A decade on from the club’s darkest hour, how Hull’s Tigers almost became extinct

JANUARY 19 2001

HULL’s financial problems are becoming increasingly apparent as manager Brian Little is told to sell star players Ian Goodison and Theodore Whitmore to ease the club’s considerable debts. These include around £500,000 to the Inland Revenue, £250,000 to Customs & Excise in unpaid VAT and a further £700,000 owed to various other creditors. Goodison and Whitmore are seen as ideal departures by the board due to the Jamaican duo earning around £2,500 a week apiece, while they also live in rented accommodation that is paid for by the club. To add to their woes, the Tigers – whose monthly wage bill stands at around £110,000 – are in danger of being served with a winding-up order by Customs & Excise – just a year after fighting off an identical order in the High Court over £25,000 in unpaid tax.

Brian Little: “I had come in for the final game of the previous season and almost straight away it became clear there were problems. Those became a lot worse during the summer when the club were locked out of Boothferry Park by the landlord. It did leave me thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ But we knuckled down as a squad and just got on with it. Unfortunately, the financial situation didn’t get much better even though we were able to return to the ground before the season kicked off.”

JANUARY 26 2001

Customs & Excise serve a winding-up order on the Tigers, whose directors will have to explain to the High Court how the club has built up an outstanding VAT bill of £300,000. City appeal to the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football League for help, while a memo is circulated to all clubs revealing that the entire Boothferry Park squad is up for sale. City’s plight is becoming perilous, not helped by falling gate receipts with the latest home game against Blackpool – a 1-0 defeat played in front of 4,450 fans – having brought just £18,000 into the coffers. Worse than that, two home games have already been postponed this month due to the freezing weather – leaving City counting the cost of missing out on much-needed income for the club.

John Cooper: “The club’s existence was very much hand-to-mouth at the time and when you are trading as close to the wire as that then there is always the danger something will go wrong, which is what happened with the postponements. Everything was done to try and get the games on because the club was in a serious position and needed the money. They pushed us over the edge, in the end. The problems had been mounting and mounting for quite some time. We had been locked out of Boothferry Park by (former owner) David Lloyd for eight weeks the previous summer. What we did have, though, was a great camaraderie among the staff. There was a real sense of determination to keep the club going. The staff could have turned their back but they didn’t, and what pleases me is the majority of those people are still around today. ”

JANUARY 31 2001

Under the headline ‘No money to pay players as Hull close to collapse’, the Yorkshire Post exclusively reveals that the players have not been paid for the past couple of months. Despite that, Brian Little’s squad vow to continue fulfilling fixtures as the board looks for possible salvation. As two attempted rescue bids fail, however, administration looks increasingly the troubled club’s only option.

Gary Brabin: “It was a bad time for the players. People may look at the top players now and all the money they earn but we were on nothing like that. We had mortgages to pay, just like anyone else. But we couldn’t. There were a few arguments between the lads and their wives at the time, mainly caused by money. A couple had to go to family members to help pay the mortgage, while some sold stuff to get by. It was an unbelievable time. When Hull City reached the Premier League a couple of years ago, I felt really proud at the part those lads played in keeping the club going during that season.”

FEBRUARY 7 2001

a DAY after former chairman Tom Belton, who had been ousted from the club 18 months earlier but retained a 30 per cent shareholding, fails with a bid to buy a controlling interest, City win a reprieve in the High Court as the winding-up order is postponed for 14 days. It is not all good news, though, as former owner David Lloyd locks Hull out of Boothferry Park over an unpaid rent bill of £80,000. It is the second time this year that Lloyd has locked the gates. Hull are due to face Leyton Orient at home in just three day – meaning a resolution has to be found or the club will risk being plunged into trouble with the Football League for not fulfilling a fixture. Later in the day, City are placed into voluntary administration and chairman Nick Buchanan quits. Kroll, Buchler and Phillips, the firm of administrators appointed to run the club, immediately receive declarations of interest from half a dozen parties.

John Cooper: “Administration proved to be what saved Hull City. It was clear that things could not go on as they were. We’d had so many problems to overcome, from having to almost arm-wrestle the Council in terms of getting safety certificates through to sleeping overnight at Boothferry Park to ensure the club wasn’t locked out by the landlord. Somehow, the club had continued through all the problems but that couldn’t have carried on for ever. Administration sounds like a worrying development but, in truth, it was the best thing that could have happened, as from that the club got new owners.”

FEBRUARY 8 2001

The administrators suffer a blow in their plans to sell the club when it is revealed the players, who have still not been paid, will be able to walk away as free agents if they do not receive any wage payments by February 14. Manager Brian Little admits it would be hard to stand in anyone’s way, though added that the squad had committed to playing against Orient on the Saturday. It is also revealed that training has been stopped due to the players living outside the city not being able to afford the petrol. Instead, the players train on their own or in small groups. A welcome boost comes later in the day when Lloyd agrees to allow staff back into the ground, raising hopes the game will go ahead.

Gary Brabin: “I was one of the ring-leaders who went to the management and said we would continue to play the games despite not being paid, but that we wanted training cut down to just once a week because the lads couldn’t afford the petrol any more. I had just bought a house in Liverpool so was driving over a couple of days a week and then staying in Hull for the rest of the time at a hotel. Once we stopped getting paid, it became very difficult as, basically, everything had to come out of my own pocket. I ended up training in Liverpool for a few days a week on my own, while a few of the lads who lived near each other elsewhere would get together and have a kickabout. It wasn’t ideal but there was no alternative. In a funny way, everything that happened pulled us together as a group and we went on a great run. The adrenalin alone kept us going, though later in the season when we got to the play-offs it became clear we had run out of steam. We beat Orient 1-0 in the semi-final first leg and fancied our chances of going through. But then, before the return leg, I remember us having a pre-match meal at the hotel and looking around to see everyone completely drained. We were dead on our feet and simply had nothing left to give. We lost 2-0.”

