\u00c1 enska boltanum m\u00e1 finna marga sk\u00farka. S\u00e1 versti og h\u00e6ttulegasti er John Batchelor. Hann hefur n\u00fa skoti\u00f0 upp kollinum eia fer\u00f0ina enn.<\/p>\n
Ma\u00f0ur \u00fearf ekki nema r\u00e9tt a\u00f0 renna augum yfir Wikipediu-f\u00e6rsluna um hr. Batchelor<\/a> til a\u00f0 sj\u00e1 a\u00f0 hann er enginn venjulegur ma\u00f0ur. Hann au\u00f0ga\u00f0ist sem kappakstursma\u00f0ur og eigandi kappakstursli\u00f0a, \u00fear sem allt var falt – \u00fear me\u00f0 tali\u00f0 nafni\u00f0 hans sj\u00e1lfs. \u00deannig keppti hann \u00e1 fyrri hluta ferilsins undir nafninu John Top-Gear en s\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0ar sem John B&Q. \u00dear me\u00f0 var t\u00f3nninn sleginn fyrir \u00fea\u00f0 sem s\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0ar \u00e1tti eftir a\u00f0 gerast.<\/p>\n \u00ed\u0081ri\u00f0 2002 eigna\u00f0ist hr. Batchelor knattspyrnuf\u00e9lagi\u00f0 York City FC fyrir eitt sterlingspund. Hann l\u00e9t breyta nafninu \u00ed\u00ad York City Soccer<\/em> Club, til a\u00f0 gera \u00fea\u00f0 „al\u00fej\u00f3\u00f0legra“ og breytti s\u00f6mulei\u00f0is merkinu \u00e1 \u00feann h\u00e1tt a\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 f\u00e6li \u00ed\u00ad s\u00e9r v\u00ed\u00adsun \u00ed\u00ad kappakstur.<\/p>\n Eftir \u00e1r var f\u00e9lagi\u00f0 komi\u00f0 \u00ed\u00ad grei\u00f0slust\u00f6\u00f0vun. Stu\u00f0ningsmenn li\u00f0sins komu f\u00e9laginu til bjargar og komu \u00ed\u00ad veg fyrir a\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 yr\u00f0i lagt ni\u00f0ur. Til \u00feess \u00feurftu \u00feeir a\u00f0 grei\u00f0a John Batchelor v\u00e6na summu. Stj\u00f3rnart\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0 hans hj\u00e1 York City er eitthvert markvissasta mor\u00f0tilr\u00e6\u00f0i kaups\u00fdslumanns vi\u00f0 enskt knattspyrnuf\u00e9lag \u00ed\u00ad seinni t\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0.<\/p>\n S\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0asta vor reyndi hr. Batchelor a\u00f0 kaupa Mansfield Town – enn eitt f\u00e9lagi\u00f0 sem hefur veri\u00f0 skelfilega \u00f3heppi\u00f0 me\u00f0 eigendur. Fr\u00e9ttirnar v\u00f6ktu mikla athygli, \u00fear sem kaupendurnir v\u00e6ntanlega l\u00e1gu ekki \u00e1 \u00feeim fyrir\u00e6tlunum s\u00ed\u00adnum a\u00f0 breyta nafni f\u00e9lagsins \u00ed\u00ad Harchester United<\/a>, \u00ed\u00ad h\u00f6fu\u00f0i\u00f0 \u00e1 sk\u00e1lda\u00f0a knattspyrnuli\u00f0inu \u00ed\u00ad sj\u00f3nvarpss\u00e1punni „Dream Team“.<\/p>\n Ekkert var\u00f0 \u00far \u00fev\u00ed\u00ad a\u00f0 Batchelor fengi a\u00f0 kaupa Mansfield. \u00de\u00e1 sneri hann s\u00e9r a\u00f0 Accrington Stanley – og n\u00fana s\u00ed\u00ad\u00f0ast Chester City.<\/p>\n Chester er \u00ed\u00ad eigu Stephen Vaughans – sem er ekki f\u00ed\u00adnn papp\u00ed\u00adr. Hann lag\u00f0i \u00e1 s\u00ed\u00adnum t\u00ed\u00adma utandeildarli\u00f0i\u00f0 Barrow n\u00e6stum \u00fev\u00ed\u00ad \u00ed\u00ad r\u00fast peningalega, \u00e1\u00f0ur en hann sneri s\u00e9r a\u00f0 rekstri Chester (sem er fr\u00e6gt fyrir tvennt: a\u00f0 vera gamla li\u00f0 Ians Rush & fyrir a\u00f0 heimav\u00f6llurinn er \u00e1 landam\u00e6rum Englands og Wales. Fyrr \u00e1 \u00feessu \u00e1ri \u00feurfti hann a\u00f0 segja af s\u00e9r stj\u00f3rnarformennsku \u00ed\u00ad f\u00e9laginu, \u00fear sem gefin hefur veri\u00f0 \u00fat opinber k\u00e6ra \u00e1 hendur honum fyrir fj\u00e1rsvik – en hann er \u00fe\u00f3 enn eigandi f\u00e9lagsins.<\/p>\n N\u00fa vill John Batchelor kaupa Chester City og \u00e6tlar a\u00f0 breyta \u00fev\u00ed\u00ad \u00ed\u00ad st\u00f3rt og \u00feekkt v\u00f6rumerki. \u00c1 \u00fev\u00ed\u00ad skyni er hann enn\u00fe\u00e1 spenntur fyrir Harchester-nafninu, me\u00f0 \u00feeim r\u00f6kum a\u00f0 27 \u00fe\u00fasund manns hafi skr\u00e1\u00f0 sig sem „a\u00f0d\u00e1endur“ sj\u00f3nvarpss\u00e1puli\u00f0sins \u00e1 netinu og a\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 s\u00e9 miklu meiri fj\u00f6ldi en m\u00e6ti \u00e1 heimaleiki Chester. Hann telur raunar stu\u00f0ningsmenn Chester vera labbak\u00fata, sem engu m\u00e1li skipti. \u00deeir eigi ekki a\u00f0 hafa meira um \u00fea\u00f0 a\u00f0 segja hvernig f\u00f3tboltaf\u00e9lagi\u00f0 \u00feeirra s\u00e9 reki\u00f0 en t.d. s\u00fapermarka\u00f0urinn \u00ed\u00ad hverfinu. Mi\u00f0asala \u00e1 leiki skipti engu m\u00e1li – a\u00f0alatri\u00f0i\u00f0 s\u00e9 a\u00f0 f\u00e1 styrktara\u00f0ila, augl\u00fdsingatekjur og sj\u00f3nvarps\u00e1horf.