Tales From Football History: Over There In Barry Town, They Do Things Very Strange
This week we're off to Wales for the story of the rise, the fall and the rise again of the club that came to be known as the Welsh Wimbledon.
When the Football Association of Wales decided that it needed its own domestic league competition in the early 1990s, one of the clubs that signed up to join believed that, by turning fully professional, they could dominate the domestic scene and use this as a springboard to compete in European competition as well.
This club was domestically successful for a few years, but the financial model was built on sand. The arrival of a new owner would set in motion a chain of events that, along with the weird intransigence of the governing body when the club was really on their knees, would nearly kill them altogether.
It's a story of systematic failure on the part of owners whose custodianship failed, and of an entire football association that turned its back on one of its member clubs in its hour of need. It's a story of outlandish claims and ambition that bordered on delusional.
But this is also a love story. A story of a group of supporters who never gave up on their club, who could see a different future for it and who would go on to demonstrate that there is a very different way of doing things in which a club can actually thrive in a commercially challenging environment.
Sometimes, cliché is almost impossible to avoid. Barry is a town of 50,000 people which sits in the Vale of Glamorgan, to the south side of the valleys and just over nine miles from Cardiff. It's home to the Barry Island Peninsula, which was first connected to the rest of the town by train in 1896 and which would go on to boom as a holiday resort, reaching its peak popularity in the 1930s. More recently, of course, it was the part-setting for the BBC sitcom Gavin and Stacey.
Barry's first football team was founded in 1892, but after decades of a transient and stop-start formations, a public meeting held in 1912 confirmed that the club would apply to join the Southern League as Barry AFC, playing at the newly built Jenner Park, named for the family who had gifted the land upon which it was built. Barry AFC played their first Southern League match against Mid Rhondda on the 6th September 1913. War intervened, and the Southern League was suspended in 1915.
But the period immediately after the end of hostilities in 1918 proved to be fruitful for the club, who won the Welsh section of the Southern League in 1921 and and only narrowly missed out on being voted into the Football League that summer, losing out to Charlton Athletic and Aberdare Athletic, the latter of whom would only last six years in the league themselves before narrowly and somewhat controversially being voted out in 1927.
For the next six decades, Barry AFC, who would change their name to Barry Town in 1945, would be stalwart members of the Southern League. They wouldn't repeat the feat of winning the league title again, but they did give the occasional Football League side a run for the money in the FA Cup, beating Chester 4-3 in 1955. When they fell into the regional football of the Welsh League in 1982, it was because of the floodlights at Jenner Park, which had been amongst the first to be installed in the whole of the UK in 1949, were no longer up to standard. At least their demotion wasn’t due to anything that happened on the pitch.
The Welsh League of that time is not to be confused with the current Cymru Premier League, and Barry played at this reduced level for six years before bringing their facilities up to scratch and being allowed to join the Midland Division of the Southern League in 1988. It proved to be a brief stay, though, for circumstances beyond the club's control. In October 1991, Alan Evans, the secretary of the Football Association of Wales, announced that a new national league for Wales, the League of Wales, would be starting from the beginning of the following season.
The FAW decided to allow the remaining football league clubs in Wales to continue to play in the English league system, but gave the non-league clubs playing in the English league system Bangor City, Barry Town, Caernarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Newtown and Rhyl the ultimatum of joining the Welsh football league system or continuing to play in the English system but being forced to play all their home matches on English soil.
The Irate Eight, as they became known, appealed against this decision, arguing that they should be able to play wherever they wished. With the exception of Merthyr Tydfil, who were playing in the Football Conference, all were told that they must join the new League. Of the Eight, only Bangor City, Newtown and Rhyl decided to join the League of Wales, although Rhyl's application was late, meaning they were forced to play in the Cymru Alliance, a division below, for a season.
The remaining five clubs, dubbed the Exiles, continued to play in the English system. Barry Town groundshared with Worcester City and continued to play in the Southern Football League Midland Division for a year before chairman Neil O'Halloran decided that the team's best interests would be best served by joining the Welsh League system after all.
