After 32 years of watching Ipswich Town I have decided to give up my season ticket.  I haven’t left the club, the club that I grew to love has left me.  I won’t pay a single penny more of my hard earned cash to watch a game at Portman Road so long as Evans and Milne remain at the helm.

No, the football hasn’t been great to watch in recent years, but that isn’t my reason for having Finally. Had. Enough.  My earliest clear memories of watching ITFC are from the Bobby Ferguson and John Duncan era, so I hardly have a low threshold for unappealing, shite football.  That’s really not it. Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor are decent men who have done a good job with the resources and players available to them. I have huge respect for them.  They are a symptom not the problem.

People go to watch football for all kinds of reasons.  If people are happy handing over their cash with little scrutiny or transparency about how it is spent and where it goes, then good for them.  Not everyone feels a need to look at the bigger picture, or worries about how the club is treating its employees, suppliers or the local community. It’s clear from social media that some fans think of ITFC as Marcus Evans’ club rather than theirs and that’s fine by me if they are happy having that kind of relationship.  I’m not prepared to have that deferential, unquestioning, cap-doffing relationship with my club.

I get that if the ethics of how you spend your money is of any consideration in life, then football probably isn’t the sport for you.  Even much lauded fan owned FC United of Manchester is currently fraught with internal battles, with lawyers involved in claim and counter claim and a swathe of resignations from the board.  I know that my perfect football club is unlikely to ever exist. So I’ve turned a blind eye and tried to stay focussed on the on-field rather than off-field activity, as niggling concern on top of niggling concern has built up, and I just can’t do it any more.

According to Swiss Ramble Marcus Evans paid £32 million to take over the club in 2007.  The most recent figures show that the current debt at ITFC is £87.194 million.  I might be missing something, but does anyone else see evidence of £55 million of investment? We made a pre-tax profit of £5.3 million in the 2014/2015 financial year - so why did we need to loan an extra £2.177 million from elsewhere in the Marcus Evans group?

The ground is shabby and dilapidated; look closely at the the peeling paint, dirt and stains around the place.  I wouldn’t be bothered by that stuff if I didn’t keep being told that the owner has “invested” in club.

The match day catering operation is clearly run on shoe-string.  Never enough staff on duty, and frequently many of the things advertised for sale not in stock.  I’ve been told stories of ‘instructions from above’ to hold as little stock as possible with purchases and invoicing being micro managed to the extent that on occasion staff have to make last minute Friday night dashes to the local cash and carry when it’s apparent the catering outlets are woefully under stocked.  A man who according to the most recent Sunday Times Rich List is worth £765 million won’t even pay staff a living wage, and even had the front to try and get volunteers to do what could and should be a paid role.  Maybe it’s an old fashioned and out of touch view that football clubs are well placed to enhance and benefit the wider local community, and paying staff a proper and fair wage which is then spent in the local economy should be something that any decent football club would pride itself on.

Ipswich Town was one of only three clubs that a 2010 investigation by Christian Aid could not locate where they were registered for tax purposes – page 38 of their ‘Blowing The Whistle’ report states: “The annual return of Ipswich Town Football Club Company Limited shows that 87.5 per cent of ordinary shares and 100 per cent of preferred shares are owned by Marcus Evans Investments Limited. Despite our best efforts, we could not prove by documentation where that company is located. Press reports suggest it is based in Bermuda”.  Since then, it’s materialised that the club is now currently registered in the Isle of Man, having been transferred from a holding company in Bermuda in October 2014.  Where is the consent from supporters for this move?  Yet another decision taken in secret with little regard for fans or our community.  Money earned in this country should be taxed in this country.  I work in an NHS mental health service in crisis; savaged by cuts over the past six years.  The idea that by paying to watch ITFC my wages might be contributing to tax avoidance, rather than the club paying its fair share, sickens me.  Suffolk County Council has seen huge cuts to its services, including the fire service.  A football club should understand and meet its responsibilities to its community.  What possible motive could there be for registering a football club in Bermuda or the Isle of Man? The current financial home of our club has ‘no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, no corporation tax, no stamp duty, and income tax comes in very low indeed’.

And what of the academy?  I urge any of you with a spare hour to go and have a nose around up at the training ground.  Where is this “investment”?  Fans have been emotionally blackmailed and cajoled in to supporting the academy over the past few years.

As supporters are asked to dig ever deeper and deeper in to our pockets, how about some transparency about fund raising events?  Have those taking part in the fundraising matches and cycle rides given their time for free, or been paid a fee?  I understand that former players need to earn a living, and it’s a struggle for those who didn’t manage to earn big money during their career.  But let’s just be clear and up front about it, and let’s see the detailed accounts; what are the costs of any fundraising event taken out of money raised, and where fees have been paid to individuals let’s see evidence that tax has been paid on that income.

We were all told our money was needed for the ‘big push’ for category 1 status.  That never materialised, and now without an all weather pitch we risk not even retaining category 2.  I understand that work was meant to start on a new all weather pitch last Monday, but as yet there is no sign of any work.  Everything is done to the cheapest possible standard, and if there is a chance to scrape by the requirements of maintaining category 2 by building the pitch in very slow stages, then this appears to be Evans preferred approach.  Fans should be told; has the owner given up on Category One status and are cuts being made at the academy?

How much of money raised by fans has been used to “invest” in the academy by paying the rent on the training ground.  You know, the one we used to own!  The one that has been sold at a knock down price and transferred, again without our consent - and without even an acknowledgement at the time to those that paid for shares that make up 12.5% ownership of our club, until the next time the annual accounts were published - to a part of Evans’ empire registered in Guernsey. It’s been impossible to find out how much the club is currently paying for the privilege of renting something that used to be ours.  Figures of £300,000 have been circulated but, like so much associated with the way Ipswich Town is run these days, it’s impossible to find out.

I have seen other warning signs that point to a lack of investment at the academy.  A flood in the car park was left unrepaired for weeks.  Judging from the smell the flood was from the laundry room, so detergent laden water was flooding on to part of the pitch, causing contamination.

I’ve observed a couple of training sessions on dimly lit pitches because lots of the floodlights are not working. When I returned this year they still haven’t been fixed, almost two years later!

I’m too world weary to even go in to the money from the transfers of Cresswell and Mings.  Yes players have been brought in, and we have wages to pay.  Are we really convinced that the calibre of player currently at the club accounts for all the income we’ve generated, and explains away how our debt to Marcus Evans is so massive?

Marcus Evans is no saviour and as there seems to be no sign of him getting out of my club I guess the choice I have is to take it or leave it. I’ll leave it for now.