Sparta Hendrikstad

Sparta Hendrikstad was a Brunanter football club that existed from 1924 to 1987. It was based in Sint-Hendrikstad, and dissolved in 1987 after an enormous scandal surrounding both match-fixing and the murder of one of its players, Ferius Wilshere. Hendrikstad FC succeeded Sparta Hendrikstad as the main football club of Sint-Hendrikstad, but has not quite managed to match its success.

History
Sparta Hendrikstad was founded in 1924 as the first football club of Sint-Hendrikstad. It joined the Royal Brunanter Football Association in 1925, and was one of the teams in the inaugural Second League. The club experienced only moderate success during the next few decades, playing in the First League for the 1931-32, 1950-51 and 1956-57 seasons, but never remained for more than one season at a time.

In the 1960's, the club's fortunes began to improve, as it finished second in the 1964-65 Second League and then finished 16th in the 1965-66 First League, avoiding relegation. The next season Sparta Hendrikstad slipped to 18th, but avoided relegation with a 2-1 win over FC Pieter II on the final matchday. In the 1967-68 First League, the club finished 13th. After that season, another football club was set up in Sint-Hendrikstad, an amateur team called Hendrikstad FC, which would effectively be a feeder team for Sparta Hendrikstad.

However, in the 1968-69 First League, Sparta Hendrikstad finished 19th and were relegated to the Second League again. Thereby, Hendrikstad FC was rendered ineligible for promotion from the Parish League System, as they were deemed non-independent from Sparta.

Throughout the 1970's, Sparta Hendrikstad finished seasons with mid-table results in the Second League, apart from a cameo in the First League for the 1974-75 season, in which they finished 20th.

In the first half of the 1980's, things continued to look similar for Sparta Hendrikstad. However, in the summer of 1985, one player was signed by Hendrikstad FC who would massively impact both clubs: Ferius Wilshere. There are various contradicting stories about how he was discovered by the club, with one claiming he was sighted by a scout at a football pitch in Drenthe, and another claiming his parents convinced a scout to let him trial at the club. Even the exact date and location of Wilshere's birth are in dispute: it is believed he was born in 1965 (either 1 June, 20 August or 19 December) in either Niesburg, Carrington or Huddersfield in England (it is known that his parents came from that town).

At Hendrikstad FC, Wilshere had an immediate impact, scoring an average of roughly two goals a game, leading the team to win the 1985-86 Western League; however, Hendrikstad FC could not participated in the promotion playoffs, as they were still not considered independent from Sparta Hendrikstad. In the summer of 1986, Ferius Wilshere was promoted to the main squad of Sparta Hendrikstad.

In the 1986-87 Second League, Wilshere quickly rose to stardom for his goalscoring prowess, scoring 33 goals in the 18 matches of the season. This was a record at the time, and the highest season total scored by any other player to date has been 20, achieved by Zudinho for Grijzestad University S.C. in the 2005-06 Second League. However, Zudinho's total is generally considered the record, however, as it was later revealed that Thomas Helmsford, then-manager of Sparta Hendrikstad, had taken part in match-fixing, bribing at least two referees and at least four opposition players, and accepting bribes from other parties as well.

As Wilshere became a star and led Sparta Hendrikstad to win the 1986-87 Second League, he simultaneously began to develop a negative reputation as well. Early in the 1986-87 season, Wilshere had a quarrel with manager/coach Albert Johansen. Sparta Hendrikstad's management, determined to keep Wilshere at the club, demoted Johansen to being the manager of Hendrikstad FC and appointed Thomas Helmsford as the manager. Wilshere would get along a lot better with Helmsford, but rifts also began to appear between him and several of his fellow players, as Wilshere outperformed them, but would often boast when he did, and even insult and intimidate his fellow players when they performed poorly. In February 1987, Sparta player John P. Newell complained publicly about Wilshere's behaviour, leading the club's management to demote him to the Hendrikstad FC squad.

Wilshere also garnered a lot of animosity from opposing players and fans, as he also insulted and intimidated them. He also sometimes had fits of aggression; in a match against FC Taurus Niesburg, he scored a goal, but then he violently tackled Niesburg forward Egbert Friese and was red-carded. After the end of the 1986-87 season, Cameroonian footballer Joseph Koundé, whose contract with Roodstad Athletic has just come to an end, publicly complained that Wilshere had harassed him after the fixture between Sparta and Roodstad, and had gone on a tirade of racist remarks. In response to this, Thomas Helmsford effectively launched a smear campaign against Koundé with other managers of Brunanter clubs, scaring them off signing Koundé; as a result, Koundé was left a free agent at the end of the summer, and eventually moved to France, where he would play for a few small teams, but his career was left stagnated.

