Club Feature : Rochdale AFC.

The Club Feature returns to Putting the Boot in and puts the spotlight on League 2 highflyers Rochdale. We look into the history of the club and how they have become the team that they are today.


Over the past two and a half seasons Rochdale fans have enjoyed a great deal more success than they have been used to over the past 36 years. A play off final defeat in the clubs first appearance at Wembley in 2008 and a Semi-Final loss in the Play Offs in 2009 has been the closest the club have come to exiting League 2 since their relegation into the League in 1974. We take a further look into the history of a club enjoying a well deserved turn of fortune.

The Stadium.

Current Capacity – 10,249



Spotland is highly regarded as one of the best Stadiums in League 2.
With three of the four stands newly built over the past ten years or so, the ground is a lot more up to date in comparison to a lot of other grounds.
Spotland has been the home for Dale throughout its history. The stadium is currently joint owned between Rochdale AFC and Rochdale Hornets RLFC, however it is expected that Dale will buy the hornets out of their share at some point in the future.

Club Badge and Colours.

The club crest used by Rochdale AFC focuses on a variant of the arms of the former County Borough of Rochdale. The coat of arms, based on those of the local and reputed Rochdale family with certain additions, was granted to the Borough by Heralds College in 1857. At its centre, a shield shows a sack of wool and a cotton plant, representing the local wool and cotton industries. Around the edge of the shield sit eight martlets (birds). These are taken from the Rachdale family coat of arms and are widely used on heraldic devices. Above the shield and helm more local industry representations are made by the inclusion of a fleece of wool (suspended by a band) and the iron centre of an old mill-stone (known as a mill-rind).
The motto ‘Crede Signo’ beneath the shield means (rough in translation) ‘Believe in the sign’.



When the club was formed in 1907 the teams colours were black and white stripes. This was influenced by the strong Newcastle side of 1907. In 1949 the club introduced a new all blue kit and this was worn up until the 2006/07 season. In the clubs centenary year a new kit was produced. This saw the current blue kit merged with the clubs original colours to create an ‘Inter Milan’ style design.



The Clubs History.

The club were formed in 1907 and begun life in the Lancashire Leagues and won the Lancashire League title twice in a row in 1911 and 1912.
The club were recommended to be included into the Football League and joined the newly formed Third Division North. In their first game in the Football League ‘Dale’ welcomed hosts Accrington Stanley. They went on to win the game 6-3 but despite the encouraging start to the season the club finished bottom and had to re-apply for membership to the league.
Rochdale finished Runners Up in the league on two separate occasions, 1923 and 1927.
In 1959 the club suffered their first taste of relegation as they were relegated to the Fourth Division, which was formed in 1958 upon re-organisation of the leagues which saw the Third Division North and South combine and make up the new Third and Fourth Divisions.
In the 1961-62 season the club enjoyed a fantastic run in the League Cup. Along the way Rochdale beat Southampton (after a replay), Doncaster Rovers, Charlton, York City and Blackburn Rovers on their way to the final and become the first and only club from the bottom league to play in a League Cup Final. In the two legged final Dale came up against Norwich City but unfortunately the fairytale wasn’t meant to come true and they went on to lose 1-0 and 3-0 making it a 4-0 aggregate win for the Canaries.
In 1969 the club tasted their first ever promotion up to the Third Division. Bob Stokoe masterminded the clubs promotion after undergoing a huge upheaval in playing staff in the previous season.
The club lasted five years in the division before tasting relegation back down to the leagues bottom division in 1974.
Dark days followed for Dale as they finished in the bottom half of the league for the next 14 years!
The club finished bottom on two occasions during that time, in 1978 and 1980, but on both occasions the club were re-elected to the Football League and the expense of Southport and Altrincham (by one vote), narrowly maintaining their Football League status.
Obviously due to the clubs poor showing in the league there attendances were poor and the financial hardship of the club really begun to take its toll.
In 1986 comedian Tommy Cannon (of Cannon and Ball) launched a takeover of the club and looked to be the saviour, however the new look Board of Directors made quite a few unpopular decisions that were deemed not in the best interests of the club. Cannon resigned in 1988 after the clubs EGM but when he left there was a whole host of debts left from his reign at Spotland.
After a lot of financial wrangling the Board of Directors were re-instated and were given the unenviable task or dragging Rochdale back to financial safety. They were helped largely by Rochdale Hornets RLFC buying a 45% share in the clubs Spotland stadium at a cost of £400,000. The Hornets sold their stadium to supermarket chain Morrisons and effectively saved Rochdale AFC from extinction.
Finances at the club were further boosted in 1989/90 season as the club reached the 5th round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history under the guidance of manager Terry Dolan. The prize money and additional gate revenue from the run helped to pay off a large amount of the debt and eased the clubs money worries even more.
In January 1991 manager Terry Dolan left the club for Hull City. However it later emerged that Dolan was poached form Dale by the Tigers and a large amount of compensation was paid out to the club to further ease the clubs worries.
The 2001/2002 season was an eventful one for the club. Boss Steve Parkin left the club for Barnsley in November, even though the club lay in 2nd spot. John Hollins, the former Chelsea, QPR and Arsenal player, took over the reins and made some inspiring signings like Lee McEvilly and Paul Simpson. Hollins experience helped Dale reach the Semi-Finals of the Play Offs for the first time in their history. Unfortunately the fans dreams of reaching the Final at the Millenium Stadium were ruined by a 5-4 aggregate defeat to Rushden and Diamonds. Hollins left the club at the end of the season after failing to agree terms on a new contract.