<\/p>\n \u00c9g birti h\u00e9r a\u00f0 ne\u00f0an vi\u00f0tal \u00far The Chester Chronicle vi\u00f0 hr. Batchelor<\/a>. \u00dea\u00f0 er sl\u00ed\u00adk lesning, a\u00f0 ma\u00f0ur tr\u00fair ekki s\u00ed\u00adnum eigin augum. \u00c9g l\u00e9t segja m\u00e9r oftar en tvisvar a\u00f0 vi\u00f0tali\u00f0 v\u00e6ri raunverulegt – tr\u00fa\u00f0i varla \u00f6\u00f0ru en a\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 v\u00e6ri tilb\u00faningur. Svo vir\u00f0ist hins vegar sem ma\u00f0urinn s\u00e9 gj\u00f6rsamlega si\u00f0blindur og firrtur. \u00dev\u00ed\u00ad mi\u00f0ur stendur enska knattspyrnusambandi\u00f0 sig \u00e1l\u00ed\u00adka vel og FME \u00e1 \u00cdslandi \u00ed\u00ad a\u00f0 st\u00f6\u00f0va svona lukkuriddara og koma \u00ed\u00ad veg fyrir a\u00f0 \u00feeir f\u00e1i a\u00f0 leggja \u00ed\u00ad r\u00fast r\u00f3tgr\u00f3in f\u00e9l\u00f6g sem eiga l\u00ed\u00adf og s\u00e1l \u00fe\u00fasunda f\u00f3lks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dec 5 2008<\/a> by David Triggs<\/a>, Chester Chronicle\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/em>JOHN Batchelor insists he will not give up in his quest to buy the Blues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite Stephen Vaughan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public rejection of his bid yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n The former York City owner spelled out his vision for the future of Chester City in a interview with The Chronicle on Wednesday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and openly admitted he did not care what the fans thought of his plan to change the club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name.<\/em><\/p>\n The straight-talking Batchelor was happy to answer our questions.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. HOW did Tuesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting with Stephen Vaughan go and where are you at in terms of your proposed takeover of Chester City?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t our first meeting and, as far as things go, there is no problem on the price. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no problem on the proof of our funds, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve shown him that. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just with Stephen, his lawyer was present as well. The only thing is that I have some fairly contentious plans for the club. We still need to get over that.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. Can you expand on what those plans are? Would they involve renaming the club?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, there would be a complete change of identity for the club in all respects.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. What would you change the name to?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We probably have three options, all of which relate to sponsorship deals.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. What would you say to supporters who feel you are interfering with the history and tradition of the club?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care, basically, is the answer. If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to invest \u00c2\u00a32m into a business venture, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being done on the basis that the amount of commercial income we bring in is greater than what the fans contribute.<\/em><\/p>\n At the moment they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t contribute enough to keep that club going, so if both of them want to ring me I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll speak to both fans… It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as brutal as that.<\/em><\/p>\n You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only got to look at the high street and look at Woolworths for example. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been there 99 years. It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be there next year because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had its day. Chester City is the same thing. Not enough people turn up at that club every other Saturday to maintain that particular brand.<\/em><\/p>\n I can create something for professional football in Chester that would maintain it if nobody turned up. So they (the fans) don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a vote. And they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a vote because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a vote when they go to Tesco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on how the store is run. Why should it be any different with football?<\/em><\/p>\n Q. So you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think the fans play an important part in a football club?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Not interested. If they want to come and watch successful professional football in Chester \u00e2\u20ac\u201c under whatever guise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if it belongs to me they will do it on my terms. If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to come, fine.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. How can you make this work? How can you make Chester City successful?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If I sound frustrated about this, or if I sound abrupt, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because people have a mental block when you say you want to run a football club and you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about the fans. There are three routes of income for this club which will generate probably three times as much as it generates now. None of those involve people coming through the turnstiles. So if people do come through the turnstile, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bonus.