In another incident, Peter Nelson, a Helmond RSC fan, angrily confronted Wilshere at a press conference in November 1986 following a game between Sparta and HRSC, accusing Wilshere of playing foul and threatening Helmond players. An argument ensued, and eventually Wilshere punched Nelson. Nelson attempted to sue Wilshere for damages, but the case was dismissed, apparently because Nelson had excessively provoked Wilshere. Nelson repeatedly spoke about the incident to the media, but in January 1987 he died, in what was official deemed a robbery, but rumours persist that Helmsford or Wilshere had hired a gang member to kill him.

Additionally, Wilshere reportedly drew the ire of local gangs by accepting bribes to play badly, but then playing normally, causing the gangs to lose money with their gambling.

Sparta Hendrikstad were promoted to the 1987-88 First League, and Wilshere was their main "poster player". Over the summer break, the club was bought for a high-but-classified price by Singaporean businessman R. Abdul Yanniq, and numerous other Singaporean and Southeast Asian investors joined the board of directors. Wilshere played two matches for the Brunant national football team over the summer, scoring twice in a 2-2 draw with Greece and four times in a 6-0 rout of Malta, and was the first player to play for the national team while with Sparta.

Both the team and Wilshere got off to a great start in the 1987-88 season: Wilshere scored one goal in a 2-2 draw with FC Kings, two in a 4-1 win over Middleton Arrows, three in a 5-0 win over FC Pieter II, two in a 2-1 win over Helmond Raiders and four in a 6-1 rout of FC Drenthe. However, unbeknownst to the public eye, a chain of events was in progress that would lead to Wilshere's murder on x September 1987, between the fifth and sixth matchdays of the First League.

Sparta Hendrikstad player Joshua Creane was frustrated that, despite scoring in the games against FC Kings and FC Pieter II, he'd received very little public attention compared to Wilshere, and he did not even have a secure spot in the starting eleven. Meanwhile, another Sparta player, Bob de Boer, felt that he had been heavily mistreated by Wilshere in the past year, but the club had done nothing about it because of their dependence on Wilshere's scoring. At some point in early September 1987, Creane and de Boer met together and came to the conclusion that their careers and lives were being damaged by Wilshere, and nobody was likely to listen to their concerns, least of all Helmsford or the club's administration. They thought that, because Wilshere had so many enemies, it would be easy to kill him and get away with it, but neither of them had the nerve to kill Wilshere personally. So, Creane and de Boer conspired to get a disgruntled fan or gang member to kill Wilshere.

In the meantime, Johansen, Newell, and the other players and staff of Hendrikstad FC were increasingly pressuring Yanniq and the rest of the Sparta Hendrikstad administration to let Hendrikstad FC become an independent club, not wanting to be a second-rate feeder club any longer.

When, on Matchday 5, Sparta Hendrikstad beat FC Drenthe 6-1 with Wilshere scoring four of the goals, Creane and de Boer had the window of opportunity they had been looking for. After the game, they left the stadium quickly while Wilshere was still at a press conference, and met a group of five FC Drenthe fans who were also leaving the stadium, consisting of Peter Roberts-Jackson, Arnold van Sneek, Chelsea Farnham, Muhamad Al-Musaid and Dean Koopman. They were described as being livid because of the result of the match, and at least a few of them were intoxicated. Creane and de Boer told them where Wilshere had parked his car (he always parked in a quiet spot a few blocks away from the stadium), and offered them money to kill him, which they gladly accepted.

While Creane and de Boer drove to Donderstad in the hope that distance would make it less likely for them to be connected to the murder, the group of five drove to where Wilshere's car was parked, and when he arrived and was just about to get in his car, they ambushed him. Robert-Jackson, van Sneek, Al-Musaid and Koopman beat Wilshere with a baseball bat and several pieces of rubble they had found nearby, killing him, while Farnham remained in the car and drove the group from the scene of the crime. Before they left, Roberts-Jackson smashed Wilshere's car with the baseball bat in a drunken frenzy, while van Sneek and Al-Musaid took Wilshere's wallet in a clumsy attempt to make the attack look like a robbery; they later gave this wallet to Farnham for safekeeping.

