David Conn: Taylor's labour of love in vain at Huddersfield

Terriers chairman faces huge financial loss as Second Division club is put into administration by unpaid players

A couple of months ago, the BBC was casting around for participants in a televised discussion about the financial extremes of English football, and settled eventually on Patrick Harverson, the PR voice of Manchester United, and David Taylor, the chairman of Huddersfield Town.

Taylor called for more equality in the game, gamely pointing out that at times in the past Huddersfield were "a lot more famous round the world" than the periodically ragged Old Trafford club. Harverson calmly made the standard justification for the 1992 Premier League breakaway, that clubs like his had to keep more of the money to compete with the European giants.

Spring has sprung since, and now United are preparing to face Real Madrid in the Champions' League quarter-final, attempting to reach the final at their own 67,700 capacity ground. Huddersfield are bottom of the Second Division, behind on the rent at their own ground, even though they part-own it, and will on Monday set a bizarre record – being put into administration by their players, who have not been paid fully for three months. Taylor himself will take a serious financial hit, losing heavy loans and being called to honour guarantees, which he provided in a vain effort to keep afloat the home town club he has supported all his life.

"It's a shame," he said this week. "I thought if we made it to the end of the season we could survive. I take it as a personal defeat that we've been pulled short five weeks before the end." He had a huge fight. An accountant, he was on the Terriers' board for six years until he left in January 1999 to make way for a takeover by Barry Rubery, a Yorkshire-based businessman – though not a Huddersfield fan – who made his fortune in micro-technology for televisions. Rubery was looking for a vehicle to secure another pot of TV gold: the football money in the Premiership. He appointed Steve Bruce as manager on a £200,000 salary, gave him a budget never seen before in these parts, and they set about spending their way to promotion.

Taylor this week said Rubery was "badly advised", referring not so much to the transfer fees spent as the pay packets they were offered: the wage bill had soared to £6m by 1999-2000. Huddersfield did march to the top of the First Division by Christmas 1999, but Rubery was already keen to reduce his exposure. Two months later the club sold the striker Marcus Stewart to Ipswich, rivals for promotion, who did go up via the play-offs, Stewart scoring in the final. But Huddersfield slipped, finishing 10th. They have kept sliding since. Bruce left in October 2000, but Huddersfield were relegated on the final day of the season, losing 2-1 at home to Birmingham, Crystal Palace escaping with a 1-0 away win at Stockport. By January 2002, Rubery had had enough, deciding to cut his losses at the estimated £10m he had thrown in.

Taylor stepped in when nobody else would, replacing Rubery as the guarantor of one major debt, and funding the club's ongoing losses. In Rubery's time, the directors, including Bruce, who was on the board, had been handsomely paid: £316,000 in 2000, and they were well compensated when they left. Taylor has since put in oceans of time without pay. He claims he was let down by others who promised support, but tried nevertheless to be ambitious:

"You take a calculated risk. We decided not to sell any players, even the high earners, to try to win promotion." Promotion to the First Division then meant £2m more annually from the ITV Digital deal, which Rubery had helped to negotiate, so with hindsight, given that three months later Carlton and Granada pulled the plug on their digital channel, Huddersfield need not have bothered. In the event, they made the play-offs but failed to get through. The debts continued to mount, and with some high earners such as Andy Booth, Martin Smith and Kenny Irons still there, the club, according to Taylor, has a £3m wage bill, mad for a club bottom of the Second Division.

If the club is most famous for three successive First Division championships won in 1924 – when Manchester United finished 14th in the Second Division – 1925 and 1926, their major contribution to the modern era has been the McAlpine Stadium, an award-winning inspiration among the mass produced functionality of so many post-Taylor Report grounds.

But even the celebrated stadium has become a millstone; money is still owed for completing the ground's fourth side. Although the club owns 40 per cent of the stadium alongside the local council and rugby league club, they are behind on the £800,000 annual rent they and the rugby club pay.

Given their wage bill, PAYE is a major monthly headache and Huddersfield are said to owe £1.5m, although why the Inland Revenue allows football clubs' bills to run on so long is beyond most people's understanding. Both Taylor and the Professional Footballers' Association put the total debts at around £8m, although this excludes Rubery's £9m legacy. He paid debts of that scale, then converted his loan into preference shares, which are due to be redeemed, bought back by the club, in 2007. But the club's insolvency could make them redeemable now, bringing the club's total debts, to be set out before the High Court on Monday, at £17m.

As early as October this season, Taylor paid the players' wages himself. The PFA loaned £63,000 to help cover it the following month. Since December, only junior professionals have been paid. Taylor has been trying to construct rescue packages based on the players, via the PFA, dropping their wages, and the stadium company reducing the rent. He said investors would then put money in, but the PFA ran out of patience waiting for concrete proposals. Taylor was deeply reluctant to put the club into administration, which means the debts are reduced because creditors are forced to accept less than what they are owed. Partly, he said, there was no need to incur the heavy fees of administration, but significantly, he himself is a major creditor and now, aged 60, he will lose what he described as a "huge financial commitment."

Gordon Taylor, the PFA's chief executive, said that administration offered the club a chance of surviving, and no other options were realistic, and ultimately the players, as a major creditor, were entitled to force the issue. "We believe there is a fair chance that a club of Huddersfield's stature will be attractive enough to be bought by somebody out of administration," he said. "The players couldn't continue to be left unpaid."

Paul Haigh, a former director who fell out with David Taylor, is known to be preparing a bid for the club. Taylor, reduced to the role of bystander, is taking his troubles philosophically. "I always thought I'd be working till I'm 75, and now I certainly will be. I've tried my hardest, and I have to count my blessings. It could be a lot worse; I could be in Iraq now, not just fighting to save a football club in Huddersfield."

A supporters' trust, the Huddersfield Survival Trust, has formed promptly, hoping to raise money and work constructively to help the club, encouraged by the example of York City, whose supporters' trust succeeded this week in finally buying control of their club from the administrator.

"There can be no question of David Taylor's credentials as a true Town fan," said a Trust spokesman, Robert Pepper. "He saved the club, but its problems were too great for him. Now we have to do everything we can to see the club through this period." A fan for 50 years, he remembers watching Town in the 1950s under a hardworking Scottish manager, Bill Shankly. In December 1956 a scrawny 16-year-old striker was given his debut by Shankly at the old Leeds Road ground: Denis Law.

Further back, in 1919, Huddersfield experienced a financial crisis similar to today's, coming close to liquidation until they were saved by a community effort, bucket collections and share subscriptions, all of which are being planned now. Just two years later, a manager arrived at the impoverished Leeds Road for his first job; he was a former Spurs reserve called Herbert Chapman. Within two years, Huddersfield were League champions. They did it again twice, although Chapman left in 1925 to fashion Arsenal's lucky years.

Town fans will look to old times for inspiration, but football has changed. Manchester United, heading for their next revenue-spinning ties, are not thought to be glancing worriedly over their shoulders to check if the Terriers are snapping back to life.

davidconn@independent.co.uk