20/03/2007
As long as we beat the English...
The Stereophonics' Kelly Jones reminds us what Saturday was all about with this. And just before anybody gets precious - the first line is "Don't want to be your enemy".
And these T-shirts were doing the rounds in Bala by Saturday teatime.
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11/02/2007
Scrap the WRU - for a Welsh Republican Union!
I wasn't the only one to notice "our" dear Prince William cheering on the English rugby team yesterday. As Brit Nat Watch comments, quite right too - he is English after all.
What is pathetic is that the Welsh Rugby Union made him a patron when it's obvious he has no more interest in Welsh rugby than Slovakian scuba diving.
Admittedly, given the way we played yesterday against Scotland, I can see his point.
The WRU remains one of the blazered bodies that seems stuck in the 1950s, convinced of the divine right of the royals to rule and unable to contemplate the idea that Wales might actually want a patron that actually supported the team.
The royals' ancestors robbed and pillaged their way to the top. They stole common land and fought for the rest (or rather dragooned others to do their fighting for them). Their descendants today are reduced to getting freebies for rugby matches.
Reason 202 for a Welsh Republic - more tickets for the fans!
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25/01/2007
History repeats itself at Wrexham FC?
On Monday, Wrexham FC's new owner Neville Dickens behaved like the used car salesman he is and lied in front of 300 fans. Today the fans hit back with this rebuttal.
It's now becoming obvious that history is about to repeat itself with a local businessman selling out to a developer intent on cashing in on a lucrative site, valued at £10-12m.
The only people who can stop that happening, once again, are the fans. The Wrexham Supporters' Trust - made up of 1000 fans - wants community control of the club and the Racecourse ground to ensure that individuals can never again wreck the oldest football club in Wales.
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29/05/2006
Rhodri scores own goal on World Cup
It seems doddery Rhodri has scored another own goal by declaring his support for England... and then condemning their fans as hooligans. How to make friends and influence people, eh?
The First Minister told 'Wales on Sunday' he would be following Sven's squad in Germany - until their supporters starting acting "stupid". Then, he said, he would cheer on anyone playing England.
Quite why Welsh fans should feel obliged to support England, beyond geography, is beyond most of us. But if Rhodri's remarks were stupid and insensitive, take a look at "English fan" Mark Perryman, described as a leading writer on the England football team.
He said: "We don't expect Rhodri Morgan or anybody else in Wales to support England. But this idea of supporting anybody we play against is rather small-minded nationalism.
"I'm an English nationalist and we can't call upon our neighbours to support us. But on the other hand, we share the same island and this sort of obsession is a rather nasty consequence of petty nationalism."
So it's OK to be an English nationalist but not, it seems, to be Welsh and have the right to make your mind up about who you support.
Of course being Welsh means have an embarrassment of riches in this coming World Cup - 31 teams to support! But the presence of Trinidad and Tobago's Soca Warriors is extra special. Dennis Lawrence's team deserves support across Wales for the way they play, the way they party and the fact that Dennis himself says he's playing for Wales.
To quote the old slogan down in Butetown... for an independent tropical Wales!
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27/05/2006
Gora Euskadi/Cymru am byth
400 Welsh fans made a lot of new friends when they visited Euskadi, the Basque Country, to watch Wales play a friendly international on May 21.
The Basques have an unofficial "Selectio", which generally plays once a year when the Spanish FA allows it to. Despite the problems, they have an array of talent playing for Spanish and English premiership sides, although many were on World Cup duty with Spain.
The Welsh fans ended a lively evening's singing and chanting in the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao, with a very loud blast of "Euskadi", which had the local fans in ecstasy.
The friendly was largely due to John Toshack's continued progressive influence on the Welsh football set-up - he used to coach Real Sociedad of San Sebastian and has expressed admiration for the Basques before, saying they had the ability to compete in the World Cup alone rather than as part of the Spanish team.
Bilbao, a former rundown city of steel and shipyards, has now reinvented itself with the Guggenheim museum, a new metro and ambitious projects aplenty. A dynamic and powerful local authority and devolved parliament have made a lot happen. It makes Cardiff look like Merthyr by comparison.
A visit to San Sebastian is also recommended - fantastic sweeping beaches, great old town atmosphere and the most stunning tapas you'll ever taste.
For very different reasons, you can't miss Gernika - where Hitler and Mussolini tried out their tactics in advance of the Second World War. In 1937, 2000 people were killed in a sustained bombing raid as Franco and his fascist allies sought to teach the Basques a lesson for their resistance. The Basque country, together with Catalunya, was a bastion of republican resistance to Franco's coup d'etat and Gernika was the traditional heart of Basque rights and independence. So they bombed the town and Italian tanks later occupied the streets.
Pablo Picasso later painted "Gernika" as a memorial to this terror, which was allowed to pass by the UK and other Western powers afraid to challenge Hitler's expansionism. It was left to the brave comrades of the International Brigades - including 300 Welsh workers - to stand up to the fascists.
