Fulham Park Rangers

[WhiteJC]

 

[AJW48361]

Absolute disgrace what nearly went on during that time there are  some people some legends of this club should hang their heads in shame.

[The Rational Fan]

Truly, horrific times for Fulham how could any Fulham supporter support FPR. In Today's pyramid of the haves (us) and the have nots (anyone not getting any EPL money), we must realise such a path is a real possibility for any club that drops out of parachuate payments and/or fails to gain the support of a benevolent owner.

[bog]

Thanks for putting this on whitejc. Really frightening times.

Makes the reign of MAF even more appreciated, and that of our current chairman.

092.gif   

[bobbo]

It was all happening so underhandedly . Ernie clay it was that started the ball rolling towards FFC disaster . He absolutely had no thought for the Fulham faithfull fans. I was a" riversider" at the time with nice seats and access to the players bar before and after the game he would regularly come into the bar and turn the tv off as results were coming through just to annoy.
Thank god we escaped the clutches of the ultra greedy.

[paulbrookersmazydribbles]

Awful time - and we had a lucky escape with Fulham River Projects under MAF too ...

[SG]

Don't forget David Dein's contribution to the plan. Will never forgive him and fortunately had the opportunity to tell him that at a chance meeting

[Sir Alec of good Stock]

Thanks for putting this on whitejc. Really frightening times.

Makes the reign of MAF even more appreciated, and that of our current chairman.

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Jimmy Hill was the saviour, not MAF.
Without Jimmy and other members of the board at the time there probably wouldn't have been a club for MAF to buy and move the club forward.

[SG]

Thanks for putting this on whitejc. Really frightening times.

Makes the reign of MAF even more appreciated, and that of our current chairman.

092.gif   

Jimmy Hill was the saviour, not MAF.
Without Jimmy and other members of the board at the time there probably wouldn't have been a club for MAF to buy and move the club forward.

Agreed plus the Muddymans.
Cabra going bust was also an important factor

[filham]

n enormous debt is owed to those that delivered us from that evil. There should be some memorial in the new stand to Jimmy Hill.

[b+w geezer]

I would like to lay out some history, in response to the second response to this thread, to the effect that certain club legends should hang their head in shame. Wrongly maybe, I infer that this alludes to George Cohen. In what follows, I cite three articles of 1986-7 which clarify what George did do and say and what he did not.

In an interview with journalist Harry Harris published in early 1986, George says he sees no alternative to Fulham groundsharing elsewhere and surviving on the proceeds of selling CC. And he says that, at Ernie Clay's request, he used his contacts to obtain a demolition quotation.
That last detail stood out then and still does. However, the basic sentiment "no alternative to groundsharing elsewhere and surviving on the proceeds of selling CC" would not have shocked anybody at the time. That is to say that while many would have disagreed, they would not have been hearing the theory for the first time. For a least a year the Chairman, Ernie Clay, had been reporting that he would not be able to keep the club afloat much longer unless something like this happened.
The second sentence of what follows refers to this widely held sense of inevitability. It comes from the programme for the first match after 'Fulham Park Rangers' was announced. Fulham v Walsall 28 February 1987


Part of the editiorial from Chris Mason, 'Outgoing Programme Editor. Viewable at www.fulhamfootballprogrammes.co.uk/eras/1981-1990/1986-1987/matches/Walsall/programme.html#page/2

During the last couple of seasons it has sometimes been hard to write this column, and at the moment it is even harder. Many Fulham suppporters have learned to accept as inevitable the fact that sooner or later the club would move from Craven Cottage. Ground sharing is one thing. Total anhilation of a club with 108 years of history is quite another and Fulham supporters everywhere will have been sickened to hear on Monday that their football club is to die.

Within about 6 weeks, the scare was thankfully over, and the Muddyman consortium, fronted by Jimmy Hill, had taken over.

The programme for Fulham v Chesterfield on 11 April 1987 can be viewed at www.fulhamfootballprogrammes.co.uk/eras/1981-1990/1986-1987/matches/Chesterfield/programme.html#page/2

New Chairman, Jimmy Hill, names George at the very start of his Editorial.

