A member of Chesterfield’s staff has left the club following an internal investigation into a raffle for a place at the club’s pre-season training camp that sold only four tickets and was won by a “falsified” entry.
The League One club said their head of commercial and marketing, Kevin Fitzgerald, has left after a supporter spotted that the winner for a place on the training camp in Hungary possibly did not exist.
“After a thorough internal investigation, I can now confirm the person responsible for this total farce has now left the football club,” said the Chesterfield director and company secretary, Ashley Carson.
“I am still reeling from the shameful incident that has attracted nationwide headlines for the club for all the wrong reasons,” Carson said. “Kevin Fitzgerald has been a hard-working, respected, likeable employee who has, for some reason, made a massive error of judgment and has paid the consequences for his actions. The board were unaware of his actions and have taken swift action after uncovering the truth.
“I do hope we can look for a replacement to head our commercial department, move forward and pick up the pieces from the whole sorry mess.”
Chesterfield had stated the competition had been won by Surrey-based James Higgins. The club had even sent him a get well soon message in a press release because Higgins was apparently too ill to attend the training camp in Hungary.
In a statement, Carson said: “I have discovered that a winning entry was not legitimate and the information supplied to the club’s communications department had clearly been falsified with regards to the winner of a place at the pre-season training camp.
“Fortunately, no supporters have been affected financially or inconvenienced. However, the club has a zero-tolerance approach to such misleading activities and we remain committed to supporting our supporters on every level, which includes transparency and clear communications.”
Carson, who was tipped off by a supporter who had “concerns” about the competition, for which tickets cost £20, added: “Chesterfield Football Club apologises unreservedly to the four supporters who entered the competition.”