A new book, The Power of the Badge, written by Bob Littlewood, takes a look at the story of how Chesterfield FC was saved, not once, but twice, by the local community.
Chesterfield Football Supporters Society (CFSS) was formed in 2001 and Bob attended the inaugural meeting at the Winding Wheel.
Over 1,100 people met at the Winding Wheel in 2001 and the group discussed if it would be possible to take over control of the club from Darren Brown to try and save the it from the threat of liquidation.
Bob said: “We all threw a tenner in the hat, sort of thing, which was eventually used to buy the club and save it from going out of business.
“When you link it to the same sort of people who are running the Community Trust now to the ones who were a part of the inaugural CFSS group [in 2001], it made for a fabulous story, I felt.”
In 2020, the Community Trust purchased and rescued the club during a tough period for the Spireites, following relegation from the Football League in 2018.
Prior to the Community Trust’s takeover, the Spireites were battling against relegation to the sixth tier of English football but, soon after the takeover, the good times returned.
Bob spoke to many people associated with the Trust in order to get an insight into the work that they do around the community.
“I did around 22 interviews, mainly with people from the Community Trust rather than the club because a lot of the things within the club are well-documented. The Community Trust, being newer, is not so well-documented within the public domain,” he explained.
Bob met with John Croot, CEO of the club and Trust, to pitch him the idea for the book. He said: “I asked if anyone was writing this down and he said ‘no’ but that he had been approached by multiple journalists to write the story.
“I was essentially offering to write a book about the history of the club from the 1970s to the present.
“The book starts around 1978 and finishes with promotion from the National League.”
The Power of the Badge is now on sale in the Club Superstore (£16.99).
