The final vestiges of amateurism at BRFC

Bristol Rovers’ form since the Al-Qadi takeover has been highly impressive. Perhaps, we should not be surprised by this. Darrell Clarke’s achievement in quickly rebuilding the team, after the chaos of relegation to the Conference, is quite extraordinary when you think about it. Constructed from the rubble inherited from John Ward, Clarke has overseen a dramatic change in the club’s fortunes. But what has happened since Nick Higgs and the rest of the board stepped aside is a tribute to the footballing foundations Clarke has built.

The change at the top of the club has been as smooth as it is was sudden, sudden at least to those of us who had no idea that the club was being sold, and that number includes the two puppet fan directors who admitted as much in Brian Seymour Smith’s weasel-worded statement issued this weekend. The departure of the old board and the arrival of a brand new board was a bombshell in itself, something that could have been unsettling for everyone at the club. After all, footballers and managers are employees as much as anyone in the real life world of work. At the best of time, football is hardly the most secure of professions and when the owners of your company alters overnight, you could be forgiven for taking your eye off the ball, literally in this case. They have wives and mortgages and cats and dogs and children at school, just like the rest of us.

Darrell Clarke only discovered late on what was happening at the club, but here was where the true qualities of the man were demonstrated. He was not fazed, nor distracted from his day job. He continued to prepare his teams for football matches, plainly kept the players focused on their day jobs and things proceeded as before, if not better than before.

It also shows the stunning work currently being carried out by, among others, new chairman Steve Hamer and president Wael Al-Qadi. Surprising as the change of ownership was, they knew that what mattered most were the fortunes of the team on the pitch. Distractions were kept to a minimum. The manager and his players were immediately made aware that they were valued and that continuity was vital.

All of this demonstrates professionalism, a word which has not always been spoken of in the same sentence as Bristol Rovers. And it seems to be spreading throughout the football club.

I will close with a little negativity, but please put it in context with my unqualified support for the new owners, directors and officials.

I referred earlier to the statement made by the so called ‘fans director’ Brian Seymour Smith (or BS Smith as he is known to some) that has appeared in a number of places, including the fans’ internet forums. Seymour Smith and his fellow elected Supporters Club director Ken Masters are on the board of directors solely by virtue of a share investment scheme organised by an offshoot of the Supporters Club that has put over £1 million into the club. Neither man was involved in any aspect of the scheme until they stood for election and joined the board. Those of us who have always believed that Seymour Smith and Masters were completely ineffectual and irrelevant to decision making at Bristol Rovers have been completely vindicated by Seymour Smith’s clumsy words from his own statement, a paragraph of which I reprint below:

“I will be honest and say that the last few years, after a promising start four years ago, became harder and harder. As you will be aware the previous regime held what they called “equity directors meetings.” As time went on, it became clear that board meetings were starting to play second fiddle to the main decision making. It was becoming clear also I was learning more about what was happening at the club through Forums such as this than I did at Board meetings, even though I was accused of believing what I read on the forums. It seems at times some of the comments made, particularly from the Fans Forum for example, were often and are ‘spot on’ and I appreciate that this really is from my point of view not an acceptable position to be in from a representational point of view.”

A lot of words to make one simple point: both Seymour Smith and Masters had no influence at the football club. But they were happy enough to keep their snouts in the trough in Box Number One throughout, whilst the fans they knew they were not really representing stood on the terraces, treated like mushrooms. At no time did they indicate publicly that their views were of no importance to the equity directors, pretending to supporters that they were men of influence. The truth is out there now and the final question I would is this: why did they not resign? That surely would have been the decent, honest, honourable and principled thing to do, wouldn’t it?d

These two so called fans directors represent the final vestiges of the old regime. I suspect that the new owners will wish to ensure the views of the supporters will be heard and will hopefully come up with new ideas for this to happen. Mr Hamer has already shown he means business in this department by announcing a freeze in season ticket prices for next season.

We have all waited a long time for a brighter new day at Bristol Rovers. The supporters have always deserved so much better and it is gratifying that they are finally getting it. Thanks to the A-Qadis, Mr Hamer and everyone else who is, at last, giving us a club we can once more be proud of. They are today’s men and tomorrow’s men. The ones I criticised were not even yesterday’s men.