and chairman of the FADS company that had previously provided shirt sponsorship to the club, was furious at the League's stance. "It looks as if the League wants the club to go under without actually saying it," Stanley protested, a claim that Kelly swiftly denied.
Either way, the end seemed nigh for the club. With the gates padlocked, the electricity cut off due to unpaid bills, notice was served to the staff, and the players' registrations handed to the Football League. Ronnie Moore, who had recently purchased a house in the area after his transfer from Rotherham, had left his possessions packed in boxes, such was the uncertainty.
The Football League did provide a lifeline on Friday March 2 when they agreed to postpone Charlton's trip to Blackburn, allowing the consortium the weekend to finalise their plans, although this did not please everyone. "We will want out of pocket expenses for things like printing the programmes," Blackburn chairman William Fox complained. "Besides, we have ordered the pies and we can't cancel those." Not now, William.
After another adjournment, the deadline was set by the Football League: 5pm, Thursday March 8. As the High Court meeting started at 3pm, an agreement between all parties had still not been reached. But then, ten minutes into proceedings, a breakthrough. Gliksten and Hulyer agreed to drop legal action they had raised against each other, and the final obstacle had been removed.
"The agreements between all the parties were only signed this afternoon just before the court proceedings began," Hulyer declared. "How is that for a last minute deal?" Once Davies gave his approval for the Sunley takeover, the race was on to reach the League solicitors' office a few miles away. At 6.52pm, the Football League approved the deal from their offices in Lytham St Anne's, and Charlton could breathe again.
New chairman Fryer, a fan of Charlton since 1927, revealed just how close the club had been to going under. "It was much tighter than you would ever have dreamed. At 2.30pm, we were ready to walk out." Although Gliksten still owned The Valley - something that would come into focus in the years to come - the 60 or so fans that were in the public gallery at the High Court could breathe a huge sigh of relief.
As could Lawrence and his players. "At moments like this you realise football is not about chairmen and consortiums, but about the thousands of people who love and work for the club, whether they come to matches or not," Lawrence noted. A sentiment that has not changed in the years that have passed since Charlton's great escape in 1984.
A day after the result in court, Charlton conceded a last-minute equaliser at home to Grimsby. Normally the cause of utter frustration to any supporter, I'm sure those present were just thankful that the club still existed to put them through this type of disappointment. Because at times during 1984, it looked like Charlton would become the first club since Accrington Stanley in 1962 to go out of business.
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