FEBRUARY 10 2001

The city of Hull turns out to show its support for the club as a crowd of 8,782 cheer City to a 1-0 victory over Orient. A half-time bucket collection by supporters raises more than £2,000 for the players and club staff, who have also not been paid during the financial crisis. More importantly, in terms of securing a possible future for professional football in the East Riding, the administrator in charge of the stricken club Mike Moore reveals that of the five or six parties who have come forward to show an interest in taking over the club, he expects “two or three formal bids to be made within the week”.

Brian Little: “It was a really hectic time for me. Once the club had been placed into administration, I spent a lot of time driving to Leeds to meet the people who were running the club. Obviously, the club couldn’t get financial credit from anywhere so if we were playing a game away from home and travelling by coach then I would have to take a cheque from the administrator. It was the same situation if we stopped at a hotel for a pre-match meal. The players were not being paid at the time and ended up becoming very resilient. They started taking Tupperware boxes on our away trips and filling them with all the food that they couldn’t eat. That way, it meant we had a meal for the way home as well. During that time, I also had a few discussions with people interested in buying Hull City and, at times, it felt like I was spending most of my day on the M62 driving to Leeds and back.”

FEBRUARY 15 2001

With all the players and coaching staff technically free agents due to not having been paid, Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric approaches Brian Little about the possibility of moving to Fratton Park to offer experienced support to player-manager Steve Claridge. After a couple of days, Little decides to stay at Hull and his players reward the manager with a 2-0 win at Shrewsbury Town.

Brian Little: “It was an easy decision to stay. I was not unhappy at Hull City, while the support the club got from the city was second to none. There was one day when I was at home and there was a knock at the door. A group of supporters were standing there and they wanted to hand over a collection they’d had for the players. It was about £8,000, all in cash. I said, ‘I can’t take it as the responsibility is too much’. In the end, I think they took it down to the ground and handed the money over there. It was an amazing gesture and showed just how much the club meant to the supporters. How could I walk away from that?”

FEBRUARY 22 2001

D-Day for City as the club are due back in the High Court to answer the winding-up order served over an unpaid tax bill. As fans wait anxiously for news from the Liverpool court, it is revealed a buyer has been found by the administrators. The mystery party agree to pay a sum of £85,000 to keep the club trading until a meeting of creditors can take place on March 8. If the CVA is approved on that date, City will have been effectively sold for £360,000. Rumours immediately start circulating around Hull as to the identity of the mystery bidder(s) with suggestions including possible American involvement. The administrators, however, refuse to comment.

John Cooper: “No one knew who it was and there was a bit of wild speculation as to who it might be. Thankfully, I had built up some decent contacts and managed to find out the new owners were definitely English and from somewhere in the north. I felt reassured by that, even if at that stage I didn’t know who it was.”

FEBRUARY 24 2001

With City’s future possibly secured but the fans no nearer to discovering who is involved, Barnet travel to Boothferry Park and are beaten 2-1 by the Tigers. The result means City have won all five of their games in Division Three this month, a feat that later wins Little the Manager of the Month award for February.

Brian Little: “I have to give credit to the players for how they performed during a very difficult time. They were magnificent. The spirit and togetherness was great. As a group, we tried to make light of a very difficult situation. For example, we used to travel to away games in this battered old bus and the radiators leaked. It became a standing joke among the lads as to whether we could get to the next service station to re-fill the radiator before all the water ran out. It’s things like that which make me look back with great fondness on my time at Hull City.”

MARCH 8 2001

Two days after a 1-0 home win over Halifax Town moves City up to eighth in the table, fans breathe a huge sigh of relief when the sale of the club to the mystery party is approved at a meeting of creditors and shareholders. Earlier, there had been a fear the deal would be blocked when former chairman Buchanan threatened to abstain if not told the identity of the bidders. In response, administrator Mike Moore had told the CVA meeting: “I could explain why confidentiality has been insisted on but that would give a clue as to their identity. I am not prepared to do that. If their names come out, there is a real danger they will walk away. If that happens, the club that everyone has fought so hard to save would go out of business.”

John Cooper: “I was a creditor by this stage because I had spent some of my own money on things like machinery and so on to make sure we could get games on. It is not something I make a big thing of because it was my decision to do so. But it meant I was sitting in the creditors’ meeting when the decision was taken to vote in favour of the new owners. We still didn’t know the identity of the new owner or owners but there was a sense that the club would be able to start moving forward.”

MARCH 12 2001

Adam Pearson, Leeds United’s 36-year-old commercial director, is revealed as the club’s new owner. At his first press conference, Pearson reveals the club’s debts of £1.5m have been cleared, the players’ outstanding wages paid and that a new company, Hull City AFC (Tigers Ltd) has been set up. He also confirms talks over the possibility of building a new stadium in the city were planned.

John Cooper: “Everything changed at the club when Adam came in. He brought a work ethic to the club and really drove things forward. The timing was perfect. I know the City Council wanted someone they could trust and Adam was perfect. The money was there and Adam arriving helped turn the KC Stadium into reality. From that, we have had the football club’s success, the rugby club’s success and huge gigs being played.”

Tomorrow: Adam Pearson looks back on his Hull career.