With the global economic crisis affecting everyone from car makers to shopkeepers it is no surprise that football, arguably the second most financially mismanaged industry in the world after banking, would be affected.
The club making the most headlines in England is Portsmouth, given their dramatic fall from FA Cup winners in 2008 to becoming the first top division side to enter administration.
But lower down the leagues there is another example of a club that has fallen to due to financial mismanagement yet has failed to garner such publicity.
125-year-old Chester City were officially expelled from the Football Conference last week after a meeting of their fellow clubs. The side admitted breaching five league rules and their results have now been expunged.
Unable to fulfil their fixtures it is also a possibility that they will be shut down completely in a high court winding-up order in March 10th over an unpaid tax bill of £26,125.
But how did they get into such a mess?
Well the fans put much of the blame at the door of chairman Stephen Vaughan, who has been at the club since 2001, though the credit crunch and a period of general belt tightening can't have helped.
With the club struggling in League Two last season a lack of funds meant they failed to strengthen their squad and as the club sunk to the foot of the table the subsequent drop in attendances resulted in the club going into administration when the season ended in May.
After being docked 10 points, it was revealed they had debts of up to £7 million and they were initially refused a trading licence by the Football Association. They were allowed to start this season, thanks to a unanimous vote from their fellow Blue Square Premier clubs, but only after the acceptance of a massive 25-point penalty.
However, due to the continued presence of the Vaughan family as the club's owners - who incidentally failed the FA‘s fit-and-proper person's test - the Football League chose to deny Chester a payment due to them after relegation from League Two. They were also overlooked for a one-off £30,000 hardship payment provided to all other Conference clubs by the Premier League.
This meant the players went unpaid from October onwards, resulting in them refusing to board the team bus for a recent match at Forest Green, and ultimately their expulsion from the Conference.
They may yet be a happy ending with talk of a fans-run phoenix club rising from the ashes, but there is no guarantee of league football ever returning to the city. So while we continue to read the tales of woe on the south coast remember they aren't the only ones suffering from football's financial disease.
However, things are not totally bleak at Portsmouth. Despite the problems they face they are in the FA Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup betting odds make them 12/1 shots to go all the way.
Meanwhile, England manager Fabio Capello is confident defender Wes Brown will recover from a broken foot in time to play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
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