Chelsea plan tribute to Matthew Harding to mark 20th anniversary of his death ahead of Manchester United match

1995 | Matthew Harding, banned from entering the directors box by Ken Bates, waves to fans from his seat in the North Stand during the FA Premiership clash against Tottenham

Chelsea have confirmed they will use their game against Manchester United on Sunday to pay a special tribute to  former vice-chairman Matthew Harding.

This Saturday marks the  20-year anniversary since the businessman and Chelsea fan died in a helicopter crash on his way back from watching the club play at Bolton.

Harding invested £26.5million in Chelsea, including funding the building of the new north stand, which was named after him following his death.

He had answered an appeal from former chairman Ken Bates in 1994 for money men to provide funds to help turn them into a major force and became a member of the board. Current owner Roman Abramovich has backed requests from fans to honour his memory this weekend and has already paid for a  crowd-surfing flag measuring 100ft by 50ft that reads ‘Matthew Harding, Always Loved Never Forgotten’. It will be held aloft by fans in the Harding end before the game kicks off.

There are also two banners reading ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue and White Army’ and along the hoardings in the Matthew Harding end the club will put ‘Matthew Harding, One Of Our Own’.

All the matchday tickets will also bear a watermark image of him on the back with the message: “In memory of Matthew Harding.”

Sixteen members of his family, including his widow Ruth, have been invited to attend, with two of his grandchildren acting as mascots.

26 Oct 1996: Chelsea line up to pay Tribute to their vice chairman Matthew Harding

Dave Johnstone, of the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust, said: “This shows that the club has not lost touch with the fans or its past. Harding kicked off the redevelopment of the ground into what it is now.”

 

 

 

 

Quality touch from the club, he did so much for Chelsea and he was a fan like us.

May he rest in peace

That´s the way to honour one of our best. RIP Matthew.

20 years ago! It doesn't seem possible, RIP Matthew.

A lovely gesture from the club. Difficult to believe that it's 20 years ago. I remember walking into the ground a few minutes before the Spurs game and Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin' was being played over the PA System. Matthew was a big fan of Dylan. 

Atmosphere against Spurs was very emotional. The players were brilliant that day. Matthew would have loved us taking Spurs apart.

RIP Matthew. 

So glad the club are doing something.  The way Bates treated him always leaves me with a bad taste when it comes to my opinion of Bates. 

6 hours ago, Boyne said:

A lovely gesture from the club. Difficult to believe that it's 20 years ago. I remember walking into the ground a few minutes before the Spurs game and Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin' was being played over the PA System. Matthew was a big fan of Dylan. 

Atmosphere against Spurs was very emotional. The players were brilliant that day. Matthew would have loved us taking Spurs apart.

RIP Matthew. 

Yeah very sad day.   In fairness to spurs they respected  the minute silence.  Didn't  Dave Lee  break he's leg that day after scoring a owning?   Remember meeting him in the imperial  on the kings road. 

I went to the Bridge the morning the news broke about his & his friends death, to pay respects, later on some c**t in a van drove past & shouted "y*d army" a few gave chase but he got away, prick.

The day of the game word was they were coming in big numbers(as they did back then) but to be fair they contacted certain CFC to say they wernt coming out of respect(so i was told not sure how true it is, bu they never showed)

Their support in the ground showed respect for the mins silence, only to be greeted with applause at first & then the Y****s chant by CFC, my Spurs mates have never forgiven us for that.

A couple of things, firstly i hope this weekend isnt going to be turned in to an anti Bates pro Harding fiasco, secondly lets not forget 4 other people also died in that tragedy lets not forget them either.

2 hours ago, bluegraham said:

Yeah very sad day.   In fairness to spurs they respected  the minute silence.  Didn't  Dave Lee  break he's leg that day after scoring a owning?   Remember meeting him in the imperial  on the kings road. 

You're right, Spurs fans were very respectful during the minute's silence. Yes, David Lee did break a leg during the game. Just seen the following on the club website.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2016/10/matthew-harding-never-forgotten--part-one.html

I always regret that the 90s were a period through which I wasn't as avid supporter as any other in my life - my excuse was I had three children under 5 - and I never really appreciated him until he was gone.  I've got only admiration and respect for him.

From the Official Chelsea Site:

Matthew Harding Never Forgotten

As Chelsea Football Club marks the 20th anniversary this weekend of the death of Matthew Harding at the age of only 42, we recall his life as a fan and as a club director…

Matthew Harding – the lifelong Chelsea fan who became a high-profile director of the club in a pivotal period in our history, but always wanted to remain essentially a fan.