Johnny Haynes, George Cohen, Roy Bentley [goes on to list 12 others] ....they are all here today, having been gathered by Tosh Chamberlain, to celebrate a brand new beginning for Fulham Football Club.

So, what to make of this?
What I make of it is that Jimmy, Tosh and the others had no thoughts that George had the slightest bit to do with the Fulham Park Rangers plan -- never knew about it, never supported it, was a horrified as everyone else. Otherwise Jimmy would hardly have welcomed him that day and named him so prominently.

Yes, a year earlier, he had given that Harry Harris interview, and its nature shocks today, but but the circumstances then were quite different from now and, above all, had no foresight of the club merger idea.

As Chris Mason said in his programme note: Ground sharing is one thing. Total annhiliation of a club is quite another. There is no reason to think that George Cohen felt differently. Therefore it is fair to finger him for what he did say (while accepting that the thought behind it was widely discussed at the time) and it not fair to finger him for anything drastically different. In that regard, we should stick to the view of George held by Jimmy Hill and the Muddymans.

[paulbrookersmazydribbles]

Important insights from b+w geezer very well compiled.

[AJW48361]

Didn't GC Demolition company price up CC to knock it down under Ernie Clay who asked GC to look around for an  alternative home I think Plough Lane was the favoured option.

[shepperton white]

Dreadful period in our history.  Am I correct in saying that Clay bamboozled the Church Commissioners (who owned CC at that time) into selling the ground believing they were selling to the club and not Ernie Clay?
I attended the meeting at H&F town hall Chaired by Jimmy - who else went?

[AJW48361]

It's my recollection and many FFC fans at the time that GC wasn't pulling in the same direction has the majority of us in wanting to stay at CC.

[Lighthouse]

It brings back such awful times. I still remember walking to the bus to go to work reading the back pages in shock. Surely they wouldn't allow this to happen? It seemed to go on for ever with hopes and dreams shattered and the football club my Dad had supported from the days he walked miles to sneak into the ground when the gates were open to allow the crowds out near the end of the game just so he could catch a few minutes.

I don't want to think about how close the club came to dying. The guts and the heart were torn out of the team and fans.

Jimmy Hill and the Muddymans and the fans who tried to help via Fulham 2000 all acted like resistance fighters.

No more depression please.

[AJW48361]

If some people had their way CC was gone.

[Penfold]

Dreadful period in our history.  Am I correct in saying that Clay bamboozled the Church Commissioners (who owned CC at that time) into selling the ground believing they were selling to the club and not Ernie Clay?
I attended the meeting at H&F town hall Chaired by Jimmy - who else went?

The ground was sold to the club. However, as the club was owned by the Clay family, it was effectively selling to them.

The price paid was for a football ground, it was immediately valued in the club accounts at over 4 times what was paid, i.e., a development site.

[SuffolkWhite]

When ever fans moan about the Khans I always come here and say, Yep but they aren't Earnie Clay!

[Ara's bacon crisps]

Thanks for putting this on whitejc. Really frightening times.

Makes the reign of MAF even more appreciated, and that of our current chairman.

092.gif   

Jimmy Hill was the saviour, not MAF.
Without Jimmy and other members of the board at the time there probably wouldn't have been a club for MAF to buy and move the club forward.

This is absolutely true. Like many others on here probably, I went to the packed meeting at Hammersmith Town Hall about this in 1987. I remember leaving work early, queuing up for ages and ending up in the third row. My memory of that evening - and I'm happy to be corrected if I've remembered it wrong - is that a panel of football people were quizzed about the proposed merger and that David Dein in particular said 'Well, it's just progress'. Don't remember all the people at the table on stage, but I do remember Bobby Robson being there (and I guess he was a big deal as England manager at the time) and just shrugging when Dein said the merger was inevitable.

Jimmy Hill stood as a lone voice against it that night and then set about saving the club himself and with the help of the Muddyman family. I know people don't agree with everything he did because he later agreed to take the Cabra money and talk about moving us to a new build 15k seater stadium near Epsom, but I always thought that was actually a clever ploy to over extend and bankrupt Cabra, which it did and then he got the club back.

Also, as a result of that night, I never had much truck with Robson after that and particularly with the 'Saint Bobby' image he went on to enjoy.

Was anyone else at the town hall that night and have different memories?