The Football Chairman Who Burnt Down His Own Stadium
260,031
Published 2021-04-23
Within the space of three years, Donny's Belle Vue home ground was burnt down on the instruction of their owner, they became the worst team in the history of the Football League, and were almost driven to extinction.
So in this documentary, HITC Sevens takes a look at the Ken Richardson era at Belle Vue, the numerous disasters at the club, and how they bounced back.
All Comments (21)
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Big up those Doncaster fans who kept on supporting their club during those horrible times.
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Can we just appreciate that every video he writes literally an essay for his script
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Updated in 2023: The American Glazers family who burnt down their own club.
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I'm a doncaster lad and always remember the cup run where they beat villa and man City, and playing arsenal at the old belle Vue, now a nice housing estate which I go past everyday
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as a Doncaster fan and someone who has lived in Doncaster my whole life. going past the location where Belle Vue was still brings back the bad memories.
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I was living in Florida at the time , his daughter Julie was my American wifes best friend and she took a lot of the rap and for months hid out at our house in Florida with her mother. I knew Richardson , he invited me to west riding sacks to have lunch with him and tour the company. I found him one of the unhappiest men I had ever met , he was egotistical, arrogant selfish but desperately unhappy . I know even more about this horrible man that I cannot type here , this scandal is the tip of the iceberg , his life was always a mess .I always wonder if he really regrets his life the way hes lived it
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There was a documentary called “They Think Its All Rovers” about Donny’s relegation season just before Ken Richardson was jailed for arson
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Thanks for making this video, absolutely crazy times! Small correction; Rovers beat Dagenham and Redbridge in the 2003 Conference play-off final, not Leyton. It was a golden goal winner! I seem to remember fans also had a mock funeral for the club after dropping out of the football league, I wonder if that's ever happened before?!
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Day 8: 7 Players who've (surprisingly) never been mentioned in any hitc sevens video.
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When you hear about stories like this, it is ridiculous some of the grievances with chairmen and owners that some fans of top clubs have.
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When you really think playing Football Manager counts as experience
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Reminds me of Basingstoke's owner selling parts of the stadium on ebay
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Great video as always, must admit I do miss the lower league dramas sometime. If you want to do a video on the year a board tried to relegate their team so they could keep all money from the sale of the ground then feel free to drop a message.
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The only new videos I get excited for at 1am and if for some reason im actually asleep they're the first thing I watch every morning. Keep up the great work, from Orange County, CA
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And I thought the team I supported, Carlisle United, had the worst owner in League Football back in the 1990's. Michael Knighton was a joke and very nearly sent us to the wall, but he couldn't hold a candle to Richardson. Congrats to Doncaster Rovers and their fans for not only surviving the Richardson years but excelling in the decades that followed. Great video, very informative.
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The switch to these long form, near essays, is what's finally made me subscribe. Keep it up my guy :)
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Some channels do very lazy videos. This is not one of them. A great amount of detail and effort every time. Great vid.
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Thanks for posting this video. The scars of Richardson's time at Rovers are still there, I remember well the protests during games. Belle Vue, not the prettiest ground, did have a good atmosphere, even with only 3000 inside. I have even been inside Belle Vue when there was over 20,000 and that was special. Things at Rovers aren't great at the moment, a play off place at the end of this 2020.21 season is all but been thrown away so hopefully the right appointment of manager will be made soon and a quality team can be assembled during the summer to turn the club around.
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Cracking video as always, I love the documentary style videos about the subjects that fans may not know about
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Day 9:Please make a video about DINAMO BUCHAREST...The story of our club is a hard one...And you telling it can really help us a lot,our club is clinging to survival,and we raised 2 milion euros to try to save the club... Dinamo is one of the biggest clubs in Eastern Europe,it has 18 league titles and 13 domestic cup titles...It reached the Champions League Semi Final in 1984 after beating the holders of the trophy Hamburg...In the Semi Final they played against the great Liverpool side of the 80's...After the 89 revolution the club lost one of their greatest generation after their players where bought off by western clubs,similar to what happened to the clubs in East Germany that you already talked about...Corruption and neglect brought this giant of romanian football to it s knees...At the moment Dinamo is preety much the ONLY true historical side in Romania's top division...This team stood afloat thanks only to it's fans...In the summer some new spanish chiarman came and bought the club,brought players on huge contracts and left without paying them...The players just broke the contracts and the club accumulated even more debt...If the fans did not step in and accumulated 2 milion euros the club would have been dissolved...For anyone watching outside of Eastern Europe it might be hard to understand it s value...If u re English imagine Liverpool being dissolved...This club is OUR Liverpool,and it's stadium OUR cathedral...With all the fears of relegation,players leaving and managers coming in and leaving the club still managed to fight it's way to a Romanian cup Semi Final...Please,make one video about our story too...