The club joined the Welsh League Division One for the 1993/94 season. It was the start of a period during which they would come to would dominate the domestic football scene in Wales. At the end of their first year, they won the Welsh League Championship, the Welsh League Cup, the FAW Trophy and Welsh Cup, in which they beat Cardiff City in the final at Cardiff Arms Park in front of a crowd of 16,000. This qualified Barry for the following year's European Cup Winners' Cup, though they would fall at the first hurdle in Europe to Zalgiris Vilnius, losing 7-0 on aggregate.
In the summer of 1995, O'Halloran decided to turn the club professional, the first club in the League of Wales to do so. The first season, however, would be bittersweet in the about most extreme manner possible. On the one hand, the club won the League of Wales at a canter by 17 points from second place Newtown. But this season was also irreversibly scarred by the deaths of O'Halloran in October 1995 and of young midfielder Matthew Holtham in October 1996, both in road accidents. Neil O'Halloran's wife Pauline took over the running of the club following his death.
There would be further European ties in the coming years. The following season, Aberdeen were held to 3-3 in the UEFA Cup, although Barry lost on aggregate. Five years later in 2001 they beat Porto 3-1, although this admittedly was after having lost the first leg 8-0 in Portugal. Three years after that, Jose Mourinho's Porto lifted the Champions League. Dynamo Kiev and Boavista would also both visit Jenner Park during this period.
Domestically, the team sparkled. Seven league titles followed in the next eight seasons along with four more Welsh Cups and four more League of Wales Cups. The last of these titles came in 2003. The problem was that the club had become reliant on revenue from European runs that weren't generating enough money.
Barry Town had effectively been speculating in order to accumulation, and the accumulation had never turned up. Playing in the Welsh Premier League in front of three-figure attendances, with an annual foray into European competition tacked onto the side, would likely have been achievable, had the club remained part-time.
But while paying full-time wages might have more or less guaranteed winning the domestic league in Wales almost every season, it didn't seem to make any difference in European competition, where Barry regularly missed out on lucrative draws in the early stages of the competitions, while they couldn’t maintain their European runs for long enough to make them financially viable that way either.
The income streams required to keep the club's wage bill under control needed to be regular. But while Barry could almost guarantee participation in European competition every season, they couldn't guarantee a good draw or a lengthy run once there. Financial losses grew with every passing year.
Commercial revenues from the domestic campaigns failed to match wage costs that were growing with every passing season. Trickle-down inflation was filtering down through the entire game in England, Scotland and Wales as a result of the vast increases in money coming into the English game following the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
On top of this, the club was, despite its success on the pitch, struggling for crowds. In a town with a population of 50,000 and Cardiff just nine miles up the road, Barry were never going to attract huge crowds. A mid-range non-league football club in the English system is what they had been until the 1990s, and’s what they still resembled, in most respects.
The sums simply didn't add up. This size of club couldn't support this size of wage buzzer, European football or not. In 2001, Paula O'Halloran quit her position and handed the reins over to a new CEO, Kevin Green, formerly of Scarborough, and he in turn turned to...
It's difficult to say whether the arrival of John Fashanu at Barry Town was ever even intended as anything more than a publicity stunt, and with hindsight, it definitely feels as though that was its only significant effect. Fashanu arrived at Jenner Park in a blaze of publicity, claming that he would unearth undiscovered Craig Bellamys, along with others from Africa and China. There was scepticism from the outset about Fashanu's motivations for becoming involved with the club, but his time at Barry only proved to be brief.
He had already been chosen as a guest for ITV's second series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here when he arrived at the club, and when that aired at the end of April 2003, Fashanu's profile rose considerably after he finished in second place behind the former cricketer Phil Tufnell. Re-hired by ITV, Fashanu hadn't delivered on any of his outlandish promises at Barry and left.
In August 2003, the club collapsed under the weight of its own contractions into administration with debts of £900,000. The cost-cutting was savage. All of the club's players had to be released, and the team would now come from a local amateur club instead. Barry were unable to win a single league match until February 2004, but by this time the club were under new ownership again
Nobody knew very much about Stuart Lovering when he arrived at Jenner Park in December 2003, but there was gratitude that someone had at least stepped in to save the club from what seemed like almost certain liquidation. And he said the right things from the outset, stating that the loss of a football club is one of the most devastating events which can happen to a community, and promising that Barry would be run properly to ensure that these problems would never happen again.