To those who followed the Blues in the mid-1990s, that was clear and it was a major reason why he was held in such high esteem by his fellow supporters and remains so to this day.

His legacy is the accelerating effect the investment of millions of pounds from his considerable wealth had on our long overdue return to winning trophies, and on the redevelopment of the stadium into the modern, closed-in arena the team plays in today.

As Chelsea Football Club marks the 20th anniversary this weekend of his hugely untimely death at the age of just 42, the official Chelsea website will tomorrow look at the impact his time as a director had, but as Harding considered himself primarily a fan, we today recall that part of his life first and to do that, we spoke to three of his children, Hannah, Joel and Luke, whom he ensured were bitten by the blue bug and are season ticket holders to this day. We talk sitting in the stand at the north end of the stadium that bears their father’s name.

‘There wasn't a choice for us about being Chelsea fans,’ Hannah confirms, ‘and our kids have had no choice either.

‘Dad was quite obsessed. We couldn't go on holiday for a whole week because we'd have to be home for the matches, so we could only go on holiday from Monday to Friday.’

Matthew Harding was a Chelsea fan for the same reason – parental influence – and was taken to his first game in November 1962, a Division Two win. His father continued to bring him to Stamford Bridge a few times a season and Bobby Tambling became an early favourite player.

He continued to follow the team’s fortunes in early adulthood and with his children growing up and other activities, including playing hockey, subsiding, he bought season tickets in 1989.

Luke remembers being taken to the first game of the 1989/90 season, a win away at Wimbledon and the home game the following weekend when Sheffield Wednesday were beaten 4-0. Hannah’s first game was the start of the next season, Dennis Wise’s debut against Derby, with Joel following on a couple of months later by watching a goalless visit from Nottingham Forest.

It is clear Chelsea for Matthew Harding was about far more than the 90 minutes. The social occasion was paramount too.

‘He always used to make it a whole day out,’ confirms Hannah. ‘We'd never just go up to London, go to the football and go home. There was always a big atmospheric build-up.

Matthew in the buffet car with one of the Crawley Boys

‘He always used to make it a whole day out,’ confirms Hannah. ‘We'd never just go up to London, go to the football and go home. There was always a big atmospheric build-up.

‘We'd get on the train from Sussex. We'd have to get the buffet car and we'd have bacon sandwiches. There used to be the “Crawley Boys” as he'd call them, who got on at Three Bridges and travelled up with us.

‘Songs would be sung,’ adds Luke. ‘And then we'd go to the Imperial pub. He was all about the pre-match really, as much as he was the match. It was about the journey up and the whole day out.

‘We’d take the 10 o'clock train in the morning, if you miss it you miss out, and we wouldn't get home until eight o'clock at night. He loved meeting new people and chatting and he'd be talking forever and we'd be telling him we had to go. He'd just be talking Chelsea to anyone who would listen.’

‘The more he got into it the further afield we went,’ says Hannah. ‘To begin with it was just the home games, then we started going to all the away games, on the train all the way up to somewhere like Liverpool.

‘He used to love the East Anglian games,’ recalls Luke, ‘because they weren't dry trains, you could drink alcohol on the East Anglian trains.’

For Matthew Harding, football was served with Guinness, and a symbolic pint of it was placed on the centre-spot at the Bridge for the minute’s silence preceding the game after his death.

Though he would do his best not to let it alter his pre-match ritual, Chelsea life would change for the Hardings when Matthew, having read an advert in the Financial Times inviting investment in the Chelsea Village stadium redevelopment project, let it be known to the club he was interested in helping. Chairman Ken Bates made his famous, ‘I’m told you think you’re richer than I am and I thought I’d better ring you to find out,’ phone call.

Matthew ready for action in a charity match at the Bridge

Harding was richer than all but a few in the UK in the autumn of 1993. Eleven years earlier he had become a director and shareholder of the reinsurance brokers he joined as a teenage office boy. He spotted a gap in that market and business boomed.

Bates and Chelsea over the same period fought an extremely draining battle with property developers, and the very real possibility of eviction from Stamford Bridge, and won. Chelsea Pitch Owners was set up to protect that victory and at last the circumstances were right to regenerate the obsolete stadium.

When Harding made available the bulk of the money for a new North Stand and on doing so became a Chelsea director, that regeneration could begin and construction work was underway a month later.

His children recall him making no big deal of it when he started his new role.

‘I remember when we were coming to matches and walking to the ground or on the train, people started taking an interest and getting his view on Chelsea,’ says Joel. ‘That happened overnight really.’