The Keith Hill Era.



In December 2006 Steve Parkin, who was in his second spell in charge at Spotland left the club after a disappointing start to the season and leaving the club in a relegation battle once again. Youth Team Coach Keith Hill took over on a caretaker basis initially and appointed David Flitcroft as his Assistant. Not only did Hill guide Dale to safety, he helped the club climb away and finish a very respectable 10th place.
Having built the foundations for his team in the previous season, Hill rallied his charges for what would be a very exciting season for the club. Their away form was simply astounding, winning 12 drawing 6 and losing only 5! The goal scoring exploits of Adam Le Fondre (17), Glenn Murray (9) and Rene Howe (9) helped the club to a club record points haul of 80 points, finishing in 5th place and booking a spot in the Play Offs.
A 2-1 defeat away to Darlington in the first leg of the Semi-Final set up a tense encounter for the 2nd leg at Spotland. Dale couldn’t of asked for a worse start to the contest and despite having the better of the game on 28 minutes Clark Keltie stepped up to put Darlington 1-0 in front from the penalty spot after Rene Howe was harshly penilised for a foul on Jason Kennedy. Just two minutes before half time Chris Dagnall grabbed a lifeline for the hosts as he bundled the ball over the line from close range. On 80 minutes Adam Le Fondre had a penalty claim of his own turned down but as the ball rolled out of the penalty area David Perkins smashed an effort from 25 yards out into the roof of the net to send the Dale faithful into raptures!
At the final whistle the aggregate scores were tied at 3-3 so we entered extra time.
With 10 minutes of extra time remaining David Perkins was given his marching orders for a challenge that had no malice in it at all and meant that if Dale managed to find a way through that he would be suspended for the Wembley showpiece.
So it went to penalties. With it tied at 4-4, Jason Kennedy stepped up for the Quakers but had he effort saved by Tommy Lee. It was down to Ben Muirhead to score the winning penalty........ and he did! Rochdale were going to Wembley for the first time in their history!
Over 17,000 Dale fans made their way down to witness the clubs first game at Wembley and captain Gary Jones (who holds the record amount of appearances for the club) had the proud task of leading his team out onto the hallowed turf in London.
Rory McArdle got the team off to a dream start, stooping in at the near post and putting Dale 1-0 up after 25minutes. That leading only lasted 10 minutes as a sweeping cross from the right hand side hit Nathan Stanton’s hand and somehow found its way into the back of the net.
Stockport started the better of the two teams in the second half and within four minutes were 2-1 up, Pilkington’s header hitting the underside of the bar on it’s way into the back of the net.
Things went from bad to worse as Stockport top scorer Dickinson scored a third from a tight angle. There was time for a consolation as Adam Rundle scored a fantastic volley from the edge of the box after Dale’s long throw wasn’t dealt with effectively.
Despite the players best efforts the score remained 3-2 and Rochdale fans were left facing yet another season in the bottom tier of the Football League.
Despite the heartache of the Play Off Final defeat Keith Hill managed to get his troops up for another push at getting out of the league and once again finished within the Play Off places in 6th position.
In the Semi-Finals Dale had to overcome Gillingham. After a 0-0 draw at Spotland, Hill took Dale to Priestfield knowing that he was once again 90 minutes away from yet another Final appearance.
Simeon Jackson put the Gills 1-0 up before Chris Dagnall rifled home an equalizer.
Once again a dodgy refereeing decision was made in the second successive Semi-Final. Rory McArdle was harshly done by as he was adjudged to of fouled Nutter, having seen the TV replay you can clearly see that McArdle didn’t touch the full back.
Jackson stepped up to take the penalty and made no mistake from 12 yards.
Once again it was Play Off heartache for Dale.

