f**k off Bill....!
Fotherby now dreaming of return to Elland Road
Since taking on the role of football missionary in a town steeped in rugby union, Bill Fotherby estimates he has spent somewhere in the region of £400,000.
To many, such an outlay would be considered borderline madness. To a self-confessed football addict, however, it is money well spent. What price, the flamboyant chairman of Harrogate Town suggests, can be put on happiness?
By Saturday, such an investment could even be considered to be cheap at twice the price if, as Fotherby is fervently hoping, his club earn a place in the FA Cup first round proper by beating neighbours Harrogate Railway and then land Leeds United in the tea-time draw.
Not only would this be a welcome money-spinner for the Conference North leaders, it would also hand the Town chairman a long overdue return to a club where he spent 15 years as a member of the board.
He explained: "This tie is wonderful news for Harrogate football because it means one of us will be in the first round proper. Of course, we hope that team is us.
"Football is in the blood and I love it so I have been counting the days ever since the draw was made. It is the dream draw for Harrogate football."When I first came here, one thing I tried to do was make football more high profile because this has always been a rugby town.
"Can you imagine the level of interest if we could beat Railway and then draw Leeds? It would be the biggest ever thing to happen to sport in this town."
Harrogate probably could not have a better promoter of football than Fotherby who, during his time at Elland Road, forged a formidable reputation for both courting publicity and being a tough negotiator.
It was Fotherby who earned backpage headlines around the world in the Eighties after announcing his attention to sign Maradona, though just how keen the Argentinian fresh from a World Cup win was on a move to the Second Division will forever remain a mystery.
There was also much talk of Europe's biggest names being "on the verge" of moving to Elland Road as Fotherby jetted round the continent only for talks to stall at the last minute.
What is not in doubt, however, is that Leeds blossomed from also-rans to league title winners thanks, in no small part, to his now legendary business acumen and negotiating skills.
Gordon Strachan, for instance, once revealed how Fotherby was such a good salesman that during talks over a new contract the Scot ended up leaving the meeting owing the club money after being persuaded to buy three season tickets for his family. Fotherby recalls: "Those were great days but I get the same thrill from the game now as I did back then.
"People asked me when I came to Harrogate 'why do you bother, Bill?' and it has probably cost me somewhere in the region of £400,000.
"But football is in my blood and I love it. It is an addiction. When I came here, I said 'I have a dream – I have been to the top of the mountain and seen it from there, now I want to see it from the other angle'.
"We have had five excellent seasons and the current run is unbelievable. To be top of the league and five points ahead of a club such as Kettering who have gates of 2,000 and last week were able to bid £20,000 for a striker, is wonderful.
"We are breaking all kinds of records and it makes me very proud to know Harrogate Town are one of only a handful of clubs in the whole country who are still unbeaten."
After an amazing start that has yielded 35 points from the opening 13 games, promotion to top flight of non-League football is a very real target for Neil Aspin's side.
The priority this weekend, however, is progressing to the first round proper of the FA Cup for only the third time in the club's history by beating their neighbours, who reached the first round in 2002, at Station View.
Fotherby said: "Of course, it is the dream of every team in the fourth qualifying round to get through and then draw Leeds. We are no different.
"I know Ken Bates from the old days when he was at Oldham and am really pleased to see things going so well.
"I have not been back since being forced out (in 1997) as chairman but I watch Leeds whenever they are on television. It was awful to watch everything we had built up just slip away a few years ago due to rank, bad management.
"When I was there, we kept hold of the purse strings – it is the only way to do it – but they lost sight of that. Incompetence was what brought Leeds down but it is great to see them bouncing back.
"Now, they are getting gates of 30,000 and it would be amazing if, in a couple of weeks' time, Harrogate Town were the team walking out in front of a crowd like that for an FA Cup tie."
YEP
