By Matt Storey
Chesterfield have apologised to fans after seemingly misleading fans about the result of a club raffle.
The club released a statement saying the winner of a trip on the Spireites pre-season tour of Hungary was found to “be an illegimate entry” and that “information to the club had been clearly falsified.”
This statement was released just four days after the club had originally said that the winner, a Surrey based Chesterfield fan going by the name of James Higgins, had unfortunately fallen ill and would miss the chance to travel with the squad.
Chesterfield ended the article by saying that any fans who had entered the draw would recieve a full refund as a gesture of goodwill, suspicious considering it was a supposedly legitimate raffle.
This wasn’t the first time the circumstances surrounding the raffle had been questioned by fans, with the draw and a winner (who no Chesterfield fan had heard of) only being announced after a disgruntled member of a Spireites messageboard contacted the club to find out when the draw was being made.
Local reports seem to suggest the reason the club went so quiet about the draw was due to only a very small number of fans buying the £10 raffle ticket, with some saying it was as low as just five people.
Director Ashley Carson said in a statement that the club will review its marketing and communication procedures after the incident, but the opinion amongst many fans is that the damage has already been done.
The club have now sacked Kevin Fitzgerald, who was the head of commercial and marketing at the club.