To his credit though, despite losing Adam Le Fondre on a free transfer to promotion rivals Rotherham United, Keith Hill has used his loan market extremely well this season as The Dale have stormed to the top of the table during the first half of the season.
Chris O’Grady, who was originally on loan from Oldham but has now joined on a permanent basis, has been particularly impressive up front and has scored 16 goals to the cause. Chris Dagnall has also been in good form and has hit 14 goals so far this season.
Craig Dawson has been one of the success stories for the club this year. Having joined Dale in March 2009 from Radcliffe Borough, he went on to make his first appearance for the club against Port Vale due to an injury to Rory McArdle. The game finished 1-1 and ever since then the centre back has been earning rave reviews and has started to attract attention from Premiership and Championship clubs. He has also earned himself a reputation of being a goal scoring defender, scoring 10 times already this season.

I really do hope that this is the season that the club finally climb out of “The Rochdale Division” and play in the higher leagues as the attacking football that they play certainly deserves it and in Keith Hill they have a very good manager and is very wise tactically and in the transfer market.

Finances in football

In a time when finance at football clubs is coming under scrutiny we take a brief look at what is happening in England now that the transfer window has slammed shut for the season and how clubs are facing a difficult time with money troubles.

This January’s transfer window saw Premier League clubs spend just £30 million, some £140 million short of last year’s £170 million figure. Granted most of the £170 million last year was spent by Manchester City but this is still a dramatic decrease and is a seven year low.
The majority of this month’s deals were loan deals. The feeling is that many clubs didn’t want to panic buy during this window and commit financially during this window and are now waiting until the summer to do the majority of their business.
The biggest deals of the window were Adam Johnson’s move from Middlesbrough for £7 million, Asmir Begovic moving from Portsmouth to Stoke for £3.25 million and Robbie Keane’s sensational loan move from Spurs to Celtic.

Club finances.

Cardiff issued a ‘Golden Ticket’ promotion and said that the advanced season ticket sales for the 2010/2011 season would go towards funding transfers during the January transfer window. The club were hoping to sell 10,000 advanced season tickets so that it would raise around £3 million for Dave Jones to spend during this month and if Cardiff were to be promoted at the end of the season the fans would be refunded the money as a thank you for their help.



Unfortunately with a £2.7 million tax bill hanging around their necks and a winding up order brought by HM Revenue and Customs due in court on 10th February over the unpaid sums. Chairman Peter Ridsdale has since come out and admitted that this money will now be used to pay the taxman and has insisted fans that he did not deliberately mislead them and the money was genuinely for the transfer kitty. Fans have angrily rejected Ridsdale’s apology and are now seeking a public meeting with him. All this comes at the same time that it’s been revealed that Cardiff have paid Ridsdale and his consultancy company a total of £1.5 in wages and fees over the last two years.

During the course of the last two seasons we have seen a number of teams fall into administration due to the increasingly difficult time lower league clubs are having keeping up with their financial commitments. A few clubs include Bournemouth, Rotherham, Luton, Darlington, Southampton and more recently Crystal Palace are some of the clubs that have been hit hard over the last few years.
A number of clubs have been close to going into administration and are fighting for their lives as the taxman circles around the poor clubs that are unable to pay HM Revenue and Customs and threaten to take some of the clubs that are at the heart and soul of English football and put them out of business.
Portsmouth is the highest profile club in the spotlight over the last few months. They have repeatedly been late in paying wages to their playing staff and coaches, instalments on transfer deals have been unpaid and a winding up order has also been put on the club. All this is despite Portsmouth being taken over twice in the last 12 months, firstly by rich Arab business man Sulaiman Al-Fahim and then 40 days later he sold a 90% stake to Saudi Arabian rich man Ali al-Faraj, but despite both promising to transfer funds into the club this has never happened and the club are plunging further into financial insecurity and close to administration.

Club debt seems to be soaring as England’s top clubs are falling further into debt.
Manchester United are £716 million in debt, Liverpool are over £500 million in debt and both clubs are finding the interest payments alone on these debts a huge burden on them. Despite these massive debts the clubs are still doing business as usual whereas the smaller clubs that are probably the most important teams in the English leagues are coming close to extinction.

Clubs must now realise how much the countries recession has affected the average football fan as there were very few ticket price decreases at the start of the season and this has resulted in lower season ticket sales amongst some clubs.

One club full of disillusioned fans is QPR.