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. Naming Chester after the fictional team Harchester United (from Sky TV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dream Team) has been mentioned. Is that something you would be interested in doing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that we could do that. I would use the Harchester alternative if it works for the various sponsors we have. One of those sponsors has a very extreme brand and the more extreme we can be, with positive or negative publicity, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter, the more we would get.<\/em><\/p>\n The Harchester thing is quite interesting. I investigated it about 18 months ago. I spoke to the owner of the rights and did some background on the fan base that fictional club has. It has just over 27,000 registered fans on the Harchester website. From a marketing perspective, it would be a lot easier to talk to them than the couple of thousand people who turn up at Chester.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. But just because people register themselves as fans on a website, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean they will travel to Chester to watch the team.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need them to travel. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care whether they turn up or not. But we do like to sell to them.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to be open with everybody because, if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not and I try to be everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best friend like when I was at York City, then 12 months in it just gets nasty. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather everybody knew where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m coming from \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is to keep professional football in Chester, making a profit and having a successful team based there whatever it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called \u00e2\u20ac\u201c than pretend that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to look at 120 years of heritage, which I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give a monkey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. You admitted in an interview with The Guardian earlier this year that you lied to York City fans. Have you changed since your time at York?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m seven years older now, seven years wiser, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because everything I enter into now I enter into for one reason \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s me and my family, and for no other reason. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had the ego thing, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really not interested in the ego thing any more.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. You have described yourself as an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153asset stripper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the past. Are you looking to do that at Chester?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n No.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. Where have the funds to buy the club come from?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure I mentioned \u00c2\u00a32m but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been mentioned and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too far off the number. Secondly, all of the proof of funding was produced on Tuesday for Stephen and his lawyer. Thirdly, investment will come from sponsorship deals.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. Would the current management team of Mark Wright and Steve Bleasdale be safe if you took over?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I might want to add to it but I have no problems with Mark or any of the management team that exists at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. What is the next step in your proposed takeover?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ready to go as and when he (Vaughan) is. He is proving somewhat difficult in relation to some of the more radical ideas that we have for the club. Stephen is a very difficult man, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re aware.<\/em><\/p>\n Q. So there are certain points that you still need to thrash out?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, but apparently he does.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00c1 enska boltanum m\u00e1 finna marga sk\u00farka. S\u00e1 versti og h\u00e6ttulegasti er John Batchelor. Hann hefur n\u00fa skoti\u00f0 upp kollinum eia fer\u00f0ina enn. Ma\u00f0ur \u00fearf ekki nema r\u00e9tt a\u00f0 renna augum yfir Wikipediu-f\u00e6rsluna um hr. Batchelor til a\u00f0 sj\u00e1 a\u00f0 hann er enginn venjulegur ma\u00f0ur. Hann au\u00f0ga\u00f0ist sem kappakstursma\u00f0ur og eigandi kappakstursli\u00f0a, \u00fear sem allt … Halda \u00e1fram a\u00f0 lesa: H\u00e6ttulegasti ma\u00f0urinn \u00ed enska boltanum<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truflun.net\/stefan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Full (and frank) interview with John Batchelor<\/h1>\n