By Rupe
April 21 2002

Halifax Town chairman Bob Walker is threatening to quit the club after a furious row with administrator Peter O'Hara. He is willing to relinquish his positions of both Chairman and Director.

Mr Walker said he was "incensed" by O'Hara's threat to sack players after Saturday's final league game against Rushden and Diamonds, and he claimed Town's players were "understandably appalled" by the public announcement that many of them would be playing their last game for the Shaymen. The club's directors were having an emergency board meeting before Saturday's match with Mr O'Hara and his partner, Mr Simon Weir, to discuss the position.

The players had discussed striking and missing Saturday's match but eventally agreed to play the Shaymen's last game in the Football League. "I am absolutely incensed that Mr O'Hara has gone out in public and said a lot of the players will be sacked on Monday", he said, "I told him about the ethics in football but that has made no difference. Bringing in an administrator was forced on me. We had no alternative but to bring one in, and I did not expect this. These are players' livelihoods and there was no need for him to go public and talk about selling our assets like Paul Harsley and Matthew Clarke. We had not agreed that he would do that."

And Mr Walker said even if he did leave the club, there was a chance he could return soon. "If he is going to use me as a puppet and put obstacles in our way, I will resign as chairman and a director. I will speak to the potential investors with a view to being part of a consortium which comes back and takes control of the club."

Mr Weir, a partner at the Birstall Insolvency Practitioners, met Mr Walker yesterday and said the mathematics of Town's situation were simple. "The club does not have enough money to pay the players over summer," he said. "A lot of people are unhappy, including the players, fans and creditors. We are meeting the Professional Players' Association on Monday to discuss what help it can give us."

Story courtesy of Halifax Evening Courier.

Me and our Cuth cannot believe that Mr O'Hara can even be considering the move to sack the players on Monday, as surely his job is to protect the assets of the club and get the most money he can for them to try and raise revenue to pay the debts. We realise that sacking the players will save money for the club over the summer, but surely there was a better way of going down that route than blurting it out to the national press.

Does this mean that the players will be sacked this week and then offered a new contract at the start of next season, or are the club having a total clear out and starting afresh for next season? This is always risky as it is very possible that come the end of July all that is left is the tat that no one else wanted. Although with the impending collapse of the ITV Digital contract could make some clubs more cautious about how they spend their spare cash over the summer months.

We also feel that not all the players should be sacked as surely some of our better players like Harsley, Fitz and Clarkey, who are under contract and not the highest earners at the club would be worth paying to keep. Even if we pay them over the summer and then they leave at the start of next season we are probably likely to get more money for them than we have paid wages out. And hopefully the club have an agreement with Steve Bushell that he will return to play for us next season.

These are worrying times, but hopefully Bob Walker and Mr O'Hara can work together to make sure that we have a team and club in place to start next season.