Bernard Halford

[paulchapo]

Rather than a lapdog, more chief spy.

Responsible for so many bad things about the Club during his time.

City's new regime felt they needed to acknowledge his longevity without any knowledge of what he got up to.

A ****, and I don't say it lightly about someone who is passed away.

The ticket office was an utter shambles under his tenure. The fiasco of the sale of the Gillingham play off final tickets summed it up. Work commitments aside I'd been home and away supporting us that season when the club needed us the most. In fact they'd literally begged us not to desert them. A hard core of 28,000 of us did, which could swell to 35,000 for key games. So I should have had no problem getting a ticket for Wembley then, considering we were getting 46,000 tickets.....wrong! The club decided we had to go to the ground to buy a ticket. A bit hard to do when I was 300 miles away working on a ship and didn't get off until the Wednesday before the final. As soon as I heard I continually phoned the ticket office every day. All I got was an engaged tone. It was the same for every bloody number at the club. The inevitable happened and we sold out. Being in Kent I thought I'd pop into Gillingham on the way home and buy one for their end but unbelievably they sold out their allocation as well.
Luckily after a desperate search and numerous phone calls I managed to get one last minute from Sue Wallace.
As you say I also don't like to speak ill of the dead and the man did work at the club for years but he was an utter disaster at the job he did.

 

[spiny]

I know there is a faction who portray Peter Swales as a some kind of martyr who died for his love of Manchester City and his quest to catch up with ManU. I've yet to read any facts to support this and anything beyond his self interest.

They forget the fact is that we were a dominant force in football when he took over and he oversaw a steady decline almost ending in oblivion. It was a time of cash, brown envelopes and backhanders, leaching cash from the club to which Halford was a party and continued to the end of his days at City.

Financial reporting was more "flexible" then. No wonder local businessmen sought ownership of their local cash cow club. Here was a cash extraction business with little scrutiny. Forget the myth that owners were fans like Blackburns Jack Walker, who knew, invested and played the game.

Easier for our new owners not to rake up the muck that serves no purpose. That is not to say us fans should not remember Halford as an acolyte of Swales who colluded in the financial bleeding and demise of City during their tenure. Never forget.

Bernard Halford = Mr Manchester City. Not for me.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

What was even worse was the previous home game against Palace was given as a 33k attendance yet the Bournemouth game was far fuller, absolute joke most attendances during the 80's and 90's.

And to be pedantic I think our capacity at the time was circa 52k, Platt Lane held around 9k so the crowd was probably even bigger than you suggested. It certainly wasn't 30k.

I seem to recall the capacity being reduced after the publication of the Taylor Report, especially the area around the Platt Lane-Main Stand(Apple Pie Corner), which had wooden floorboards.

We got 48,000 against United just a few months after the Bradford Fire, but by the time we played Liverpool in 87-88 and United in 89-80 the capacity was circa 45,000.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The ticket office was an utter shambles under his tenure. The fiasco of the sale of the Gillingham play off final tickets summed it up. Work commitments aside I'd been home and away supporting us that season when the club needed us the most. In fact they'd literally begged us not to desert them. A hard core of 28,000 of us did, which could swell to 35,000 for key games. So I should have had no problem getting a ticket for Wembley then, considering we were getting 46,000 tickets.....wrong! The club decided we had to go to the ground to buy a ticket. A bit hard to do when I was 300 miles away working on a ship and didn't get off until the Wednesday before the final. As soon as I heard I continually phoned the ticket office every day. All I got was an engaged tone. It was the same for every bloody number at the club. The inevitable happened and we sold out. Being in Kent I thought I'd pop into Gillingham on the way home and buy one for their end but unbelievably they sold out their allocation as well.
Luckily after a desperate search and numerous phone calls I managed to get one last minute from Sue Wallace.
As you say I also don't like to speak ill of the dead and the man did work at the club for years but he was an utter disaster at the job he did.

My dad queued for 8 hours.

 

[Bluemanc100]

RIP Bernard

 

[horlock_was_super]

Well. This thread is an eye opener.
His widow was on the Ian Cheeseman vlog a couple of weeks back and Cheesy was all about cuddly Uncle Bernard with her.
I always thought the anti Bernard stuff was tongue in cheek to be honest - bloody hell I always thought it was down to that twat swales and him alone.
Every day’s a school day.

 

[Eds]

I seem to recall the capacity being reduced after the publication of the Taylor Report, especially the area around the Platt Lane-Main Stand(Apple Pie Corner), which had wooden floorboards.

We got 48,000 against United just a few months after the Bradford Fire, but by the time we played Liverpool in 87-88 and United in 89-80 the capacity was circa 45,000.

Memory obviously hazy but you might be right. What I do remember is years of crowds being fiddled

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The ticket office was an utter shambles under his tenure. The fiasco of the sale of the Gillingham play off final tickets summed it up. Work commitments aside I'd been home and away supporting us that season when the club needed us the most. In fact they'd literally begged us not to desert them. A hard core of 28,000 of us did, which could swell to 35,000 for key games. So I should have had no problem getting a ticket for Wembley then, considering we were getting 46,000 tickets.....wrong! The club decided we had to go to the ground to buy a ticket. A bit hard to do when I was 300 miles away working on a ship and didn't get off until the Wednesday before the final. As soon as I heard I continually phoned the ticket office every day. All I got was an engaged tone. It was the same for every bloody number at the club. The inevitable happened and we sold out. Being in Kent I thought I'd pop into Gillingham on the way home and buy one for their end but unbelievably they sold out their allocation as well.
Luckily after a desperate search and numerous phone calls I managed to get one last minute from Sue Wallace.
As you say I also don't like to speak ill of the dead and the man did work at the club for years but he was an utter disaster at the job he did.

Gillingham - average gate around 6000 - allowed season ticket.hokders to buy up to 10 tickets each and anyone with a Kent postcode could buy a ticket.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Memory obviously hazy but you might be right. What I do remember is years of crowds being fiddled

@Scaring Europe to Death
Maybe @Gary James can help.
The Hillsborough disaster was only a few weeks before the Bournemouth game but I seem to recall instantly capacities of large terraces were cut. That's why I think the capacity went from 52 to 48 in between the two games.
Happy to be corrected.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Bluemoon at its finest.