The stand that hurt the town: Northampton Town's "missing millions" ten years and no charges

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

In the seminal 90’s bank heist movie “Heat”, Neil McCauley’s crew plans one last job worth $12.2 million or £9.5 million sterling.

Perhaps Robert De Niro would consider the £10.25 million loan that went “missing” at Northampton Town Football Club as too outlandish a tale to go method on.

Yet, nevertheless, the total at one of English football’s worst ever governance failures exceeds that of Hollywood scriptwriters’ fantasies.

Macauley got his comeuppance on the airport tarmac in the movie, while no-one has ever been charged, some 10 years later, for the 2014 Northampton Town “missing millions” scandal, which likely exceeds £13 million with associated costs.

Where do you start unpicking a story about the redevelopment of a nondescript English League 2 football ground, which saw the disappearance of over £10,000,000 in public readies?

The BBC reported the following police investigations into “allegations of theft and fraud, bribery, misconduct in public office and electoral offences”

Back in 2013, it was announced that Northampton Town FC, the East Midlands football club, had agreed a deal with Northampton Borough Council for a significant loan to increase capacity at their Sixfields stadium to around 10,000 and to build a conference centre and hotel.

By 2014, the plans had changed from a well-received artist’s impression of a suped-up East Stand, to a scaled down version with restricted views and a structure on stilts on the West Stand opposite.

The new capacity, once touted at 10,000 was lowered to just 8,500, whilst a supermarket, shops and 225 homes had been added to the plans.

Bobby D would be right to be raising an eyebrow at this particular twist in the story and by October 2014, it was almost no surprise when it was announced that work on the East Stand had been stopped due to a “contractual dispute.”

A year later, with the club playing in front of a shell of an East Stand, news broke that the Cobblers had been issued a Winding Up petition by HRMC, following on from an order by the Council to repay the £10 million loan within three weeks.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Sixfields stadium East Stand.

Soon after, in October 2015, it was announced that the company set up to oversee the stadium redevelopment, County Developments (Northampton ) Limited (CDNL) had been forced into liquidation. The directors of CDNL were the then club chairman David Cardoza and his father Anthony.

Moreover, the appointed contractors 1st Land Limited, were in administration, leaving Cobblers fans fearing for the future of the club, formed in 1897 and in shock at how building works for simple stadium upgrades could have gone so awry.

David Mackintosh, the Conservative Northampton South MP in 2015, had been Council leader when the huge loan was approved, publicly accepted the gravity of the situation, telling the BBC, “clearly as leader I have to take some responsibility for what happened.”

Mackintosh stepping down as MP just two years after he was elected was not the last time he was heard of publicly.

Meanwhile, The BBC revealed £2.65 million of the council loan had been passed to club chairman David Cardoza and his father Anthony.

The Director of 1st Land Ltd was reported to have failed in a previous business venture.

On November 23 2015, Northamptonshire Police announced they had started an investigation into “alleged financial irregularities” into the £10.25 million loan, following the halting of stadium works a year earlier, which now makes it over a decade, without anyone standing in the dock to face answers on where the missing millions went.

Sadly, such a financial disaster never comes without shockwaves that are felt years after.

While a 2015 takeover of the club by a consortium led by Kelvin Thomas and David Bower, saw the majority of the council debt wiped, CNDL acquired by the new owners and the club put back on an even keel, relations between the incoming group and the Northampton Town supporters’ trust have been strained.

The current day supporters’ trust, chaired by former Northampton Chronicle and Echo correspondent Andy Roberts and with legendary ex-manager Ian Atkins on the board, have drawn ire from club chairman Thomas, who in a recent BBC Radio Northampton interview said “all they (the supporters’ trust) have got is conspiracy theories and they don’t focus on any of the positives around the football club”.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Sixfields Stadium.

This month, the supporters’ trust responded to the spiky interview from Thomas, stating “there is no vendetta, If that is his perception of the trust reasonably questioning the club’s governance and development plans, then in our view it is an absurd overreaction and the questions will continue until we received satisfactory answers.”