It wasn't long, however, before the cracks started to show.
Three months in Lovering, apparently oblivious to the existence of Swansea City in one direction and Cardiff City in the other, as well as the hold still held by Rugby Union over South Wales, stated that he intended to build a 40,000 capacity stadium, and that with the right marketing, he could turn Barry Town into a club the size of Real Sociedad.
Two months later, Barry Town were relegated from the Welsh Premier League after having accumulated just 16 points from their 32 league matches, four points adrift in the only relegation place at the bottom of the table. Even the end of this season was shrouded in more attention-grabbing controversy, when Lovering announced that he intended to play in their last league match of the season. He didn’t, in the end.
This eccentricity continued into the summer, with claims that he would appeal the club’s relegation on account of their size of the club. He raised season ticket prices to the highest in the Welsh pyramid, and not much below those sold by Cardiff City. He took £4,000 raised by the Supporters Club and disbanded it, claiming that he would start his own instead.
On the eve of the start of the new season, he fired veteran manager Colin Addison, who he himself had appointed earlier in the year in a desperate roll of the dice to avoid relegation. Addison, who had been the player-manager of the Hereford United team that beat Newcastle United in the FA Cup in 1972, had performed admirably under the circumstances. But the damage done by the first half of the season was too great to recover from.
Lovering appointed his assistant David Hughes to replace him. Despite lower attendances and the malign ownership, Hughes got the team into a position from which they might have been able to launch a challenge for promotion, only to have the rug pulled from under his feet when, in November 2004, Lovering slashed his wage budget. He resigned.
Meanwhile, a district valuer had determined that the club should pay £42,000 in rent and rates each season for the remainder of its lease to the local council, who owned and managed Jenner Park on behalf of the townspeople. Believing the figure to have been unfairly based on the club's former professional status, Lovering decided instead to move the club to the White Tip Stadium in Treforest, 45 miles from Barry, in January 2005. This was enough for some supporters, who broke away to form their own club, Barry FC. Barry Town, meanwhile, would stay in Treforest until May 2006.
The club's fortunes began to improve again in 2007, with the appointment of new manager Gavin Chesterfield after a further relegation. Chesterfield led Barry to promotion in 2008, and in December of that year, at a meeting at Jenner Park following Lovering's first threat to withdraw the club from the league altogether, it was agreed that the Barry Town Supporters Committee would run the club while Lovering focused on securing a buyer for it.
Lovering's eccentricities, however, continued to both embarrass and endanger the club on a regular basis. Bids to buy them collapsed regularly on account of his insufferability, which ranged from constantly upping the asking price after someone expressed an interest in buying it to drawing up a contract which would leave him in control of the club following its sale.
Following another Lovering announcement of his intent to withdraw Barry's first team from senior football in 2011, the Barry Town Supporters Committee took on complete control of all football and its funding. The club's fortunes took an upswing on the pitch, away from only chaos reigned. Bills went unpaid, the website and telephone were cut off for non-payment. Chesterfield was sacked in December 2012, only to ignore the decision and carry on managing the first team regardless.
Lovering installed himself as the club secretary, but failed to carry out the most basic of tasks such as arranging matches and attending meetings, leading to fines stacking up that the supporters committee had to pay. And in May 2013, despite having a full squad of players available for a match against Tom Pentre, Lovering contacted the opposition to forfeit the game, as well as the referee, the league itself and the Vale of Glamorgan Council to notify them that the match would not be taking place.
A week later, Stuart Lovering withdrew Barry Town from the league altogether. There was an immediate outcry and the Supporters Committee vowed immediately to continue, adding the suffix ‘United’ to their name. If Lovering wanted out, he could go whenever he pleased. Barry Town would be Barry Town United and continue without him.
A meeting of the FAW Council determined that the team would have to play recreational football instead, but after the anger over what was happening to the club hit fever pitch, a second meeting was arranged to hear new evidence as to why the team should be allowed to continue. This second meeting, however, turned out to be a farce.
Fifteen Football Association of Wales councillors voted against discussing Barry's future, ending the meeting after just five minutes. It later emerged that this decision had gone against the recommendations of the FAW's domestic committee and legal team. The club took immediate legal action. At the High Court on 9th August 2013, they argued that they were entitled to be a part of the league, simply because they fulfilled the FAW's membership criteria.
