Fawaz May be a Disaster but He is Not the Worst Owner in all of Football

There has been an of repeated refrain this week on Social Media

“Fawaz is the worst Football club owner in history”

“There can’t be any worse chairman that Fawaz”

Or so the hyperbole on Social media goes.

Although we can all agree Fawaz is less than ideal this indicates a huge level of ignorance. The Oystons have led Blackpool from the top flight to league Two in an alarmingly quick succession of relegations through lack of investment. Fawaz has merely returned us to where he found us (for now) he is not in league with the Oystons. SISU at Coventry have seen the club playing in Northampton, as well as seeing the club in real danger of going out of business languishing in League One.

Stephen Vaughan has twice seen clubs have huge problems. A former Amateur boxer with underground connections,  at Barrow he over invested and involved Liverpool gangsters with running the club, even holding a minutes silence for a murdered gangster. At Chester oversaw the clubs eventual demise, as well as then being banned from being involved as Director after a tax fraud scam with Widnes Viking sin Rugby League. Chester City as they were, no longer exist.

Just now Morecambe's Brazilian owner has gone awol and the club is in dire financial trouble. Wages haven't been paid, Training pitches are owned by a company set aside and that company has gone bust and is now under administration from a property expert. Perhaps to be sold for land.

Just locally you had the Munto scenario at Notts County, which very nearly killed them and saddled with huge debts. A house of cards built from shady deals and secret promises of money including from North Korea, it was all a cover which imploded. Mansfield Town were locked out of their ground by former chairman Keith Haslam who was widely vilified by Stags fans.

It is an interesting debate whether Fawaz is indeed worse than Scholar and Wray. Remember they're short termism nearly led us to the brink of financial collapse. As well as repercussions for being involved with two sporting clubs (Wrays involvement with Wasps and thus a huge controlling interest at Vicarage Road) Some fans lost decent wedges of cash on badly run share schemes that tanked (my Dad included) and then tried to sue the club when it was taken over from them saying it was unlawful. We ran a full Scholar and Wray article on here several years ago if you care to read. (Here Forest Villains: Scholar & Wray) Ok the club got promoted to the Top flight, and many top players were signed, but the legacy was years of financial toil, coupled with ITV Digital collapse and lead to having to sell all our best youngsters and jettison top players on the most money. Its arguable it forced us to develop the likes of Dawson and Reid, but it also meant we never saw the bloom.

Fawaz is a nightmare. He will soon be gone. But he is not the worst chairman ever. He hasn't treid to grind us into oblivion. He's just an idiot who makes many many gaffs.He's not crimin
al negligent like above.