Football stories, history and the finance behind English football

Illustration of an empty non-league dugout under floodlights, a coat left on the bench
Cover story

Steve Evans: Football Manager, Convicted Criminal

The story of Steve Evans is a story of chronic mismanagement and financial doping. At Crawley Town, a new project is underway, but the past, his criminal conviction, and the wreckage left at Boston United can't be so easily bought off.

Rhys Calder · 30 August 2010Read the story

Inside this issue: the team sheets

Club crises: football finance stories from the archive

  • FIFA thrashed in a game of appearances over Ukraine

    World football’s governing body has again been exposed as unfit for purpose. Its tortuous, delayed response to the invasion of Ukraine shows a complete failure of leadership and morality.

  • Rochdale AFC: A Question of Trust

    The battle for Rochdale is over, for now. But the attempted hostile takeover by a group of speculators leaves deep concerns about the EFL’s ability to protect clubs from those with questionable motives and even more questionable methods.

  • The Scunthorpe Problem: An Owner, His Debts and a Club in Decay

    After years of decline and a controversial asset transfer that saw the club lose its ground, Scunthorpe United's future looks increasingly precarious.

  • The National League: From Mismanagement to Outright Contempt

    A £40,000 fine and a twelve-point deduction for Dover Athletic is the latest act in a season defined by the National League’s mismanagement, leaving clubs on the brink and its board facing a vote of no confidence.

  • Whyteleafe, Ian Rush and a Glimpse of Football's New Normal

    The future of Whyteleafe FC hangs in the balance after the chairman unilaterally terminated the lease on its ground, now owned by a Singaporean company with links to the former Liverpool striker Ian Rush.

  • As Bad As It Got: Leicester City and the Collapse of 2002

    Eighteen years before Brendan Rodgers’ side established itself near the top of the Premier League, Leicester City faced financial oblivion in the wake of the ITV Digital collapse. Their administration would change the rules of English football forever.

  • The National League: A Competition Spiralling Out of Control

    With clubs furloughing players and refusing to fulfil fixtures, the National League's response has been to issue threats rather than provide clear leadership, leaving its own competition in a state of chaos.

  • Is The Bell Tolling For Southend United?

    Southend United head back to the High Court this week. With the club in a perilous financial state and anchored to the bottom of the league, time seems to be running out for chairman Ron Martin.

  • Macclesfield Town: Thirteenth Time Unlucky

    The end, when it came, felt both shocking and inevitable. After twelve adjournments, Macclesfield Town were wound up in the High Court, a club brought down by years of financial mismanagement rather than the effects of a pandemic.

  • As Bad As It Got: Queens Park Rangers and White City

    Twice in their history, Queens Park Rangers decided that Loftus Road was holding them back. Twice, they moved a few hundred yards to White City Stadium, and twice the dream of becoming a London powerhouse evaporated.

The full archive

Latest football stories

Football history, told properly

Twohundredpercent publishes long-form football stories about the English game, the kind of football stories that need more than a match report: club history from the Premier League down to the non-league pyramid, the grounds that have gone, the World Cup's stranger chapters and the people who ran clubs into trouble.

The finance runs through all of it. Administrations, winding-up orders and points deductions are recorded in the Club Crisis Index, and the owners behind them in 100 Owners. Football history and football finance turn out to be the same story more often than not.

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