Their barrister, Jonathan Crystal, told the court that Lovering had had no involvement in running the club for two seasons before he decided to withdraw them from the league in May. The FAW should not have accepted the resignation because Mr Lovering's limited company, Barry Town AFC Limited, did not in reality constitute the football club.
Crystal also said that over the coming season, Barry Town United would be playing at the same ground, under the same lease, with the same manager and the same players, in front of the same supporters, with the bills and fees being paid by the same people. The FAW countered by arguing that it was normal at that level of the game for supporters to fund the liabilities of a club, but that this did not give them the right to assume the legal identity of it.
Two days later, the court delivered its verdict. Judge Seys Llywelyn QC ruled that the FAW Council had acted unlawfully in refusing Barry Town full FAW membership and entry into the Welsh League in June of that year. Their decision was, according to the judge, flawed and irrational. His recommendation to the council was to admit Barry Town United to Division Three of the Welsh League system.
The FAW had little choice but to abide by the decision of the court. A fan-owned Barry Town United was re-admitted to the Welsh League for the start of the 2013/14 season. Their first two seasons ended in league titles, Divisions Three and Two of the Welsh League. Division One proved to be a little more of a challenge, and in their first season at this level, they were pipped to the league title and promotion by Cardiff Met University. But this was rectified at the end of the 2016/17 season. Barry Town United were back in the Welsh Premier League.
This version of the club is very different to those which preceded it. Barry Town United run development, youth and junior teams, along with various women's teams and pan-disability sides in over and under 16 age groups. It is a football club as a hub of its community, owned and run by its supporters, aware of its limitations in terms of size and committed to living within its means, whatever they may be. And the success on the pitch has continued.
At the end of their first season in the Welsh Premier League, Barry Town United finished in 7th place in the table. But in 2019 they rose to 3rd place and this returned them to European football. On 27th June 2019, they played a goalless draw against the Belfast-based club Cliftonville. They lost the return leg 4-0, but to be back in the Europa League as a stably run community club was a remarkable achievement in itself.
Barry Town aren't the only Welsh Premier League club to have been torn limb from limb by owners whose intentions were unclear in recent years either. Bangor City were another of the Irate Eight, but they joined the League of Wales upon receiving the calling of the FAW. They were in freefall following the involvement of the Vaughan family, with supporters having broken away to form a new club. It can be difficult to draw firm conclusions concerning those who run football clubs into the ground.
Some might argue that Stuart Lovering, with his belief that Barry Town could fill a 40,000 capacity stadium, was delusional. But why did he outstay his welcome? He could always have just walked away. The council owned the ground and volunteers were running the club. Was pride the only reason he stayed?
But what happened over the years at Jenner Park is also part of a broader story. The first supporters to vote as a trust to break away from an existing club and form their own was Enfield Town in 2001 and they, along with AFC Wimbledon, FC United of Manchester and others, set a template for clubs whose supporters are at the end of their tether.
At Enfield, it was dissatisfaction at the club's ground being sold and no replacement being built for it. At Wimbledon, it was the franchising of the club to Milton Keynes and a desire to keep football in its local area. At FC United of Manchester, it was anger over the purchase of Manchester United by the Glazer family feeding into a broader dissatisfaction at the state of modern Premier League football.
The experiences of these clubs has proved that, whilst there is a common ground upon which they all eventually meet, there is no one way in which a football club ends up under the ownership of a supporters' trust. Every single club has its own story to tell, and their existence proves that for every malign or incompetent club owner,
There are dozens of people who will work tirelessly and in the best faith possible to save their football club and breathe new life into it. Barry Town United also have other local clubs that are owned under similar structures. Both Newport County and Merthyr Town are owned by their supporters trusts and this national network of clubs is important.
Trust owned clubs offer valuable support to new trusts that are looking to form or take over their own clubs. The story of Barry Town United, however, should remind us of one salutary truth that has run through the game in recent years. When owners, regardless of intention, make a mess of things, the fans are often the only people you can trust to sort things out once the fantasy daydreams have ended and the cold light of day has set in.
The accompanying image, by Jon Candy, is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.