Chairman reveals amount it’s costing him to keep National League club alive

Dover Athletic chairman Jim Parmenter reveals the amount it’s costing him to keep the National League club alive not helped by the pandemic.

He is sadly prepared to “cease football operations” within days, suggesting that he believes clubs will be breaching League rules by taking loans from Sport England.

Jim admitted that the Kent based club needed serious financial help, otherwise the club is at risk of going under in “the next couple of days”.

He adds that he’s put in hundreds of thousands of pounds into the club to keep it afloat but could do it no more.

Over £500,000 has been spent to keep them going for the 2019/20 campaign and has been spending around £25,000 a week for the last two months to avoid getting the club into debt.

Dover announced at the weekend that they were ceasing football operations, putting the staff and players on furlough.

Clubs in the National League were handed grants to get them through the opening three months of the 2020/21 season and had been expecting that to continue.

However, those funds haven’t been forthcoming and it’s meant the likes of Dover have been losing thousands on wages without sponsorship and gate money to balance the books.

85% of the club’s outgoings are spent on player and staff costs, the only thing Jim Parmenter so he was left with no choice but to cut that out in order to survive.

He said: “I am just a local guy trying to keep his town club going and I have done it for eight weeks nearly, in previous years I have done it too, but I just can’t keep doing it.

“It has been heartbreaking but it was a decision where there was no other choice really, we had to do it.

“We have carried on for nearly eight weeks now with nearly no funding at all and we have managed to keep the club going but we have simply run out of resources.

“We think we can remain solvent by taking this action, that is the key driver to doing it.”

He said: “I am affected by Covid as much as everyone else, my [fruit and veg] business is affected, all of the other businesses are too. We get goodwill sponsorship as a town club but you look around Dover and the businesses are not operating. If they are, they are not doing very well, so you cannot expect those businesses to come forward with sponsorship.

“I have had all the trials and tribulations that everyone else has with Covid and the football club on top of that. I feel very let down by the authorities, by the league and by the government because we would never have started this season if we hadn’t been promised funding. I feel let down that money has not been forthcoming. We should never have started this season.

“I am sure we will be charged for not fulfilling our fixtures. But I think it is against league rules to take the league loans that are being offered at the moment, and equally it was the league that promised the funding when we started the season.

“So it is hard to see how the league can punish the club when the funding that the league promised has put the club in this problem. It will be an interesting debate when we get to that point.”

It could also see demotion, though Jim adds that any league is better than none.

“That’s a debate for another time,” he said, while adding: “I would think it would be hard to justify punishing a club when the league have promised the funding and the funding hasn’t come.

“We will have to see how that pans out with the FA and if necessary the courts. It is a problem down the road we will worry about when we get to it.”

When asked if he could have played kids, like some National South sides look set to do, Dover’s only youth scheme is for under-19s and Parmenter isn’t prepared to do that.

“The whole point of this action is to save the club and make sure it is not insolvent,” he said.

“You can’t trade when you are insolvent, that is illegal, you have to go into administration or liquidation. The whole point is that the club will be here to play football. Where that is? We will wait and see but I don’t think that is the most important issue at the moment. The most important issue is that the club is here.”

Teams in the National League have been voting whether to play on or scrap the 2020/21 campaign.

“There is a big split in the league,” he said.

“There are the big rich clubs who have either got parachute payments of a million pounds or very rich backers, that are mostly overseas, who can put money into their clubs and it doesn’t really worry them. But then there is the other half of the league that are struggling like hell and don’t know where the next lot of wages are coming from.

“We are going to have a split vote for sure. All the vote is going to do is bring up more problems because it is not going to solve the main issues, which is that 50% want to play and 50% don’t or can’t. How do you resolve that? They have put themselves in an impossible position in my opinion.”

Jim Parmenter quit his role as a director on the National League board over the funding issue and saying the league was in jeopardy.

“I think others are scared to do anything,” said Mr Parmenter.

“My worry is they will get into financial trouble just because they are worried about repercussions but I think that is the wrong thing to do.

“In general, apart from a few of the really big clubs, it is pretty much a 100% support of the decision we have taken and among the fans as well, I think they realise the importance of the club and keeping it alive.

“You have to take a stand and you have to do what is right. I believe this is the right thing for the club and that is why I am doing it.”

Fans reacted as the chairman reveals the amount it’s costing him to keep the National League club alive…

@dewg1978: He was keeping them afloat in non-Covid times. Must be even harder now. A lesson for clubs being solvent.

@CocsSutton: All the best from Sutton fans

@MarkFCHT: Hope Dover Athletic come through this, good luck guy’s

@MrJohnTate: Common sense is the way forward. Good luck

@welfare1908: Best of luck from Hartlepool Fan, I’m sure you will pull through in the long run. Hard times for many people.

@RichardJSp13: So sad. But you need to do what’s best for you. Good luck

@pauljones_wxm: Sad news, wishing all best to players staff and fans of Dover Athletic

@ITMCHufc: Good luck to you from Hartlepool. Hope you get through the other side of this shambles. Best wishes to all at the club.

@theTownEnder: As a Hartlepool fan, I wish you all the best. Good luck to everyone involved at the club.

@Matt1Clarke: Sensible decision. Tough for all involved but the right way to go. Good luck and see you on the other side.

@watson6543: right move your club staying alive is most important take it from a Bury fan

@SouthallNicky: Happy furlough tough few days I’m absolutely gutted but for the sake of the football club 100% the right decision imo .Dover FC is what matters after all this, and btw people losing there lives day in day out that’s what matters to me I’ve lost 3 family members to this horrific virus . I’ve not seen my mum and dad for a year as they shielding away up north it’s not easy my mental health not great at present