Luke's Football blog

Southend United has been a team that has always maintained its stature in the English football league, until of recent as they have faced double relegations seeing them spiral out the football league. Their recent problems can be traced back to one man who has been a fixture at the club for so many years. He is the one who has run the club to the ground, and with debts spiralling to almost 17.3 million pounds, they are a club that is on the verge of liquidation.

Ron Martin first became Southend chairman in 2000, and ever since then, it has been a torrid time for the club. His plans were to build a new stadium for the club, and it still hasn’t happened even though he planned to get that done back then. In the 2009-10 season, they faced two winding-up orders from HM Revenue and Customs over unpaid tax bills. Then, in February 2010, they were placed under a transfer embargo because they had paid their players late and were on a transfer embargo until they paid the money back they owed.

They eventually paid the tax bill, which got them their transfer embargo, and they were back to normal, but this wouldn’t be the end of their financial trouble. In 2020, they faced some more financial trouble, a decade after the last time they were struggling financially. This followed their failure to pay their employees for the entire month of December 2019. They faced another winding-up order for that misconduct. Ron Martin eventually paid the wages that were not paid and promised it would not happen again; however, they faced some more trouble that year as they fielded an ineligible player against Lincoln City. This led to them facing a 7 and a half grand fine and a suspended 3 point deduction adding to their torrid year so far.

They faced relegation that season, as they cancelled League One as It was decided by points per game, which meant they were back in League Two. They decided to use the government-provided furlough scheme for their players during the lockdown, which was criticised by the PFA because they had previously failed to pay their players. Then soon they decided to furlough the whole squad, which some players refused to go with. At the end of the season, manager Sol Campbell left the club on mutual terms, leaving them managerless and spiralling in debt with a stadium in horrendous condition.

Their next season wasn’t great, as they faced another horrendous year. They appointed former Weymouth manager Mark Moseley on a 3-year deal, but he would be eventually sacked in April after 8 wins in 45 days. In that season, however, they settled debts of 493,931 pounds, but that was the only shining light of that season. They were relegated for the second time in a row in the second-to-last game of the season, which meant National League football for the shrimpers for the first time in their history. 

In August 2021, it was revealed that their overall debt for July 2019 was 17.3 million pounds; however, Martin claimed 6 million pounds of it were owed to his company. They started National League life with a 1-0 win against Kings Lynn, but a six-game winless run saw the end for Phil Brown, who was eventually sacked. The club became a mess, with the BBC describing the club as a mess and already on life support with a stadium that is in bad condition. On the 5th and 9th of October 2021, there was a fan protest calling for Ron Martin’s departure as he was the one who had run the club to the ground, and it showed as in December of that year they were placed under a National League embargo due to HMRCC debts caused by the COVID pandemic. Their CEO described them as having a deteriorating income, which was caused by their chairman, Ron Martin. They finished their first season in 12th place, which was a bit disappointing for the former League One club.

The next season started terrible, as on the 30th of September they were put under another transfer embargo after a missed HMRC payment. The following day, there were more fan protests as the club’s sponsors, PG Site Services, withdrew their support. Fans were outraged, prompting another protest at Roots Hall by the fan group Save Our Southend, which called Ron Martin an unfit and improper owner. Martin blamed missing the payment on a programme delay, and it was just a mess from there as the winding up orders kept getting adjourned, with the last one being adjourned until the first of March.

They are a club that is on the brink of liquidation, as they have only next month to pay that $7-figure debt. Some of that money is owed to St. John’s Ambulance, and with them losing 2 million pounds a year, they could possibly be facing liquidation. This means they’ll have to form a Phoenix Club if they want to get back into the English Football League. Some of their fans are looking at that possibility as it looks increasingly unlikely that Ron Martin will pay off all the debt.