A letter to my MP on Torquay United and UK investment into Chinese football

If you’ve been following my blogs recently you will have seen a couple of pieces on the fortunes of Torquay United: The decline of Torquay United – a cautionary tale and Torquay United part deux – support your local team

I also wrote about it in my regular diary for independent Grimsby Town site Codalmighty: It’s but a dalliance, nothing long-term – 24 September 2015

Yep, I’m a Grimsby fan (it’s a birth thing) but I feel the plight of Torquay and other small, lower league clubs is something we should be concerned about as if they are lost then a key part of a community is lost.

Hashtag #Unthinkable

Over the last few weeks, myself and many other Grimsby fans on Twitter were made aware of football further afield than the English leagues when a certain Canadian club started using our #GTFC hashtag. Now all Town fans know that Canada has its own “Grimsby” but then again, so does Elton John’s Caribou album. Our interest ends there. It’s handy information for a pub quiz but not much else. Until now.

Torquay United part deux – support your local team

Late on Monday (September 21st) I blogged on the plight of my local club Torquay United: about the upheaval in the boardroom, the loss of their manager, financial troubles due to falling gates and impending compensation cases which might spell the end for the club. To make it clear, Torquay are my local team but being an exiled Grimsby Town fan I don’t actually support them. I do however recognise how important a club can be, how it can be the focal point for a community and how the loss of a club might affect a town as well as neighbouring teams. All of this as well as the knock-on effect on other clubs in the league if Torquay were to cease trading means that I am concerned as both a football fan and as a resident of Devon.

The decline of Torquay United – a cautionary tale

This is weird. I’m a Grimsby Town fan but I’m writing about Torquay United in a way that I think a Torquay fan would write. Bear with me though because this is important. Okay. Here goes….

A few of weeks ago in my regular diary for Codalmighty I wrote a little about The Gulls’ summer; about the takeover by a local consortium, the change of manager and about the financial problems at Plainmoor. That was just before Torquay’s visit to Blundell Park, a game I attended, and although I would have liked to see Grimsby win I felt that Torquay had put together a decent squad on limited resources and manager Paul Cox had got them well organised and playing to their strengths. It wasn’t at all pretty to watch but it was effective all the same and the handful of fans who had made the long journey North would have been happy with the result as well as a day out in the Cleethorpes sunshine.

Less than a month later and after a gate of 1558 for the visit of Guiseley, the club’s chairman and chief exec issued a warning in the local paper that unless gates averaged 1800 over the season then the club would not survive. This reiterated an announcement to that effect in the summer following the takeover.