Cricket Scandal Leaves Croydon Athletic In A Fix

Local football team in crisis

When the News of the World revealed it had caught Croydon Athletic owner Mazhar Majeed in a very compromising position it was not immediately clear what impact it would have on the club. Majeed was arrested in connection with spot-fixing claims regarding the recent cricket Test match between Pakistan and England at Lord’s, following tabloid stings, £150,000 piled on a table and apparent promises to deliver no-balls to order at Lord’s. “Maz”, as everybody connected with Croydon Athletic calls the owner (who isn’t actually listed on any official document as
the owner), bought the south London club in the summer of 2008.

The Rams were struggling at the bottom of English football’s eighth tier, the Ryman League South Division One, and struggling to find direction and leadership following the 2007 death of their cofounder Keith Tuckey. Majeed, a local boy who appeared to have made good, seemed a godsend, and quickly appointed the experienced Tim O’Shea
and Tim’s former Gillingham and Grays colleague Neil Smith as his assistant, who immediately improved the team’s fortunes, although it was still largely the squad he inherited. That started to change the following season, as O’Shea and Smith used their contacts books to recruit players not usually seen plying their trade in the eighth tier. Or that was certainly the post-match talk in club bars throughout the Ryman League. Gossip about the quality of their squad would grow throughout the 2009/10 season for three reasons. One, it was clearly improving despite no obvious rise in the Rams’ meagre attendances.

Two, non-league fans like to gossip. And three, Croydon’s then chairman, Dean Fisher, was in the process of being
convicted of fraud. Fisher’s antics included stealing more than £500,000 from his employers, a London-based media company, and pouring half of it into the team. This pilfered bonanza looked like a clear case of QED to rival fans but Croydon Athletic strenuously denied they benefited from Fisher’s fraud, claiming he was regularly repaid the sums he put through the club’s books.

Nevertheless, the chatter surrounding the Thornton Heathbased outfit attracted the attention of the Football Association’s investigators, who have spent much of this year keeping a close eye on the Rams’ financial dealings. As have Ryman League officials, which is hardly surprising given Croydon Athletic’s promotion to their top flight.
The upshot of this scrutiny was that O’Shea’s men were given a clean bill of health as they began this season’s Premier Division campaign. A few more players were signed (most notably former Ipswich star Jermaine Wright), the team sailed through preseason (getting a 0-0 draw against Gillingham and battering Eastbourne Town 7-1) and a solid start was made to the league season.

And then the News of the World happened and the fallout for Croydon Athletic is still coming down in clumps around their ears. New chairman David Le Cluse, who struck up a friendship with Majeed when he solved a pest
problem at one of his properties, said the club was “in crisis” and “living from one moment to another”. The The idea somebody has been laundering millions through the club, as has been suggested in national newspapers, is an allegation that has been flatly denied by the Majeed family. But the facts remain, HM Revenue and Customs officials are investigating the club, Majeed is on police bail for possible fraud and money-laundering charges and he did tell an undercover newspaper reporter that the “only reason” he bought Croydon Athletic was to rinse his cash. Manager Tim O’Shea and assistant Neil Smith left the club after his arrest . Croydon Athletic postponed two league fixtures in September and withdrew from the FA Cup following the exit of their club’s management team. O’Shea said: “Everything that has gone on has affected everyone.” As a relatively small business, Croydon Athletic Sports and Social Club Limited only has to file abbreviated annual accounts, so details are conspicuous by their absence. But in four years from 2006, the club has moved from being £46,000 in the black, to £382,000 in the red. That last figure is now over a year old. The trend is not very encouraging. As O’Shea says, “The players are desperate to carry on but it’s out of our hands.”

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Local football team in crisis When the News of the World revealed it had caught Croydon Athletic owner Mazhar Majeed in a very compromising position it was not immediately clear what impact it would have on the club. Majeed was arrested in connection with spot-fixing claims regarding the recent cricket Test match between Pakistan and [...]

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