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Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Twenty Two Years Ago This Week - Turner Buys Hereford

Back in January 1998, Graham Turner bought enough shares in Hereford United to take control of the club.

It happened just a couple of weeks after Hereford were knocked out of the FA Cup by Tranmere. The revenue from that game allowed the players to be paid but life was tough at Edgar Street.

A look back at three articles from that time.

Jan 23rd 1998

HEREFORD United director of football Graham Turner yesterday took control of the cash-stricken club reports the Birmingham Post.

Turner has become the new majority shareholder at Edgar Street and will replace long serving chairman Peter Hill.

After a traumatic week during which the Vauxhall Conference side narrowly avoided a winding-up petition and earned the positive backing of their creditors, the club have now welcomed their new chairman.

Turner said: "I decided that something needed to be done to give the club a future and I made the chairman an offer yesterday.

"Obviously there is a lot to be done to secure the future of the club. Now we have to decide where we go from here.

"The Board will be reconstructed and I will be talking to other people to bring them on board. The intention remains to get Hereford back into the Football League.

"I don't see myself as chairman but I shall be looking to bring in some financial clout. A large part of why I want to take a more active part is the continued support by supporters."

Hill will remain as chairman until third party funding is in place before handing over the reins to the former Aston Villa and Wolves boss, who took over at Edgar Street in 1995.

"I believe after going down to the Vauxhall Conference we must re-group and look to the future. And I do believe there should be a new chairman," said Hill.

"Yesterday I had a proposal and I believed it would be for the future benefit of Hereford United."


Jan 26th 1998

GRAHAM Turners takeover of Hereford United has been given the seal of approval by Mike Quarrel, the chairman of the Independent Supporters Association.

Turner, the former Aston Villa and Wolves manager, has acquired a major share holding of 14,000 shares in the Vauxhall Conference club after agreeing to buy out existing chairman Peter Hill and Cosworth development.

Quarrell whose organisation had been campaigning for the resignation of chairman Hill said, "We feel Mr Turner has the overwhelming levels of support and his last-minute bid for control demonstrated his commitment. He is arguably the only man who can unite the board, the supporters and local authority and commercial sector who must all work together to keep the club afloat."

Turner, who effectively took control last Thursday, will now be meeting all sections of the community in a bid to rejuvenate the club who lost the football league status last season.

Already £1 million in the red, Hereford lost another £1,000 when their match at Gateshead was postponed on Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.


Jan 29th 1998

HEREFORD UNITED manager Graham Turner may need never fear the dreaded vote of confidence from his chairman again according to the Daily Mail. He has come up with a foolproof way of beating the sack - by buying the club.

After weeks of uncertainty in which the former Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers boss had to take a wage cut and his players did not get paid because of Hereford's cash crisis, Turner took the bull by the horns and mounted his own takeover bid.

With the help of an unnamed backer, he bought a controlling interest (The ownership of a quantity of outstanding corporate stock sufficient to control the actions of the firm. Controlling interest often involves ownership of significantly less than 51% of a firm's outstanding stock because many owners fail) in the Vauxhall Conference outfit - who suffered relegation from the Nationwide League last season - and hopes soon to have a football club to call his own.

'The offer has been accepted and if all the legal matters are cleared, the changeover should take place in about six weeks,' he said.