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| Terry Casey |
Reading the national newspapers and listening and watching the news I felt a great deal of sympathy for the supporters of Liverpool FC as their American owners seemed to have little understanding of what a football club means to a community.
I strongly believe that a football club can be an important part of a community and the ownership of a club should reflect that importance.
During many of the interviews and news coverage of the Liverpool situation the question “why would anyone want to own a football club” has constantly cropped up. Over the past few months I have wondered myself why I have chosen to invest into a business which history tells us can only bring aggravation. I will try to explain my reasons and attempt to convince myself that what I am doing makes some sense.
For most genuine football supporters the club they supported as a boy should remain their team forever. It should always be the team whose result is the first they look for every Saturday. For me having been born in Maidstone and having been taken to see them at The Athletic Ground as a boy means that Maidstone United is my team.
Sadly my team has been homeless for twenty years and it means that the sense of community has been lost and can only return once the team returns to Maidstone. I want my club to play in Maidstone and this explains one of the reasons that I chose to get involved.
Another justification for my involvement was the fact that unless Oliver, Bill and I stepped in there would no longer be a Maidstone United and I wasn’t prepared to let that happen. I couldn’t imagine the town not having a football club and added to the possibility that I might in some way help the team return to the town made the temptation to become involved too great to resist.
Oliver, Bill and I can only promise to try to achieve this ambition as our investments will not be enough to build the stadium but it has ensured the club’s immediate safety. It also enables the three of us to approach local people to try to tempt them the way that we have been attracted to the possibility of achieving something momentous.
