The latest from Chairman Ben Clasper, from the programme of our Home game against Dartford FC on Sunday, February 6th.

It’s been too long since we hosted a Cup game at Champion Hill, in Autumn they come thick and fast and then, if we’re honest, the club hasn’t blazed much of a cup trail in recent history so it’s fantastic to welcome Dartford today in the League Cup.

We haven’t played Dartford since September when they came away from Champion Hill with a 4-2 win and so we’re looking forward to getting another shot at a positive result today. That defeat was an early setback in our league campaign but we were not alone, Dartford have been spectacular in front of goal and before their defeat last week at Ashford they averaged over five goals a game in their previous seven fixtures. That loss was the first time in 20 games this season that they failed to score and whilst we may not be as prolific as them in front of goal we have a better defensive record so it should be a cracking cup tie.

You will read in the programme today about the appointment of Danny Mills as our EDI Officer and I would like to add my two cents about how important that is. We meant what we said about the recent incidents at games, we aren’t a club that makes empty statements, we act and we are always looking for new ways to lead in equality and diversity in our sport and hopefully show other clubs how to follow that lead.

Sadly this week we have seen how important that work is as football has once again shown it still has a long way to go in how it treats women. Manchester United may have acted swiftly with Mason Greenwood but fans with longer memories raised their social media eyebrows about the continued presence of other men at Old Trafford. Principles should also be applied to legends.

Speaking as someone who had to demonstrate why a well-run existing women’s team might want to consider joining our club I was dismayed to see that Raith Rovers showed it was equally possible for a club to demonstrate why a women’s team would feel the need to leave. I have patiently listened to a few ‘second chances’, ‘everyone has a right to earn a living’ and ‘once someone has served their sentence’ arguments this week but I don’t believe any are valid in this case. Running a football club means you have a legal duty of care to your staff and a moral duty of care to your community and hiring a man found by a civil court to have raped a woman cannot pass either of those two tests. The ‘second chance’ argument in particular fails even more spectacularly once the three prior criminal convictions for assault are taken into consideration. Footballers may be employees but they are also representatives and role models.

No doubt the ‘where do you draw the line?’ fears will be voiced but some of the best advice I had as Chairman when we had an issue to deal with and I was overthinking where it could all lead was to just deal with the problem at hand first rather than get stuck in analysis paralysis. Every case should be dealt with individually and the women’s team, sponsors, fans, volunteers, directors and staff all voting with their feet at Raith Rovers shows how wrong that call was and whilst I am 100% convinced they will conduct a u-turn by the time you read this the damage has been done. Earlier this season we recommended creating an ‘ethics’ group at the club who would review any potential decisions likely to prompt feedback from fans whether that was charity partnerships, sponsors, suppliers etc. We have long recognised how important it is that clubs don’t allow commercial or football decisions to be taken in isolation.

This week has also seen some major steps forward with our much-needed new stadium, we have completed the section 106 agreement which will ensure that the conditions on which the planning committee agreed to grant permission for our application in July 2020 will be honoured. Representatives from our board this week met with Southwark Council to review the next steps in the process and it was great to meet with more of the councillors who are now responsible for the areas in our community most heavily impacted by the club. In response to the most common question we hear from fans, sadly we do have to acknowledge that there is still a risk that someone will choose to launch a legal challenge as we enter this next stage. I sincerely hope votes and majority views are honoured and we do not have to divert efforts from the good work the club has been able to prioritise in recent times and return to the days of fighting for its survival. We are approaching a pivotal moment and so will keep you up to date as regularly as possible.