The Basques are marching to an uncertain peace right now - ETA is on ceasefire - and it is hoped that advances made by the Catalans to secure their independence will allow more small nations to build a progressive future free of imperialism.
This started as a football trip but, like all things in life, politics got in the way!
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24/01/2006
Football fans "visit" Wrexham club owner
About 30 Wrexham football fans paid club owner an unexpected visit at his luxury apartment at Cheadle near Manchester on Sunday morning.
Alex Hamilton is a property developer who had confessed to having no interest in football. He bought the club's majority shareholding for a pittance three years ago and has proceeded to run the club into the ground by not paying bills, including players' wages, reneging on deals to pay the Inland Revenue and transferring the ownership of the football ground - the Racecourse - into one of his own private companies.
His actions have contributed to the club being put into adminstration for failing to pay its bills, this led directly to the club being deducted 10 points last season, which directly contributed to our relegation to Division 2. The club remains in adminstration and has until June 3 to get out otherwise it will be kicked out of the Football League.
Why does he want his business to fail? Quite simply because he wants to redevelop the Racecourse ground for housing or retail - it's worth £10m as it's on the outskirts of the town. That explains why he's turned down an offer by the Wrexham Supporters' Trust that would have given him £1m profit - he wants the big pay day and will see the club (the oldest in Wales) fold.
With this background, fans were understandably keen to impress on Hamilton the urgency of their case. They caught up with him as he returned from shopping at Sainsbury and had a reasoned chat with the ex-solicitor.
In the space of 13 minutes he managed to contradict himself on the Inland Revenue payments, called a former chairman a 'lunatic' and claimed he had shaken hands on a deal "over the phone". We want one of those phones.
He then called the police and claimed he was being intimidated. The police weren't too impressed when they turned up with 2 vanloads expecting a riot and found some polite footie fans about to leave.
This started off as a protest to save a football club. It's now escalated. As one leading protester told me on the way home: "This is political now. It's all about who decides what happens in my community."
People understand this is about profits coming before people. They understand that property developers like Hamilton have nothing in common with the vast majority of people in Wrexham or Wales.
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15/11/2005
Wales - an independent state?
This is shamelessly nicked from the www.british-nats-watch.blogspot.com, which seems to have outlasted natwatch.co.uk.
Fair play to the FAW for strongly opposing the idea of Wales taking part in a GB football team at the next Olympics.
Wales should have its own team at the Olympics, in football, and every other sport! Here is what FAW general secretary David Collins had to say on the matter.
"We are a separate nation recognised throughout the world and we are a separate football association. We certainly don't want to jeopardise that status for the Olympic Games - it's a firm 'no' from us."
"We are a member of probably the four oldest football associations in the world and there have been moves in the past to bring the four nations together under a Great Britain team."
"Playing in the Olympics as one team would only fuel that concept and we don't want to put ourselves in that position. It's a 'no' from us, because I'm sure that if we conducted a poll throughout Wales most people would want us to stay independent from the other associations.
"We are an independent state and as far as we are concerned we are an independent association. If we joined a Great Britain team that could signal the start of losing our independence in world football and that's something we are not prepared to do."
• The Scottish FA had already vetoed the idea, so it wasn't such a brave step after all. Now the "British" football team will consist of England and mini-England (sorry, Norn Iron, whose Loyalist fans won't mind "God Save the Queen" being played)
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20/10/2005
Wrexham AFC - football before profit!
200 Wrexham fans gathered at less than an hour's notice outside the Racecourse ground tonight to celebrate the news that the ground had been returned to the club after a High Court judgement.
The club's owner Alex Hamilton had transferred the ground - the club's major asset - to his own company Crucialmove Ltd in a secret deal three years ago. His intention has always been to bulldoze the ground and profit from the prime development site.
He would have been bulldozing 130 years of history, Wales's oldest football club and the best stadium in North Wales.
For the first time in three years, Hamilton has been defeated and a corner has been turned. Let's hope there will be many more days in court for Hamilton and his sidekick Mark Guterman.
Wrexham fans, especially the supporters' trust who have campaigned so hard through marches, pickets, researching companies and dodgy individuals, have proved they're far from being burberry chavs. The fans have campaigned for a community-owned club. No more sugar daddies (or mummies!) to "rescue" the club - let's get the fans running the club as well as the shop!
Official statement: "Ruling means that freehold held in trust for club"
Before a packed Press Room in the heart of the Racecourse, Administrators David Acland and Steve Williams tonight confirmed the outcome of the request to Birmingham High Court for a summary judgement in favour of returning the freehold of the Racecourse to Wrexham FC...
Their statement was as follows:
STATEMENT FROM THE JOINT ADMINISTRATORS OF THE WREXHAM A.F.C. LIMITED ("THE CLUB")DAVID ACLAND AND STEVEN JOHN WILLIAMS
You will be aware from previous announcements that we had commenced litigation against Crucialmove Limited. We were seeking an order that the freehold to the Racecourse Ground be vested to the Club.The proceedings were originally set down for a trial to take place in the High Court Birmingham on 10 and 11 November 2005. However, following disclosure of certain documents within the proceedings, our Counsel was of the opinion that Crucialmove had no defence to the proceedings and that an immediate application should be made for Summary Judgment.
