City's "Fan On The Board"

[baildon blue]

YES francis lee made quite a few mistakes as chairman like sacking brian horton who did a fair job and getting alan ball in.But a lot of is misfortune was down SWALES who destroyed MANCHESTER CITY as a big club in is 20 years

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

YES francis lee made quite a few mistakes as chairman like sacking brian horton who did a fair job and getting alan ball in.But a lot of is misfortune was down SWALES who destroyed MANCHESTER CITY as a big club in is 20 years

Frannie should have manned up and jumped off the Kippax stand roof like he said he would if we were relegated. It could have been do safely and he could have raised some brass for local charities

 

[adders junior]

Still have an old match programme with a "Swales Out - Lee In" sticker that I stuck on the front of the programme.

 

[Ray78]

Frannie Lee did not have the funds to help us and just added the mess Swales left behind. The only right decision he made was to secure the lease of the Etihad.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Frannie Lee did not have the funds to help us and just added the mess Swales left behind. The only right decision he made was to secure the lease of the Etihad.

Did he though? I remember it was Bernstein on the pitch walking up to a table and signing the agreement.

 

[petrusha]

Frannie Lee did not have the funds to help us and just added the mess Swales left behind. The only right decision he made was to secure the lease of the Etihad.

Did he though? I remember it was Bernstein on the pitch walking up to a table and signing the agreement.

The lease for the stadium was signed in August 1999 by Bernstein, on the pitch before the first home game of the season against Wolves (our return to the second tier after the one season in the third).

But yes, a lot of groundwork had been going on under Franny. IIRC, Manchester was awarded the right to host the Commonwealth Games 2002 back in 1995, and in 1995/6 was also bidding against Wembley and a number of other bidders for the national stadium. City were in constant dialogue with the Council throughout that process.

I worked for a law firm in Manc at this time and we were advising Colin Barlow on the above. I can assure you that the discussions were definitely happening. City were very keen to be a part of any new stadium, and the fact that there was a viable tenant desperate to be involved was a huge help to the Council in discussions with central government and Sport England.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

I do remember that one thing which contributed to the breakdown of the relationship between Dave and the club was the comment he offered to one of the tabloids when Alan Ball was appointed. He wasn't directly critical, but his rather guarded tone and reference to Ball's past record didn't meet the approval of some in the boardroom, it seemed. (Nor do I recall Dave ever suggesting he was misquoted).

Yea, I think he mentioned how Ball had relegated 3 of the 4 clubs he'd managed at the time (or whatever the ridiculous statistic was). What he also commented on though was how Ball had got the best out of Le Tissier and how he hoped he might be able to get the best out of Kinky, but the paper cut that bit out. Franny Lee obviously didn't like the comments and the relationship went downhill sharpish from there

 

[BTH]

Part of Franny Lee's big con to make money out of a Manchester City floatation, by ousting Swales using us fans, was that he promised us that the board would include one fan. Who remembers this debacle? It was presented as the democratisation of Manchester City, a great step forward for football.

Once Franny was in he had to carry this through and it was oh-so-typical City. The first set of problems occurred when it came to selecting the candidates. I can't remember the detail but an almighty row erupted (as was the norm) in the fanzines. Others will have clearer memories but it came back to the raw hatred which existed between Noel Bayley of BTH and Dave Wallace of KOTK. I think each accused the other of dirty tricks in an attempt to achieve this position. In the event it went down to a ballot in the program, and I think Noel may have pulled out by this point. As it was, Dave Wallace won and was installed as "fan on the board".

Anyone in business will know what a daft idea this was, and so it proved. I am sure that Wallace found himself effectively sitting in the corridor for most of these meetings whilst the serious stuff was discussed, then wheeled in for a five minute AOB about pies at the end. After a short period of time and some bitter accusations, the whole thing was quietly shelved.

"Fan on The Board" summed up the smoke and mirrors of Franny Lee's Chairmanship and the divisions and bitchiness at the heart of our club throughout that period. One of many skeletons in the club's cupboard.

I never applied for or wanted to be FOTB. I didn't pull out; I was never involved in it at any point. Dave claimed he hadn't applied, but everyone wanted him to do it anyway; later his son told me he had applied. I don't know whether he did or he didn't apply. I don't know who the other candidate/s were, how the voting worked or anything else about it TBH. It remains a mystery to me.

My point was - and remains, all these years later - that I think it should have been an open contest for anyone who wanted to be involved, like a political contest. It would have been radical for a club of our size and generated a pile of good media attention at a time when we could have done with some...

Edit: missed Phil's comments on page 1 first time around. That sounds familiar now re the other candidates. I'd forgotten who they were.

Re the second year. As my own fanzine was going to print, I rang the club up to ask them who'd won the election (a two-horse race between Dave Wallace and Mark Bittner, as I recall). They told me it hadn't been decided. I asked what needed to be decided given that it was a vote and it was made pretty clear that it was the chairman's decision. The idea was swiftly dropped and so there was no second year for the FOTB.