‘Now at away games, Dad would go in the directors' box and we would go in with the away fans.

‘One of the memories I've particularly got of being at Stamford Bridge with him is the last game that the old Shed End was open, a game against Sheffield United when we relegated them.

‘At half-time we walked down and into the Shed End and watched the second half there with him, which was nice.’

That last league game of the 1993/94 season was followed seven days later by an appearance in the FA Cup final, our first in more than two decades. Although we were defeated, with the Wembley outing coming just a few months after Matthew joined the board and Glenn Hoddle became manager, it was another indication Chelsea FC was moving forward. A giant blue ‘Pride of London’ flag carried overhead by the fans was a big feature of the later rounds of the cup run. The new director and his business friend Graham Bell paid for it.

The North Stand (later the Matthew Harding Stand) nears completion in November 1994

The new North Stand opened in the first half of the following season and the Harding family’s season tickets were relocated there from the East Stand. Their father would leave the pub and his friends and change into a suit before watching games from the directors’ box but a year after the new stand’s opening, he had to re-join his family and watch from there.

Disharmony with Bates, especially over the Chelsea Village project, had intensified to the extent the chairman banned Harding from the directors’ seats.

A degree of co-operation between Bates and Harding was later achieved, with investments made, loans repaid, Harding becoming the club’s vice-chairman and returning to the directors’ box. They were also part of the ‘Marriott Accord’ with Hoddle and managing director Colin Hutchinson which will be detailed on this website tomorrow. That led to the arrival of star-name players although one on the Harding wish-list did not prove possible.

‘He used to love Matt Le Tissier,’ says Joel. ‘I think he tried for years to sign him, and I've seen Le Tissier saying the same in a documentary.  And he obviously loved Glenn Hoddle as well.

‘Looking back he used to like Alan Hudson and Peter Osgood,’ adds Luke. ‘Going through the years Eddie Newton was one of his later favourite players. He used to start shouting, “Eddie, Eddie,” so it's good to see Eddie Newton still at the club. He loved Kerry Dixon as well.’

And Matthew maintained his love for the Chelsea players whether they won or lost. His sons and daughter remember their father as the type of fan who did not take defeat too badly and soon moved on. Indeed those people who saw him after the League Cup exit at Bolton, on the night of the helicopter crash that took his life, recall him quickly declaring we would win the FA Cup that season instead.

Ruud Gullit’s team did just that, but sadly without Matthew present, although the line in our enduring 1997 Cup Final song ‘Blue Day’ when Suggs sings, ‘And even heaven, is blue today,’ captured the thoughts of the Chelsea fans who were.

At this Sunday’s game against Manchester United, Matthew Harding’s memory will be honoured. Members of his family will be guests in the directors’ seats and two of his grandchildren will be mascots.

Joel, Luke and Hannah in the stand that bears their father's name

 

‘The grandchildren are the fourth generation of Chelsea-fan Hardings to come to Stamford Bridge,’ says Luke.

‘Our grandad from Haywards Heath was based in the army barracks in Chelsea and came to watch games back in the 1940s. He then took our father and our uncle, and after that our dad took our mum, up here in the old North Stand. Then it was our turn for our dad to take us and now we have reached the point where we're taking our children.

‘Most of us sit in the middle of the Harding upper,’ says Hannah, ‘and Luke’s tickets are down in the lower tier.’

Sitting with those in the upper tier are two sons of Matthew’s friend Ray Deane, who along with Tony Burridge, John Bauldie and Mick Goss was also killed in the crash.

‘I'm definitely proud to have a stand here named after my dad,’ says Joel. ‘For me it's a very important part of the ground.

‘It's still a bit surreal hearing people sing his name,’ admits Hannah.

‘It puts a lump in my throat,’ adds Luke.

‘It's emotional,’ agrees Joel. ‘It's lovely that fans still think of him, and they still sing his name.’  

 

Matthew Harding Never Forgotten - Part 2

Yesterday, the official Chelsea website looked back on Matthew Harding’s life as a Chelsea fan before and after he became a club director by speaking to three of his children.

Today, on the 20th anniversary of Harding’s death, club historian Rick Glanvill considers the impact and legacy of our former vice-chairman’s investment and involvement, in particular the ‘Marriott Accord’ between the four key individuals in the running of Chelsea Football Club at the time…

The Observer newspaper published a ‘UK pay league table’ in August 1993 that placed Matthew Harding 13th with his £2.27m annual salary from the reinsurance brokers, Benfield group. (Present-day West Ham co-owner David Sullivan was 14th.) His personal fortune was put at £125m.

