By Nathan Jackson
December 13 2005

Following the secret arrangement of Friday's game, Oxford fans are becoming even more impatient with chairman Firoz Kassam. They accuse Kassam of not caring about the club and Kassam's treatment of the club, is often described as similar to that of a player of Monopoly buying Old Kent Road.

xford United, are a club with a proud history, but the mumblings down at the Kassam Stadium reveal the fans are far from happy with how the club is heading at the minute. Back in October, theimps.tk noticed that the fixture that was originally scheduled for this Saturday had been re-arranged, however, neither club had announced that change until we asked why. The general opinion for the game being changed was believed to be that it is the final shopping Saturday before Christmas, however, the reason appears slightly more dubious than that.

Firoz Kassam, chairman of Oxford United has been accused about not caring about the club, after putting the club up for sale for just £1 last year and Oxford fans have been angered with the news that the game was rearranged...........for a conference. Understandably, both sets of fans have been angered by this, especially considering the fact that it now means that several hundred fans won't be able to make the game for various reasons. Reading comments on an Oxford message board, they seem to agree that the game should have been rearranged to Sunday, rather than Friday night. Firoz's apparant lack of caring about the club is exampled by the fans by the fact that he was perfectly willing to arrange a conference for the same day as a the match and letting them dictate what happened regarding the match.

Oxford fan Eric Read seems to sum it up perfectly.

"It's all about priorities really, and OUFC obviously do not come top of kassam's list. Interestingly, if the club and stadium were sold together, then these sorts of conflicts of interest would not occur, we would be a football club with a conference centre attached, not the other way round which is how it currently seems."

In all fairness, I won't claim to know the full history of Kassam's seemingly self important reign as chairman of Oxford, however, I can safely say that football doesn't need people like Mr Kassam. Much like Premiership chairman, Mr Kassam seems more obsessed with making money than the football club and the less men like this that are in football, the better. There is a rule when someone buys a football club, that they have the club's interests at heart, however, Mr Kassam's interest in Oxford United seems to come second to thickening his wallet and no matter what any chairman says, there is no justification for letting people who book a conference, dictact what happens to a match, which more people care about than their conference.

The Tanzanian is often regarded as being a child playing Monopoly. A man with several assets. Firoz's main interest is his company, the Firoka group, a company that he dragged up from the ashes and both himself and the company, are worth over £100million each, however, many are unconvinced as to his commitment to Oxford United because Oxford aren't known for spending big to try and get out of the division. If Firoz's interests were on a monopoly board, Oxford United, based on the history of things, would probably be the equivalent of Old Kent Road, a minor inconveinience that you have to get past before getting into assets that would be deemed more valuable.

The sooner Kassam gets out of Oxford United Football Club, the sooner the club can progress.