"It's unthinkable, yes, totally shocking," says Simon Gauge, as the Rochdale chairman stares at the pitch at their home ground in Spotland and ponders the prospect of the 117-year-old club ceasing to exist. "I think even if you look at it from the perspective of the fifteen over-60s who come here every Friday morning for two hours to play walking football and enjoy a social interaction, some of them might not come otherwise. Even at that level the club must exist. It is at the heart of the community."
Without urgent investment, Rochdale is in danger of being liquidated by the end of the month. There are interested parties from the United States, with Texas-based World Soccer Holdings having signed a letter of intent to buy the club. But unless a resolution is passed at an emergency meeting of shareholders in Spotland on Thursday to create more favorable terms for a £2m sale, the fan-owned National League club could face a setback.
Gauge puts on a brave face, but these are dark times. "I will have a sick feeling in my stomach until we find a long-term investor and the future of the club is secured," he said.
'We are not a basket case'
The North West has been awash with horrifying stories of clubs brought to the brink of collapse. From Bury, Bolton and Blackpool to Oldham, Stockport and Wigan, they have all come perilously close to bankruptcy at one time or another. Macclesfield Town did just that and now operate as Macclesfield FC in the Northern Premier League.
Rochdale, on the other hand, just seemed to be plodding along nicely. Until their promotion to League One in 2010, they had spent 36 consecutive seasons in England's fourth tier. To many it became known as "the Rochdale division". While some local rivals chased a dream, often at great expense under maligned owners, Dale - as they are affectionately known in these parts - lived frugally and within their means. And in reality that is still true today. "Some of those teams you talked about have gone for s- or gone bankrupt, spending way more than they make and becoming basket cases," Gauge says. "We are not a basket case. We're still stable now, Eddie. We just don't have any money anymore."
The story continues
Without their own training base and facilities to rent out or a wealthy benefactor and without prominent additional revenue streams, Rochdale have often had to rely on player trading and the occasional Cup run to boost their cash balance. It has long been a delicate balancing act, which they managed relatively well, until the double whammy of the Covid crisis and a very costly hostile takeover bid sent the club into a tailspin. Two relegations in three seasons left Rochdale out of the Football League for the first time in more than a century, accelerating their decline, and now they are fighting for their survival. "It was the perfect storm for us," Gauge said. "We've always kept our heads above water, but now we're just going underwater and we can't come up again."
As a town, Rochdale has had enough scandals in recent years without losing such a valuable community asset as its football club, beloved by the 2,000 to 3,000 who flock through each week. From the death of baby Awaab Ishak from respiratory failure in a mold-infested home, which sparked national outrage against the child abuse ring that destroyed countless lives, Rochdale has been lurched from one crisis to another. That the Rochdale by-election, won last week by divisive MP George Galloway, would feature a plethora of tarnished candidates seemed emblematic of a town in the grip of ongoing unrest.
"It all has a negative connotation," Gauge says, a look of great annoyance on his face. "Whether it's deaths in social housing, welfare gangs, a farce of a by-election we've had, it's all negative. I think at some point the council and political leaders of this city have to get a grip. The football club is now a perfect springboard for them because of the publicity they see generating to build a positive message for the city."
The football club could certainly use a break or two and perhaps World Soccer Holdings will provide that. They had hoped to buy some breathing space during the January transfer window, with a host of top clubs including Crystal Palace and Southampton sniffing around for their talented 18-year-old defender George Nevett. But then Everton and Nottingham Forest were accused by the Premier League of breaching financial rules and suddenly, in keeping with their misfortune, Rochdale found that potential suitors were getting cold feet, and with that a future £350,000 transfer fell through.
'My children don't go because of abuse'
One of the sad and ironic aspects of Rochdale's plight is that supporters like Gauge, who fought so hard and at great personal cost - financial and emotional - to keep the club out of the clutches of Morton House MGT during a bitter, years-long hostile period of time. takeover battle and ensuring it is fully in the hands of fans have become the subject of abuse from fellow supporters during matches. As a result, Gauge's children no longer go to Spotland. "The children loved standing in the Sandy Lane and watching the matches," Gauge explains. "But they won't do that anymore, because sometimes I am taken advantage of and they have to deal with abuse from third parties, but it is not the majority who are like that."
Rochdale's status as a fan owner was born as much out of necessity as it was desire. Morton House had been courted by former Rochdale chief executive David Bottomley as he sought outside investment in the club and the contracting company began acquiring a stake in the club through private, independent deals with shareholders. In isolation, none of the completed transactions were subject to EFL approval, but as a whole they took Morton House above the 30 percent threshold required for submission to the EFL owners and directors test.
Rochdale supporters, including the influential Dale Trust fans group, instinctively distrusted Morton House's motives and fearing the club could go the way of Bury, who were expelled from the EFL under ruinous ownership in August 2019, they mobilised. Former chairman Andrew Kelly was convinced not to sell his 42 per cent stake in the club and a bitter ownership row ensued which saw Morton House launch a claim in the High Court in July 2021. Morton House would eventually settle 13 months later by agreeing to transfer its shares. to the Rochdale board for refusing to cooperate with an EFL investigation into their attempted purchase of the club. Bottomley was handed a two-year ban by the EFL in October 2022, along with Morton House representatives Andrew Curran and Darrell Rose. A fourth person, Faical Safouane, was given an 18-month ban. Rochdale received a six-point deduction, with a two-year ban.
'Time, money, stress'
Gauge and other shareholders spent around £500,000 buying up the shares of Morton House, while the Dale Trust did a notable job of crowdfunding to fund part of the £500,000 legal bill. Due to the financial blows caused by Covid and relegation from League One in 2021, it couldn't have been worse timed. "It probably cost us 15 months of time that we could have spent finding an investor," Gauge says. "Time, money, stress. But we were just fighting for our lives. I don't know how things would have turned out if Morton House had reached 51 percent. I think the club could have left because there would probably have been so many points deducted and so many fines imposed. I'm not sure how it would have worked."
Much now depends on the outcome of Thursday's EGM, which would see just 10 percent of the club remain in fan hands if the relevant resolutions were passed. "It kind of goes against the fan-owned model and culture of the club," says Gauge. "But we won't survive unless we change."
