Owning a football club is many a young boy’s dream and now seven Hampton Old Boys have made that dream come true with a joint takeover of Walton and Hersham FC – at the age of 19!
The Hamptonians who left the School in 2018 are all still studying at university but are convinced they have the determination and passion to successfully run ‘The Swans’, a football club founded in 1945. Believed to be the youngest football club owners in the world, the Hampton alumni include, Thomas Bradbury, Reme Edetanlen, Ben Madelin, Jack Newton, Calogero Scannella and Sartej Tucker. Sartej who is currently studying Chinese Studies at Durham University, says at first it seemed like a crazy idea but now believes that their shared, collegiate approach to running a football club is reaping dividends.
All of us love the game and there will always be that commitment from us in that sense. There might be people who from an administrative role could do the job, but they might not be watching the team, talking to the manager and the players. The main thing for us is that we are football mad!
The group have their work cut out for them as ‘The Swans’ are 17th in the tenth tier of English Football (Combined Counties League One). However the Hamptonians are optimistic about future prospects. Saturday 7 September sees Walton and Hersham play AFC Hayes. The club is expecting a camera crew from the BBC to attend in order to cover this new era in its history. They are encouraging as many people as possible to attend and have waived the entrance fee on this occasion.
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