If you wanna screw a football club...

 ...get a moneybags director!

That was the old adage back in the time when football clubs were competently run by committees under the watchful eye of a chairman. Mostly unpaid in their respective positions, the committee members would take care of the day-to-day running of the football club in their care. The football club, in its infinite wisdom, would never enrol a committee member who was not up to the role of representing the club in whatever capacity.

For about the first one hundred years of organised football, clubs were traditionally owned or run by local businessmen who were either supporters of the club they took control of, or they just wanted to get involved with a project to while away the hours. There was also a third reason; they needed to get away from 'er indoors for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Then, as the years rolled by, one or two football clubs became a bit anxious about falling turnstile receipts, lack of external funding and so on. And so the great crescendo to bring in the money men began. It happened first in earnest in the early 1990s, when several top ranking clubs broke away from the EFL to form the English Premier League. It was to turn into a big money pot, thanks largely to television channels throwing in large chunks of change, from which the very successful clubs would receive a bigger share than the 'also rans' — and the 'peasants' in the lower leagues didn't even get the crumbs.

By the mid-1990s, the money men had started to buy into clubs to get their feet under the table. Some of the clubs were not even fashionable Premier League sides — but they were soon to be. Clubs like Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic became strong and powerful once they had an insurgence of money into their coffers. Blackburn got promoted to the First Division just as it became the Premier League in 1992, promptly winning the title under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish and the goals from Alan Shearer in 1995. However, despite the money flowing in, they still got relegated at the end of the 2011-12 season. Wigan Athletic managed to win the FA Cup after spending 8 seasons in the top flight between 2005 and 2013. But that win came at a cost, as Wigan got relegated back to the Championship at the end of that very same season, the constant cash injection not saving them.

Premier League clubs, since that time, have welcomed new directors with big pockets from such faraway places as the USA and Saudi Arabia. Some clubs have been successful but others have not been so fortunate. Under the ownership of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, Chelsea won more than just a mere sprinkling of silverware. Now that he and his money have gone, Chelsea have in recent times become an average mid-table Premier League club again. Newcastle also had high hopes of winning major trophies by the sackload when a huge investment takeover from the Middle East rolled into town (or should that be toon?). Four years later (as I type this) the Premier League title has still eluded them, but they did win the League Cup, in 2024-25.

Yet it is not just Premier League or even EFL clubs that have had highs and lows with directors and their bulging pockets when they have come in to 'save the club', as several non-League clubs all the way down through the football pyramid have experienced a similar fate. If only they had all left the day to day running of the clubs to the committee members — those who really know how to run a football club — then those clubs that have gone out of business since selling their souls may still be around today to tell the tale.