It was two months later, though, on 18 October 1993, that Harding’s name came to resonate with Chelsea supporters, as the club announced the multimillionaire with a Latin A-level had provided £5m which, together with a £2m Football Trust grant, would kick-start the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge a month later.

Equally noteworthy was that Harding had swiftly become a director and was ushered onto the Chelsea Village board. ‘We are all looking forward to a good working relationship with him,’ said delighted chairman Ken Bates.

Matthew Harding and chairman Ken Bates at the opening of the new North Stand

Harding, a Blue for 30 of his then 39 years on earth, aimed to wield his new-found power to influence far more than just the bricks and mortar at his club, and immediately found a kindred spirit in another youthful newcomer earlier that year, player-manager Glenn Hoddle.

The timing for change was perfect. The protracted and damaging ‘Battle of the Bridge’ against ravenous redevelopers had ended, and revolution was in the air.

One agent of that change would be Colin Hutchinson. Brought in to help raise desperately needed funds, he had become managing director, his responsibilities extending to strategy and recruitment.

‘Obviously [by 1993] there was a more stable base to go forward but the cost of getting to that point was a huge drain on the finances,’ Hutchinson later recalled. ‘I think we started, from a football side, to get it together when Glenn Hoddle arrived.’

New thinking was desperately needed to raise standards. Prior to Hoddle, Chelsea had offered the job to Neil Warnock before settling on Ian Porterfield. But the club under Porterfield were unable even to attract defender Darren Wassell, unloved at Nottingham Forest, to Stamford Bridge.

With relegation threatening devastation in spring 1993, caretaker David Webb came in for three months and crucially preserved Chelsea’s top-flight status.

Influential managing director Colin Hutchinson

t was clear root-and-branch changes were required that summer, but who could be trusted to lead them? ‘My suggestion was Glenn Hoddle,’ said Hutchinson, ‘having got to know him a little bit when he was at Chelsea [recuperating from injury a few years earlier]. I felt it was time to maybe go for a slightly more modernistic approach because we’d tried it the other way.’

Duly anointed, Hoddle upgraded everything from the training ground at Harlington and players’ diets, to the method of play and the public face the club projected to the world. Over two years Chelsea was transformed from an organisation with a bunker mentality to one with a modern, outward-looking approach.

The player-manager even shepherded his side to a first FA Cup final for almost a quarter of a century in May 1994 and the club finally began looking up, not staring down.

‘Even though at that time we didn’t have the best team in the world, the fact we got to Wembley, it was still a wonderful day because it gave the fans some hope,’ recalled Hutchinson. ‘The real bonus was the fact that Man United [who won the final against Chelsea] were already qualified for Europe so we were automatically into the Cup Winners’ Cup.

‘We got to the semi-finals [in Europe] and we’d had a taste of it. Then at the end of the ’94/’95 season we obviously realised that for the following season there was going to be a vacuum – you’ve had the taste but there’s no follow on.

And I think that was the point we decided that if we’re going to have a go, that the opportunity might not always be around. By which time Matthew was on board, so we had what is now known as the Marriott Accord.

‘Football was changing dramatically. It was obvious that at that stage we were on the level of Crystal Palace and Queen’s Park Rangers and we had the opportunity, the ground was now secure, Matthew was now around, we were getting things together.

‘We would probably never have that opportunity again and we had to grab it with both hands, or really accept that we were going to be just a middle-of-the-road club, hoping that we would stay in the Premier League, hoping that we might have the occasional cup run, but not really having any ambitions above that. Or we had the opportunity of trying to break in.’

A room in Slough’s prosaic Marriott Hotel, just outside Heathrow, might not be the obvious setting for one of the most game-changing meetings in the history of Chelsea, but ambition can blossom anywhere. This was 21 May 1995, the morning after Everton met Manchester United in the FA Cup final.

And I think that was the point we decided that if we’re going to have a go, that the opportunity might not always be around. By which time Matthew was on board, so we had what is now known as the Marriott Accord.

‘Football was changing dramatically. It was obvious that at that stage we were on the level of Crystal Palace and Queen’s Park Rangers and we had the opportunity, the ground was now secure, Matthew was now around, we were getting things together.

‘We would probably never have that opportunity again and we had to grab it with both hands, or really accept that we were going to be just a middle-of-the-road club, hoping that we would stay in the Premier League, hoping that we might have the occasional cup run, but not really having any ambitions above that. Or we had the opportunity of trying to break in.’