Application was brought before the courts on 7 October 2005, but was adjourned to a full day's hearing on 14 October 2005.
We are pleased to announce that at 2.00 p.m. today, His Honour Judge Norris QC handed down judgement in favour of the Club. To quote his Honour Judge Norris's words:-
"I will declare that the registered freehold title of which Crucialmove is now proprietor is held on trust for the Club subject to a charge in favour of Crucialmove to secure payment of the sum of £300,000 plus the original acquisition costs."
Furthermore, His Honour Judge Norris refused permission to appeal however leave of appeal may be granted by the Court of Appeal. Subject to the outcome of the appeal process our intention is to seek a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity in the hope of ensuring its long-term survival.
At this stage, can we take this opportunity to thank our legal team for their efforts, Joey Bryne of Turner Parkinson Ltd and also Alistair Wyville of St Phillips Chambers. Can we also thank the Directors and staff of the Club, the Wrexham Supporters Trust and all fans who have lent their support to the litigation."
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25/01/2005
Give Sky the boot
Plans are afoot (ahem) to give Sky TV the boot because of the way its capitalist monopoly on football coverage is shafting smaller clubs in the lower divisions.
Wrexham AFC - currently in adminstration - is certainly feeling the pinch as more and more TV money has gone to the fat cat Premiership clubs, who have raised the drawbridge on the smaller clubs.
Now fans are fighting back with an ingenious plan to cancel subscriptions en masse on April 1st to register their protest. They hope to get 1000 subscribers from every club in the lower divisions - 72 in all - to cancel. This would be a massive dent in Sky's subscriptions, which are largely dependent on its monopoly coverage of most major sports.
It's been described by its anonymous organiser as a "strike against Sky" and points to a potentially new and valuable weapon for workers faced with a new kind of enemy.
The rallying cry is persuasive: "It's time for the average fan to strike back and take the game back from the financiers and brokers. Let's call it 'give sky the boot', and start a major campaign to hit them where it hurts.
Wrexham fan Lee Williams said: "This is potentially massive. Capitalists understand only one tongue - MONEY. You can bet your life action would be taken if something like this showed any signs of getting off the ground. Imagine the look on the faces of the fatcats."
The campaign is being coordinated through the Fans United network, which is backing a major day at Wrexham's home game against Doncaster on Saturday, January 29.
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27/12/2004
Wrexham 1 Property Developers 0
Wrexham AFC is the oldest football club in Wales and has enjoyed some glory days, including beating Arsenal in a famous FA Cup victory. For the past 132 years it's played at the Racecourse ground, which has also played host to rugby and football internationals (as well as an infamous Motorhead concert) as well as the best goal I've ever seen live - a bicycle kick by local boy Mark Hughes against Spain.
The club is now facing extinction. Its owner Alex Hamilton is a Manchester-based property developer with no interest in the club. A little over two years ago, he bought a controlling share in the club for just £50,000 and within weeks had negotiated the purchase of the Racecourse's freehold from a brewery for just £300,000. Within hours, that freehold was transferred - for nothing - to another of his companies.
Hamilton then changed the conditions of the leasehold so that Wrexham AFC had to pay £30,000 a year in rent instead of the nominal £1 they were paying the brewery. He also issued a notice to quit to the club - effectively a notice to himself as he owned the club and ground - that becomes effective in July 2005. After that, he has the right to kick this historic club off its ground and probably out of the league.
On top of this, he's allowed the club's debts to accumulate over the past two years to £2.5m, including £900,000 to the Inland Revenue. Despite promises to make regular payments, Hamilton has failed to do so. The Revenue has, not surprisingly, has lost patience and sent in the administrators to sort the club out. That's meant an automatic 10-point deduction, which has sent the club into the relegation zone after a promising start to the season.
In a nut-shell, we're up shit creek without a striker.
What Hamilton wants is to redevelop the ground - which stands at the gateway to Wrexham and would be worth millions as a retail or housing site. He has no interest in football - he's a Liverpool FC season-ticket holder FFS!
The clock is ticking.
Since this sorry state of affairs became known - thanks to the hard work of a small group of fans - there has been a massive campaign to win back control of the club for the community.
Fans grouped around the Dismal Jimmy fanzine have challenged the idea that what's needed is another "saviour" to bale out the club. What they propose is democratic control of the club through the Wrexham Supporters' Trust.
A 3,000-strong march through town at the start of the season signalled the strength of feeling and the message has got across the fans at grassroots level across all divisions. The solidarity has been amazing - fans from all corners turned up in October to back the club in its darkest hour.
The clock is still ticking but there's also a sense that the community will eventually reclaim its club from the speculators and property developers. They may see real estate and profits, we see a cultural icon, a sporting arena that's the pride of North Wales and the shared memory of generations of football fans.
Fans united will never be defeated!
For the latest twists in this complex saga, go to www.red-passion.com
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