London Sport
Chesham restructure to give club cash boost
5:33pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
ALAN Calder has stepped down as chairman of Chesham United as the club strives to restructure their finances.
Brian McCarthy has succeeded Calder, with Roger Payne coming in as majority shareholder to provide extra financial backing.
McCarthy said: “It’s a good step, it couldn’t go on as it was.
“The Supporters Trust were running the club and they did a pretty good job, but there weren’t enough of them and they weren’t generating enough money.
“There were cash flow problems. It was Alan’s decision to step down and he’s still on the board, but Roger coming in will help the club move forward.
“I’ve known him a long time and he’s a football man. We’re both ambitious for the club and we see this as a long-term situation.”
McCarthy can’t say exactly how much extra financial clout Chesham will have as a result of this restructure, but says manager Andy Leese should have a bigger budget next season.
Calder said: “We need to generate about £250,000 per season to run the football club, and that’s with zero profit.
“The money coming through the gates is just a fraction of that, it doesn’t even cover the playing budget. We’ve done so much better on the field than we expected and we need to keep up with that.
“With my supporters hat on, I think this is great for the club.”
Meanwhile, on the pitch Andy Leese’s men have had a good week. They beat Hemel Hempstead 2-1 on Saturday to remain in the hunt at the top of the Southern League Premier Division, and then booked their second semi-final with a 2-1 victory over Reading in the Southern League Cup on Tuesday.
They will play Banbury in the last four on March 6.
Meanwhile next Tuesday they host Maidenhead in the last four of the Berks & Bucks Cup, with the winners playing Wycombe Wanderers.
On Saturday they go to Redditch – the team whose striker Josh McKenzie threw a punch at the referee when they played at The Meadow.
Leese said: “A lot of the controversy was off the pitch. I don’t think it bothers the players one bit. It’s been and gone and footballers will carry on as normal.
“We’ve had two good wins and need to finish the week off.”