A room in Slough’s prosaic Marriott Hotel, just outside Heathrow, might not be the obvious setting for one of the most game-changing meetings in the history of Chelsea, but ambition can blossom anywhere. This was 21 May 1995, the morning after Everton met Manchester United in the FA Cup final.

Manager Glenn Hoddle with 1995 signings Mark Hughes (left) and Ruud Gullit (right), fruits of the Marriott Accord

Players at their peak cost far more in transfer fees than thirtysomethings. Older, high-profile players were targeted at first because despite the future of Stamford Bridge having been secured, and Harding arriving as a benefactor, money was still an issue.

Yet the post-Marriott Accord years also brought the brilliance of Gianfranco Zola, Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Di Matteo, Marcel Desailly, George Weah and dozens more to grace the Bridge. Even after Harding’s death in October 1996 the philosophical legacy was partly his.

‘If Matthew hadn’t been around I’m not sure we would have embarked on that,’ said Hutchinson.

‘He certainly came in as a breath of fresh air. His enthusiasm for Chelsea was unparalleled. I mean, even though he was running a multi-million pound business, he lived Chelsea day and night and he certainly shared and supported the vision to want to stamp Chelsea’s mark on the European map.’

From Hoddle through Gullit to Vialli and beyond there was an unbroken line of managers building success on success. Without Harding’s input the Marriott Accord might never have happened, and without the Accord, the club may never have been considered a worthwhile investment by Roman Abramovich.

Hutchinson was on his way back from Bolton in October 1996 when he received a call from the team coach to say that a helicopter had gone down and there was a fear it might be Matthew and his party.

‘It’s all a blur now, but we were making calls through the night,’ he remembered. ‘There was no confirmation, but it was becoming more and more apparent what had happened.

‘It was the shock of somebody so vibrant, just gone like that. I remember the last conversation I had with him in the boardroom at Bolton, and we’d gone out of the League Cup. And in his half-serious, half-joking way he said, “Chelsea out of another cup… ” And I said to him, “Well, we’re going to have to try to win the FA Cup aren’t we?” He said, “Yeah, we’re bloody going to do it!”’

Which, of course, is exactly what came to pass when the Blues beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in May 1997. ‘Matthew Harding’s blue and white army!’ rang out from the stands throughout that campaign. And the club became exactly that: a powerful force he played a big part in building.

 

 

Yesterday's match day programme, with a retro cover in honour of Matthew Harding. The programme also includes a retrospective of the 96/97 season focusing on the huge outpouring of emotion at the game against Tottenham.

RIP Matthew.

 

 

A letter from the Harding Family.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2016/10/an-open-letter-from-the-harding-family.html

Firstly we would like to thank Chelsea Football Club for all of their hard work and effort in preparing and delivering such a fantastic tribute to our late father. The club has grown significantly over the past 20 years and the fact that you have acknowledged our father's legacy in such a manner has touched us all deeply and brought back so many fond memories of him and our time together watching our beloved Chelsea.

We would also like to thank Mr Abramovich for his contribution to the events, in particular his funding of the Matthew Harding flag. Since Mr Abramovich became involved in the club we have experienced high levels of success, something that our father would have been so excited by and would no doubt have raised a glass of Guinness to!

Last but by no means least; we would like to thank the fans along with the various Chelsea supporters clubs for their continued support of the Harding family. The reception we received during our lap of the pitch against Manchester United was completely unexpected and totally overwhelming. As Chelsea fans and season ticket holders in the Matthew Harding stand, we look forward to enjoying more success on the pitch together in the years to come.

KEEP THE BLUE FLAG FLYING HIGH!

Best wishes,

The Harding Family

What a superb letter.

Thanks for posting it, Boyne

On 10/21/2016 at 18:42, bluegraham said:

Yeah very sad day.   In fairness to spurs they respected  the minute silence. 

Strangely I remember it differently and Spurs making a bit of noise and being quite disrespectful. 

I was 8 years old at the time in the ground so my memory is a bit fuzzy!

Edited October 26, 20168 yr by benjsross

Was only 11 but I could be wrong about spurs fans but nearly sure they behaved well.   f**k 20 years ouch 

On 26/10/2016 at 11:14, Backbiter said:

What a superb letter.

Thanks for posting it, Boyne

I fully agree. For all the negativity towards the club in the media and from other fans, the club's honouring of Matthew Harding, the appreciation shown by his family towards the club, summed up beautifully in the letter posted above, shows that the heart and soul of Chelsea FC is very much alive and well.