Council's own goal sunk all our plans

Boddy, who handed the reins over to Anthony Hampson in November 2008, says Guildhall planners wasted the best chance City have ever had to safeguard their future by moving from St George’s Lane to Nunnery Way.

He believes the granting of planning permission to Careys New Homes to build 98 dwellings on the site — now reduced to 84 — was a formality but the council changed their tune at the 11th hour.

In an exclusive interview with your Worcester News, Boddy, who now works for the Football Conference, speaks about his time at the helm and the reasons behind decisions that were made.

Here, he defends his reign and hits back at his critics.

Why has the Nunnery Way stadium not come to fruition?

“We had a deal on the table with contracts signed for £7.36million subject to them (Careys New Homes) receiving planning permission.

“I am not saying Careys would not have tried to get out of it but it was a watertight contract, subject to planning being granted for 98 units — 97 units and Careys could get out of a deal.

“Effectively, we as a football club, via Knight Frank and through Bellway, who were the buying party at the time, put a plan together for 98 units with a design which was tweaked on more than one occasion with several meetings with the planning department and got to an agreed planning position.

“When it was recommended for refusal, I was absolutely gobsmacked, I could not believe what I was reading. I believe the council have got a lot to answer for. I think this council has lacked vision. WCFC has been in this city for 108 years and is a big part of the fabric. Worcester needs a vibrant football club.

“They, as a council in my opinion, have got a responsibility to do something about it and they have done nothing for WCFC.

“From the day WCFC first talked about a new stadium, apart from this opportunity with £7.36m, there has never ever been enough money on the table to clear the debt and build a stadium of the club’s requirement. This is the only opportunity that we’ve had and it was wasted.”

Why was a contract signed with St Modwen tying the club up until 2017?

“We had an agreement with St Modwen that they took their 15 per cent developers’ fee out of the ena-bling development and any overage after that was split on a 50-50 basis.

“There was a good prospect they wouldn’t finish building until 2017 so we needed to protect our 50 per cent share of the overage.

“When the market was very good, we were talking in the region of nearly £2m overage which would have meant £1m for the football club.

“The bank played a major part in the decision that was made and their legal team approved the contract.”

What is your message to those supporters who are still extremely vitriolic towards you?

“The message would be simple —people making these noises don’t understand the facts.

“The deal we had on the table was a good deal, it stacked up, it was workable but it didn’t happen.

“We did our very best for the club under difficult circumstances.

“I am not passing the buck; the problems with this club come from way before my time and Dr Michael Sorensen. He was advised by a previous chairman of the club to put it into administration.

“The debts that he inherited have been out of control since and have just snowballed.”

Could more have been done to eat into the debt?

“The club shop in my time was always profitable but the best profit we made was around £5,000 in a year. In the scheme of what we’re talking about that is a drop in the ocean.

“Maybe we took our eye off the ball with the social club, I will accept that as a criticism but we did the very best we could with revenue streams and the resources we had.

“I worked for WCFC 40 hours a week for the last 10 years on top of trying to make a living and have a family. There’s only so many hours in the day you can devote.”

Have you, or anybody else, ever been set to gain from the Lane sale or the move to Nunnery Way?

“I have never ever taken a penny out of WCFC and never stood to do so if any of these deals went through.

“David Hallmark, who has also been much-maligned, has never taken a penny out of WCFC other than the professional services.

“I would suggest he has given thousands of hours of his professional time to WCFC for nothing. He never stood to gain a penny — neither did any other director in my regime.”

Do you regret being involved?

“Not at all. I actually predicted the outcome of all of this before I took the chairmanship over.

“Nobody else wanted to do it so I put my head above the parapet.

“I said to John Barton after we lost 1-0 at Nuneaton in the 2003 FA Cup — if we can’t deliver this new ground it’s going to all fall down on me and it’s all going to be my fault.”

For more revelations, including discussions with the Warriors, see tomorrow's Worcester News.