The Battle for Stamford Bridge: Ken Bates, Matthew Harding and the Fight for Control of Chelsea FC

Book Synopsis: KEN BATES DISCUSSES MATTHEW HARDING, GLENN HODDLE AND THE BATTLE FOR CHELSEA

Ken Bates had been Chelsea’s controversial chairman for over a decade by the time the Premier League was formed and in that time little at the club had changed. Stamford Bridge was still a rundown collection of disparate stands and the club had only just been promoted back to the top-flight for the third time in a decade. Meanwhile Bates had spent the first part of his reign attempting to secure Chelsea’s future in a long-running battle with Marler Estates who wanted to turf them out of their own ground. However, having finally won that battle, Bates lacked the money required to renovate both the stadium and improve the team, if Chelsea were to keep pace with the big boys.

Having scoured the City for investment and come up empty, Bates last chance was an ad in the Financial Times. The only genuine interest came from Matthew Harding, a season ticket holder who had followed the Blues since he was a schoolboy. He also happened to be one of the richest men in Britain. Riding like a white knight to Chelsea’s rescue, Harding provided loans for both players and a new stand and was co-opted onto the board. Meanwhile new manager Glenn Hoddle had arrived to transform the club’s playing style and training methods and it all seemed too good to be true as the Blues made it all the way to the 1994 FA Cup final, only to lose to Manchester United and the following season reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, their first European campaign since the glory days of Peter Osgood.

Yet by this time the boardroom relationship between Bates and Harding had turned into outright warfare with Harding impatient to take control of the club and Bates determined to stop him.

The Battle for the Bridge was played out in the tabloids with News Of The World reporter Rob Beasley Harding’s man in Fleet Street and Harry Harris of the Daily Mirror having the ear of Bates. The rancour even continued after Matthew Harding’s tragic death in a helicopter crash in October 1995 with Bates calling his former rival ‘an evil man’ in a Channel 5 documentary the following year.

Yet for Chelsea this period was key to their transformation from a footballing backwater into the £4 billion club it is today. Without Harding’s investment there’s every chance that the club might have suffered the same fate as other founder members of the Premier League such as Sheffield Wednesday and QPR. Instead they were primed for take-off which came with their acquisition by Roman Abramovich a decade later taking them into the European elite.

Former Mirror Chief Sports reporter Harry Harris was at the centre of the Battle for the Bridge and tells the story of a transformative period in English football in general and Chelsea in particular. This book is based on transcripts from a new BT Sports Films documentary Pound Land: The Battle for the Bridge featuring interviews with most of the central figures in the story but not former chairman Ken Bates who, typically, refused. However Bates has granted an interview to Harry Harris in this book and reflects on the his controversial time as chairman of Chelsea and this documentary.