31/3/2008

Sport

Theo hoping to go out on a high

by Chris Harris

FARNBOROUGH chairman Tony Theo has announced that he will resign from his position at the end of the current campaign.

Theo has been involved with the club since 2004, fighting to keep the old club Farnborough Town afloat throughout last season and setting up the new club in the summer, alongside Simon Hollis, who will step into his shoes.

Theo revealed that pursuing his personal business interests will mean spending much more time out of the country and that he will not be able to give the time needed to run the club. But he was certain that Hollis is the man to take the club back up the football pyramid.

“It’s a business decision, and it’s a very sad thing for me to have to do,” he said. “I know that with my commitments elsewhere I won’t be around enough to do the job.

“The club needs someone who can commit the time needed to carry on what we have started and I can’t do that.

“Simon has come in and I always said if the right man came along I would move aside. I’m confident that he can take the club forward and I’m sure he will be a fantastic chairman.

“We have such a chance to do something special at the club and everything is in place. I know that Simon will carry that on.”

Theo’s time in charge was a traumatic one, culminating in Farnborough Town going out of business at the end of the last campaign. But the formation of the new club has been a real success, and boss Andy Clement has taken his men to the brink of promotion with four games left to play.

The chairman admitted that the majority of his tenure at the club was through some desperate times, but he was hoping to leave Boro on a high note, with the league title.

“Last year was so tough. There were a lot of days when I woke up and wondered why I was putting the time and effort in,” he said. “The worst thing was that I was putting my money in to keep things going, but I didn’t have the control.

“It would have been easy for me to have walked away when we had all our problems but I stuck at it. It’s a shame that I have to move on just as we have turned the club round. It was a really difficult time and a horrible year to be honest.

“But if I have one thing to hang my hat on it is that if I had not gone through all the battles last year then we wouldn’t have a team doing so well this year.

“We never expected to be where we are now, and if we go up this year I will be over the moon. I take my hat off to Andy Clement and what he has achieved so far.

“I don’t think we could have done anything more and through all the ups and downs I have to say that I have enjoyed every second of it.”

Theo said that his favourite memory of his time at the club was when supporters voted for the name of Farnborough Football Club last summer.

“My favourite moment was the night in the summer that all the fans came down to the ground to vote on the new name for the club,” he said. “It was a special moment and we knew then that we had done it.”

“Also, seeing that first ball kicked against Godalming Town, and the first goal go in was fantastic.

“Hopefully in a month’s time I will be saying that watching us lift the league trophy will top all of that.”

Soon to be chairman Hollis was full of praise for everything Theo had done at the club, and said that he was looking to take the club from strength to strength.

“I think Tony has done a fantastic job for the club and held it together in very tricky circumstances,” Hollis said. “If it wasn’t for him then probably we wouldn’t be where we are today. He will always be welcome at the club and I’m sure whenever he is in the country he will be at the games supporting the team.

“It was always the intention for me to formally become the chairman and obviously I have been very involved with things this year.

“Now I want to take the club forward, and I have been delighted with the how things have gone so far both on and off the pitch.

“The gates have been fantastic and on the pitch I think it has been a good return with great football and lots of goals.

“It’s my intention to get Farnborough back to the level they were previously playing at and with the right structure behind it to sustain the club at that level.”

Theo’s last game as chairman will be when Boro take on Uxbridge at Cherrywood Road on Saturday April 26.

First printed in: Aldershot News and Mail