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From The Socialist newspaper, 10 April 2019
Gateshead FC crisis: save our Heed!
Gateshead International Stadium, photo (Click to enlarge)
Peter Robson, North Tyneside Socialist Party
At the home match of Gateshead Football Club on 6 April, fans - including away supporters from visiting Ebbsfleet United - protested outside Gateshead FC stadium over the existential crisis facing the club. The club faces mounting debts and has seen its squad reduced to just 16 players.
Ebbsfleet supporters know only too well about the financial problems of clubs playing in the National League, having suffered a similar crisis this season.
'Gateshead Soul' had been set up by supporters to not only raise awareness of the club's plight but to actually save it from extinction.
Fans' anger has been directed at the club's financial adviser Joe Cala, who is believed to be pulling the strings. Cala didn't show his face at the match on 6 April.
Former Rochdale owner Chris Dunphy has agreed in principle to take over the club but the necessary paperwork has reportedly not been signed off by current Gateshead FC owner Dr Ranjan Varghese.
As ownership of the club has failed to be resolved, players and staff have been left unpaid. Players have also been locked out of the stadium, unable to train and only allowed in on match days!
If we allow these 'gangsters' to continue to 'slash and burn' our cultural heritage where does it stop? Socialist Party members have suggested Gateshead Soul organise a protest in the town centre and have also raised the possibility of fans' ownership of the club.
- 'Reclaim the Game' by John Reid - a socialist programme for football - available from leftbooks.co.uk
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In The Socialist 10 April 2019:
What we think
Corbyn must demand general election, defend workers' interests and fight for a socialist Brexit
Climate change
Organise against climate change, austerity and capitalism
Only socialism can stop capitalism's plastic problem
International socialist news and analysis
Algeria: Bouteflika is finished but the Algerian revolution is not!
China: police state in Xinjiang under global spotlight
Local elections
Local government in crisis: councillors can fight cuts!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Boot out the Tories - end austerity
Workplace news and analysis
PCS: vote Yes for action, back socialists in the elections!
NEU conference: organise for the key battles to come
Swindon workers discuss action to save Honda jobs
Southampton Hospital security workers strike
Support the Glasgow Airport pay and pensions strike
London Overground cleaners strike for better pay
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Leicester Socialist Party letter for no-cuts budget
Walthamstow: end the school funding crisis
Reject the rotten NUS 'reforms'
Leicester NHS Trust and the brutal reality of cuts
Social cleansing continues in Southwark
South Yorkshire Freedom Riders - still battling on
Gateshead FC crisis: save our Heed!
Health Campaigns Together AGM success
Opinion
Low pay, long hours, isolation - a taxi driver speaks out
'Traitors': Cold War cloak and daggers as capitalist powers spy on allies
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