Staff and manager of Northampton Town publicly plead with owner to sell

By Kyle BonnNov 22, 2015, 8:05 AM EST
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The staff and manager of League Two side Northampton Town have publicly pleaded with owner David Cardoza (pictured) to sell the club after going unpaid for weeks and seeing $12 million meant to go towards a new stand disappear.

“The staff is not getting paid. Coaching staff, manager, assistant manager, all those guys, people at the club are not getting paid,” Wilder exclaimed following the match. “People at the club are pulling rabbits out of hats, and it’s remarkable how we keep going in this period.”
Wilder and the club staff are furious that Cardoza has dragged his feet at approving a takeover deal, continuing to exclaim that he’s looking for the “best deal for the club,” but has dragged on for months now while the club struggles to meet its financial requirements.
“From my point of view, I’ve got an agent, and my agent wants to know what’s happening because I’m not getting paid,” Wilder said. “We’re in this position, and there have been a couple of inquiries about me, but I know we can go so far with this football club, and I don’t want to undo all the work we’ve done over the past 18 months to two years. We’ve took the club from going out of the football league to where it is now, and we’ve got a deal on the table that can take this club forward; not a rescue act that just gets us through to the end of the season.”
He is also frustrated at the failure of the club to replace a stand at Sixfield Stadium that has fallen apart and become derelict. Cardoza announced plans to fix the stand and double the capacity of the ground but has not initiated the plans in some time.

“How many more years are we going to look at that stand being empty and not earning any money?” Wilder asked. “We need to get that stand built so we can earn money out there, so people can come and spend money and watch us play football, so people can come and support us and back us financially. I can’t stand looking at that stand, and I imagine all the staff and supporters are the same.”

You can tell the staff is frustrated as well. Wilder at one point says, “And I trust that things will be looked after…” and the club staffer interviewing him stops him mid-sentence to say “Well trust…that’s a big word.”

Finally, the staff posted a strongly-worded statement on the official website and Facebook page pleading for immediate change.

“As things drag on, each day gets more and more difficult both professionally and personally,” the statement said. “Professionally, attempting to run the club on a day to day basis with a frozen bank account presents extreme challenges that get worse with each passing hour as we attempt to maintain ‘business as normal’ as best we can.”

“Personally, each day the delays in completing the takeover mean another day where we have to find a way to feed our families and pay our bills, while still not knowing when this whole nightmare will be concluded.  We now demand this matter is concluded within hours, not days. As staff we will continue to monitor the situation regularly and we are keeping our options open,”