Sad possible news about Dulwich Hamlet

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...ampion-hill-crowdfunding-paypal-a8043731.html

I've said before the Hamlets are my nearest club, literally just round the corner from where I live.

In 10 years they've been promoted twice, been to play off finals several times, have engaged with local people and suppliers and increased attendance from 3-400 to an average of 1,500 and sometimes pushing 2,500.

Sadly, the owner, a hedge fund/ development company which seems to have connections to the Barclay Brothers and has much offshore structure, finally had planning consents rejected after a lengthy legal battle to build new homes on the existing site (approx. 250) and move the ground back onto whats called Metropolitan Open Land (MOL).

The company who own the ground have now said they will not pay players wages (despite wages being well below turnover) or fund the club going forward and its come down to fans to try and create voluntary groups to pay players.

The owners have rejected any possible sale of the club or to allow any new investment. It seems they either want to bully Southwark Council into signing off the old plans, or even to bust the club to try and just build on the existing land without any football club being there at all.

It just shows that some who buy football clubs have very specific reasons for doing so to generate the biggest possible return.

 

I went to watch Altona 93 in Hamburg earlier in the year and there were Dulwich Hamlet stickers everywhere! I take it there’s some sort of friendship there?

 

Yeh it was over the fields from I lived a few years back.. Macca used to go there a lot enorl( when he was at millwall)

Good luck to em

 

That was my dads team as he was growing up. He's not a happy man.

 

yes, hamlets and altona were formed in the same year so the fans are very close and arrange trips to see each other play, visit most east Dulwich taverns and there is some sticker of altona

 

Good stuff. Always good to see these friendships, although it’s a bit weird we don’t seem to have one at Barnsley. Unless you include a small group of Antwerp fans.

 

Sad news but not that uncommon unfortunately. football clubs with assets but no money are easy prey for money men with ulterior motives.

I knew that the owners were trying to move the ground to develop the current site as my old mate and Reds fan lives in East Dulwich and used to watch them before the gates got so big that he struggled to get a decent place to watch and could not get a drink at half time.

Don't we have a couple on our books that used to play for Dulwich?

 

Ethan Pinnock's old club isn't it?

 

Yes