Fan-ownership pioneer Brian Lomax started the first ever supporters’ trust at Northampton in 1992, kick-starting the DIY ethos that saw supporters take control at Exeter City and AFC Wimbledon among various others.

Lomax sadly died of cancer with his beloved Cobblers in crisis in 2015, with some of his last public words in the form of a speech on the pitch at Sixfields, delivered by his daughter Emily, “Don’t accept tin-pot saviours and two-bit conmen, believing it’s them or oblivion, because it’s not…. You are Northampton Town, not the owners.”

As always, land matters loom large at Sixfields with the never-ending-story of the East Stand hopefully coming to an end.

The glass now glints in the stand that was once a shell and corporate guests may well be in place for the beginning of next season. The claret and whites perform miracles on the pitch under the guidance of Jon Brady, keeping their heads above water in League 1 despite serious injury problems.

For many supporters, just getting the ground done will be a relief with the unfinished stand being a constant reminder of what went on and justice yet to be done.

However, the return to the football club seems modest, around 165 extra general admission seats added to the existing stand that stood before the Cardozas took over, plus some executive boxes, a club bar, reception, car park and relief road.

When adding the £10million loan to the £5 million outlay for the stand for 165 general admission seats it equates to an eye-watering £90,000 a seat.

For context, Luton Town, 35 miles down the M1, installed their Kenilworth Road executive boxes in 1986 and are currently well into the planning for the 25,000 capacity new stadium at Power Court. Meanwhile, Cambridge United, another of Northampton’s regional rivals are working on plans to take the Abbey Stadium to 12,000 with a 3,500 safe standing terrace.

Northampton has always had an awkward relationship with grand designs. The late, great architect Will Alsop grew up a stone’s throw away from the Cobblers old County ground. The rumour is that he designed the lauded Peckham Library for Northampton and it is true that his plans for a cultural mile in Northampton were rejected. Alsop died in 2018 with not a single building he designed standing in the town.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Sixfields Stadium East Stand nears completion.

Some will argue that the Cobblers are lucky to get the stand finished at all, given the scale of the problems in 2015. The design was inherited and instituted by the Cardozas, leading fans to call it a “carbuncle” but now looking more in keeping.

Yet, with the BBC’s Jake Sharpe posting on X that “debt will be around £15 million once the stand is complete, any money taken-out from the development would draw down on the debt but I would be surprised if it got close to clearing it completely”, it seems the tangible benefits to kick the club on in the long term are limited on face value.

Northampton Town are survivors above all else and maybe survival is not to be sniffed at.

Chairman Thomas, suggested in the BBC Radio Northampton interview that the club are in the process of fronting their own planning application for the wider land at Sixfields, that never did see houses or retail or supermarkets under the previous incumbents.

Talking of houses, David Cardoza’s wife Christine had a home in East Sussex seized and sold in 2022 with the £466,000 proceeds going back to what is now West Northants Council.

The BBC reported that a “portion of the loan money was also used to remodel David and Christina Cardoza's former home at Church Brampton near Northampton”.

Former MP David Mackintosh was found not-guilty in court over charges of failing to disclose the true source of political donations. "I have cleared my name” he said.

And while the £10.25 million is in excess of those Hollywood bank heist films, world wars have been fought and settled and made into movies in less time than the police inquiry into the Sixfields missing millions has been going on.

It’s not surprising that there have been fallouts and continuing rows. The Cobblers should be sitting pretty in a game-changing stadium, that might put them in a position to do one over hated rivals Peterborough and perhaps have a crack at the Championship.

So sad that it’s the folk who care about the Cobblers, no matter what their approach, that turn on each other, while the people that carried off the mess probably won’t lose a minute’s sleep about the team’s fortunes, nor know the words to “The Fields are green”.

No justice no peace has been a powerful phrase of late but the justice hasn't been easy at Sixfields.

There has been no proof in the form of prosecutions that any crime has even taken place.

Pass on this script Mr De Niro, people won’t believe it happened.