Bart Bull (https://twitter.com/BartBull72) poses a question:
Who do you support? A question that any football fan will answer unwaveringly, albeit sometimes with multiple teams. But what is the entity that you actual support?
Is the entity defined as a team with a particular badge on their shirts? A team who have a particular home stadium? A team that represents a particular limited company? A team with a particular location in their name? Or something more complicated and nebulous?
I used to think that my answer was simple: Hereford United FC Ltd 1939. I've come to realise that I was wrong. The past glories are not encapsulated in the company, but the players and people of Hereford.
My team is one that encapsulates a certain spirit and ethos. A team where the behaviours of the players, staff and fans all pull in one direction to be the best they can and acting at all times with integrity. A team that does not compromise on fair play and serving the community that it represents. Events of recent months have shown that HUFCL1939 is no longer this team.
If the only problems were bad management, debt and bad results I'd continue with HUFCL1939, even led by Keyte. Incompetence and bungling behaviours are not, after all, a crime, just human frailty. Keyte I have no doubt started with the right intentions and I actually feel sorry for the part of him that is a fan.
The real problems lie in the appalling treatment of staff, players, fans and the community, and company ownership with dubious personalities who clearly have only self aggrandisement and personal profit as goals. I am ashamed to have any association with a club where broken promises, worthless assurances and lies are now tools of the trade.
I salute the 2013-14 players and managers for keeping the team out of the relegation zone. I salute the selfless backroom staff. I weep at the pain and mistreatment of all the employees. HUFCL1939 lives as a company, but the spirit of Hereford United the team no longer resides there.
It's time for HUFCL1939 to have the Edgar Street leases, for which the rent hasn't been paid anyway, to be removed from them with immediate effect. The ground belongs to the community, one company does not have universal rights to it. After that the company should be wound up and the best done for the creditors from any assets that haven't already been pilfered.
I feel sure that even we yokels and bumpkins in Herefordshire have sufficient about us to quickly form a new team capable of delivering on our ideals and ethos, returning the Edgar Street ground and football in Hereford to the community in the process. In fact, we don't need to wait for HUFCL1939 to formally breathe it's last. Let's do it now.
The new team name will have Hereford in it, I care not what the words we put around it are. It's the people and spirit that count.