Having been taken over by a consortium of 3men, Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, the club became the richest club in English football (before Manchester City then became the richest following their takeover). The fans were told of a four year plan that would see the club rise into the Premiership and being established there before pushing for a Champions League place.
In the new owners first full season in charge season ticket prices rose from £450 up to £599 in many areas of the ground whereas the most expensive seat in the stadium went from £510 up to £699.
Following nine manager changes, an inflated wage bill and a few licks of paint around the stadium, the club are no nearer to realising the dream that was envisioned and now the supporters and Flavio Briatore are at logger heads over the direction of the club. The Chairman is quoted to of said the following: "People forget very quickly what I did for this club. Some fans, because they pay £20, they want to criticise.
"It's very easy for me to walk away. I don't have any problem with that. We want to keep the club but somebody needs to remember QPR three years ago and look at it now. Some people are jealous. There's a lot of jealousy.”
This caused uproar amongst the fans and a protest after Saturdays game against Scunthorpe was held outside the directors entrance as songs like “You can shove you’re £20 up you’re a#$e” were aimed towards the Chairman.

One club that have got things right over the past few years is Aston Villa.



Randy Lerner has come into the club and has begun to run the business side of things professionally by giving Martin O’Neill funds to buy players which are mainly of English heritage. Along with this Lerner has given his shirt sponsorship to local charity Acorns, rather than sell the space to a big money sponsor. Acorns is a children’s hospice trust that offers support to life-limited children and helps families across the West Midlands.
This coupled with consistently low season ticket prices over the past few years (from £295 upwards) has seen the club become one of the most respected clubs amongst football fans.

Another club that seem to have the right idea about how to do business with the fans is Mansfield Town.
For Saturday’s home fixture against Gateshead the clubs owners are giving both sets of fans the chance to pay whatever they want to watch the game in an attempt to fill their 10,000 capacity Field Mill stadium.
With the club averaging an attendance of under 3,000 fans, the owner want to use this opportunity to thank the town for the support they have given them since their takeover in 2008 and want to give them something back as well as trying to attract supporters from within the town and outlying districts.

It’s nice to see two clubs reach its arm out to its community and want to share the passion that it brings to everyone.

Palace fall into administration.

This Tuesday Crystal Palace went into administration and were docked 10 points as a result of their unfortunate fall into the financial mire.



Its been no secret that Simon Jordan has been looking at attracting potential investors to the club after annoucing that he was looking to sell the club last year.
The club are £30million pounds in debt and are due in court on Wednesday next week to face a winding up order from HM Revenue and Customs.
Players wages have also had their payments delayed in November and December.

Despite their financial problems the Eagles have been flying high in the Championship and were only two points off the Play Offs before the midweek fixtures. The ten point deduction means Palace fall down to 21st place in the table, just three points from safety.
Before Wednesdays game against Newcastle at St James Park, Palace were on a fantastic run of only losing two out of their last 15 games and really starting to look like a force.



Players like Victor Moses and Darren Ambrose have been getting a lot of praise for their performances this season, Moses had been touted for a big money move to a big club over the past few weeks. The announcement of the club going into administration couldn't really of come at a worse time as Moses would've got the club a big enough fee to help them through the season but now the administrators are in control that fee could now be substancially reduced.
Neil Warnock is quoted to saying "The timing just astonishes me. There's a week to go in the transfer window and we are about to sell Victor Moses for millions. I'm devastated, shocked and hugely disappointed".
Other players like Ambrose and Julian Speroni could also be making their way out of Selhurst Park for reduced fees and would leave the club really up against it in a relegation dog fight when they really should be challenging for the play offs.
All this has been achieved despite the squad being so thin on the ground that on a few occassions the bench has been unable to be filled.

This isn't the first time Palace have struggled with money.
Simon Jordan originally saved the club from going into administration in 2000 and has gone on to secure the clubs future, including buying back the lease on Selhurst Park after a long fought battle against its previous owners.
Jordan has enjoyed a promotion to the Premiership in the 2003/04 season. Iain Dowie took a struggling Eagles side that were in the bottom 6 at Christmas and he guided them into the Play Offs and eventual Play Off glory that season. Palace were relegated on the last day by WBA, who were bottom at the start of the day, their first season in the top flight was short lived.



This has happened a week after other clubs debts have been publicised. Manchester United's debt has risen to £716million and Liverpool's debt is in excess of £500million.
It does make you wonder how massive clubs like this have to continually borrow money and plunge deeper into debt, yet they can continue to trade and pay out on big money transfers.
Smaller clubs like the Crystal Palace's, Leeds, Luton's, Darlington's etc are the grass roots of English football and provide a lot of youngsters with their first taste of professional football and if these clubs die out then we will just be left with the big clubs and no heart or soul left in our countries great leagues.
Is it time that clubs were made to sort out their finances and take accountabilty for their actions before the bubble bursts? Or is this the start of a decline and the beginning of clubs hitting the wall?

Only time will tell.