The Coventry City stalwart bounced back from career-ending injury to lead the club’s relationship with the community, through good times and bad.
Imagine being responsible for a club’s community programme only to discover that the club would be playing its football some 34 miles away. That was the situation Dave Busst found himself in during 2013 when Coventry City had to up sticks and start playing their home games in Northampton.
Busst, who became Coventry’s community officer in 1997, recalls: “When the Northampton experience occurred we had a real sense of what the community scheme requires. We became integral in making sure we didn’t lose a generation of fans. It is all about representing the badge and making sure that whatever goes on at club level, in good and not so good times, when there is turmoil we need to keep on promoting the brand. We cannot have a disconnect.
“We weren’t playing in the city so what we were doing in the schools and community made a difference, we had a positive impact, aspirational stuff. The politics didn’t matter to us, we had to make sure the people of Coventry still had people they could see were working for them. In this, the PFA was a huge partner, as they always have been. They were instrumental in me becoming part of the scheme in the first place.”
Dave Busst’s playing career was ended in shocking circumstances at Old Trafford in April 1996, when only a few minutes into a match against Manchester United, he was involved in a tackle with Denis Irwin and Brian McClair that led to injuries of an horrific nature – which ultimately required 26 operations and could have led to the loss of his leg were it not for advances in medical science. What was a young man in the prime of his life, his career cut so desperately short, going to do? As they do so often, the PFA stepped in with a rescue package.
A NEW START
“When the news came out that I wasn’t going to play again, I was in contact with Brendon Batson (Deputy Chief Executive of the PFA at the time) and Dennis Leman of the community programme and they laid out the options. I’d been in insurance before turning pro but I didn’t want to go back behind a desk again. I’d done my coaching qualifications and Barry Powell (the former Wolves, Derby County and Coventry midfielder) who was involved in the community scheme at Coventry said I should put them to good use and join him. In 1997, I was appointed as the community coach, mostly going into the schools to spread the message. For once, I was in the right place at the right time.”
He has barely put a foot wrong since. “The role has changed a lot from how it originated for me,” Busst says. “You have to move with the times. When I took over the scheme in 2003, Coventry City weren’t in a good position financially. We owed the PFA a lot of money but we managed to turn it around, pay off all our debts to the various people who had helped us out and that was a big achievement as far as I was concerned. We had done what we promised but it was important then to diversify and find new funding schemes with the new guidelines and governance of the Football in the Community programmes. There had to be a high level of quality and integrity about what we did. We now have a staff of 22 full-time employees and the beauty of what we do is that it is so varied, no two days are the same.
“When I came out of the playing side of the game, the prospect was simply to do my coaching badges and the PFA would look after me. And they have. But the options are so much greater now, you require many more skills and qualifications – we have inclusion managers, education managers, social-care managers, health managers. The ex-players might want to do a degree in business management and if they then come into the community scheme they’re more like small businesses now – all governed by a board of trustees.
It’s so much more than purely and simply football. But the added value of being a former player at a club when working in the community cannot be under-valued.”
THE JIMMY HILL LEGACY
When you say the words ‘Coventry City’ and ask what next comes to mind, most people will say Jimmy Hill. The great football pathfinder, player, union stalwart, manager, commentator, chairman. What he did for the game more or less had its roots in his achievement in the Midlands – most notably at the old ground, Highfield Road. Nowhere was the shock of the passing of Hill in December 2015 felt more keenly than in Coventry. His memorial service in the city’s famed cathedral was one of those occasions that no-one who experienced it will forget.
The Jimmy Hill Legacy Fund was launched in the summer of 2016, the fulcrum of which is the ability to raise funds for those in the city most in need for support. “Anyone will be able to apply for bursaries from the money that we raise for the fund,” Busst says. “We will be striving to help those with disabilities, from deprived backgrounds, the volunteers who work for our junior Sky Blues on match days, indeed any community group we believe needs help. What a great way of giving back to Coventry, in the spirit of Jimmy.
“We’ve experienced difficult times at Coventry recently but it’s through people like Jimmy that we bounced back,” reflects Busst. “It is so important that the community scheme is there to serve. Whatever may be going on at the club we are a constant and that is how we’re judged. Some people in the city may not think that Coventry City has anything to do with them, but through the community scheme it’s important how we’re perceived because we’re the public’s link to the club in so many ways. And what we do is independent too, which is so important.
“Last season was demanding but there was a sense that the people of Coventry have a real affinity with the club again. They know the players and they appreciate them. That’s half the battle.”
UNBREAKABLE SPIRIT
David Busst will never escape from the defining image of his career – one that makes grown men wince when they see it – but it’s not just his years as a player that have shaped his contribution to Coventry City. It is the indomitability of spirit he has shown since his playing career was shattered that has made him the embodiment of the community programme every club needs.
There have been more than enough dismaying times at Coventry City in recent years for Busst to realise that, without a strong support base, any club can totter. When football clubs fall on hard times it is vitally important that they keep a connection with their local community. David and his community team are a shining example of this.
Celebrating 30 years of the PFA’s Community Programme brochure: click here.
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