Ten years ago this week, a young woman named Angie Rowe picked up a microphone, took a deep breath and launched a passionate plea for her local football club. At that time, the club was on the brink of oblivion. Its debts were crushing, its assets were negligible, and it occupied 92nd and last place in what we once called the Football League.
And yet, on a cold, rain-lashed evening, 150 people gathered at a city centre hotel to see if the club might dare to dream of a viable future. Angie had called the meeting to form the 'Tigers Co-operative Trust Fund' with the aim of issuing shares, raising money and giving the fans an independent voice. She spoke with quiet eloquence.
'We don't want pitch invasions, poster campaigns, hate mail, anything like that,' she said. 'But there comes a point when you can't carry on saying: "I can't do anything about it." We can all do something if we try.' I well remember the impressive dignity of the occasion. I remember the applause for a large, shaven-headed gentleman when he announced: 'My family's already decided to chip in £2.50 a week for 10 months. My mother's agreed, my sister's agreed. And they don't even like football!' Above all, I remember the defiant intensity of their belief that Hull City Football Club would one day achieve something wonderful.
Hull experienced some hard and hazardous times in the years that followed that fateful night but their subsequent success has done those dreamers proud.
Which brings us to Phil Gartside.
Phil is the chairman of Bolton, a member of the FA board and another of football's dreamers. Phil's dream is to have not one but two Premier Leagues, each of 18 clubs, with no relegation from Premier League Two.
He says: 'It would be revolutionary. But I don't think this would be as revolutionary as when the Premier League was set up and we should open our minds to change.'
Shrugging off the notion of Phil Gartside as Che Guevara, and setting aside a long-held personal conviction that the formation of the Premier League was an unmitigated calamity for English football, let us focus on his support for the abolition of relegation.
This is Gartside's crude and artless way of telling us that he has spent far too many seasons worrying whether Bolton are going to go up or down and that he would like some peace of mind and security of pocket, thank you very much.He'd quite like to give himself a bit of insurance with two plump and greedy leagues and, as for the rest of the losers, well, they know what they can do.
Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, was quick to squash Gartside's exercise in self-protection, pointing out that the threat of relegation sharpens the competitive edge. However, we recall Scudamore's fumbling flirtation with the so-called 39th game. We also recall his claim that the Premier League was 'a shining example of redistribution'.
When Scudamore speaks, it is best to have several buckets of salt close at hand.
In fact, the current Premier League's broadcasting contracts stand at some £2.7billion, which guarantees each team between £28million and £50million a season until 2010.
By contrast, the Football League's television deal will be worth £264m between 2009 and 2011. Or slightly more than £1.2m per Football League club per season, with most of the money going to Championship clubs.
Those of us who recall the relatively happy days, when the Football League was a sturdy co-operative with each club enjoying a reasonable share of the game's income, will treat Scudamore's 'shining example' with appropriate derision.
Which takes us back to the bold Gartside.
In the course of his ramblings he demanded that British club owners be protected from the invasion of foreign investors: 'The Sheik of wherever and people like the Glazers.'
So, foreign players are more than welcome - and Bolton have welcomed them by the score. Yet foreign owners should be treated as a threat to upstanding Brits like Mike Ashley. Truly, Phil's logic is as questionable as his taste.
But let us return to the season, 10 years ago this week, when they held that significant meeting in Hull's city centre. Let us see what Phil's far-sighted plan might have produced at the close of 1998-99. Well, the top 36 clubs would have been fine, of course, including Bolton in 26th place. But among the names who would have been cast into the outer darkness, with no possibility of redemption, were Portsmouth, Fulham, Wigan, Stoke, Reading and Manchester City.
As for Hull City, who finished 89th, they would have had no place in Gartside's exclusive cartel. Yet this was the club for whom Angie Rowe declared: 'We can all do something if we try.'
And this is the club which is now rubbing shoulders with the elite of the English game. So let's tip our hats to the strivers and the fighters. Let's acclaim the people who believe we can all make a difference. Let's ignore the squeals of brazen self-interest from the likes of Phil Gartside.
And let's hear it for the dreamers.
Quite right, that man. Not something I envisioned myself saying about a journalist from the Mail.