When the news of Wilshere's death reached the public the next day, the media was quickly whipped into a frenzy. Sparta Hendrikstad was thrown into disarray, with the team without its star player, and Helmsford made a variety of public accusations, mainly accusing staff from FC Drenthe or FC Donderar, who were to be their next opponent. Sessions of a sort of mass mourning were held at Sparta Hendrikstad's stadium, which delayed the match with FC Donderar by one day. In the match against FC Donderar, both Creane and de Boer were in the starting eleven, but Sparta lost 0-2, their first loss that season. Following Wilshere's death and the 0-2 loss, several companies also withdrew their sponsorship of the team, causing further unrest for Helmsford and the administration. The National Police initially treated the case as a robbery, though some criminal experts pointed this out as unlikely, as Wilshere had been wearing a golden watch at the time of his death.

The day after the murder, Dean Koopman and three other people were killed in a car crash outside Cape Cross; it is unclear whether there was foul play involved.

Two days after the FC Donderar match, Chelsea Farnham had a nervous breakdown over both Koopman's death and her part in the murder. She went to the police and told them about the events of the murder, giving them Wilshere's wallet and some of the money from Creane and de Boer as evidence. The police quickly arrested Roberts-Jackson and van Sneek, but Al-Musaid was shot and killed at his house by police officer Bill McSmith. McSmith and two other police officers who were present at the scene testified that Al-Musaid had pulled a gun on them when they tried to arrest him, but police officer Andy Brownfield and Muhamad's brother Omar Al-Musaid said that Muhamad had been unarmed when McSmith had shot him. Ultimately, no legal action was taken against McSmith about the matter, although McSmith was fired from the National Police in 1991 after sexually harassing a female colleague; rumouredly, he left Brunant soon afterwards.

Creane and de Boer were arrested, as well as Kyle Sullivan and Sam Pietersen, two Sparta Hendrikstad players who had reportedly made threats against Wilshere. Two days before the trial about the murders was scheduled to be held, Chelsea Farnham was found dead in her cell of a heroin overdose; how she got access to the heroin is unknown, but several guards resigned from the prison where she had been held over the next few days.

As Sparta Hendrikstad were now missing five players from their squad, Thomas Helmsford that they would not be able to play their next fixture, and Arabian FC received a 3-0 walkover.

At the trial, Creane and de Boer's defence argued that the five had made up Creane and de Boer's involvement in order to deal a further blow to Sparta Hendrikstad, "the club they hated so much". However, several Sparta players testified against Creane and de Boer: Mario Talletti testified Creane told him he'd "finally gotten rid of [Wilshere]", and Sullivan and Pietersen had both overheard Creane and de Boer talking about how to murder Wilshere. Ultimately, Roberts-Jackson and van Sneek (the two surviving members of the group that killed Wilshere), as well as Creane and de Boer, were convicted of murder, while the charges against Sullivan and Pietersen were dismissed.

As a result of the investigations surrounding the trial, Thomas Helmsford's bribery also came to light. Helmsford, as well as two referees and four opposition players, were banned by the Royal Brunanter Football Association from participating in football in Brunant.

During the trial, numerous players moved from Sparta Hendrikstad to the Hendrikstad FC squad; after Helmsford was banned, R. Abdul Yanniq dissolved Sparta Hendrikstad, allowing Hendrikstad FC to finally become an independent club. In agreement with Albert Johansen, Yanniq and a number of his co-investors/directors retained the positions they had with Sparta Hendrikstad with Hendrikstad FC.

In 2002, after spending 15 years in jail, Joshua Creane and Bob de Boer were released on parole. Creane kept his head down, and it is believed he adopted a different name to avoid being attacked. About a year after his release, Creane left Brunant for the United Kingdom.

Bob de Boer, on the other hand, went to Sint-Hendrikstad to watch a game between Hendrikstad FC and Cape Cross FC. Things went awry when de Boer was recognised by another spectator; both Hendrikstad and Cape Cross fans quickly turned aggressive, and started pelting both de Boer and each other with objects such as bottles. As the stadium security tried to contain what was at this point nearly a riot, de Boer was forced to flee the stadium on foot. In the parking lot, two Cape Cross fans ran him over in a SUV, killing him. The two fans were later convicted of vehicular manslaughter.

In 2007, after spending 20 years in jail, Roberts-Jackson and van Sneek were released, and left Brunant for France within just a few days. In a French television interview a few weeks later, van Sneek claimed that he had been harassed by hooligans, as well as airport staff, at Koningstad International Airport. No legal action was taken on this matter.