Sven-Göran Eriksson’s selfless gesture saved Notts County: View | OneFootball

Sven-Göran Eriksson's decision to reject a substantial payoff from Notts County ultimately saved the club.

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Meadow Lane celebrated the life of Sven-Göran Eriksson ahead of Notts County’s 2-0 victory over Accrington Stanley last weekend, with a minute’s applause taking place to remember the former England and Manchester City boss.

The Swede sadly passed away on 26th August after a long and distinguished career that took him all around the footballing world.

Although best remembered by many as the first-ever foreign manager of the English national team, to those on the black-and-white side of Nottingham, Eriksson was far more than that.

His selfless gesture to waive away £2.4 million in order to save the club will forever be remembered by Notts fans, who had been badly let down by those in command around him.

Eriksson’s 7-month Meadow Lane spell was scarcely believable

Eriksson arrived at Notts in July 2009 in the midst of a high-profile takeover by the mysterious consortium Munto Finance.

He came in as director of football but had also been promised a 10% stake in the club’s ownership, something which he never received. His seven-month spell in Nottingham turned out to be arguably one of the most remarkable stories ever seen in English football.

Talk of investment from the Bahraini royal family and promises of the Premier League soon came to Meadow Lane. A then 22-year-old Kasper Schmeichel joined on a five-year-deal from Manchester City, rumoured to be worth up to £1.5 million a year, a fee which is simply astronomical for League Two football.

Even the likes of Luis Figo and Patrick Vieira were rumoured to be making the switch to Nottingham at one point.

Sol Campbell also signed, just three years after scoring in the Champions League Final, before infamously making his one and only appearance in a 2-1 defeat away at Morecambe and leaving shortly after.

Eriksson’s time at Notts quickly became a fire-fighting job behind the scenes, as the fairytale rapidly unravelled.

It was revealed by The Sun that Russell King, who had been a key figure in Munto Finance’s takeover, had served a two-year sentence for an attempted £600,000 insurance fraud involving his Aston Martin.

King had built up an elaborate web of lies and fake companies and even managed to take over the club with a bank guarantee that was ultimately worthless.

He later fled to Bahrain, with Notts due in court over a tax bill of more than £300,000.

Just days before The Magpies were due in court, businessman Ray Trew purchased the club for the nominal fee of £1.

Eriksson left Notts in February 2010, shortly after Trew’s takeover, but with his departure came a selfless gesture that would ultimately change the course of the club’s future.

Eriksson chose to waive £2.4 million from his contract

It’s no exaggeration to say that Eriksson’s decision to write off the compensation from the remaining four years of his contract saved Notts County.

For a League Two club, let alone one still recovering from a then-record 534 consecutive days in administration just six years earlier, the fee owed to Eriksson was simply far too much to pay off.

With the true extent of Notts’ debts growing constantly, new chief executive Jim Rodwell revealed the club was “burning money” and “could not have got close to meeting the sum involved” in Eriksson’s contract.

Rodwell also described Eriksson as a “gentleman” whose “only concern was for the future of the football club.”

Had the Swede chosen to demand what was rightly owed to him by Notts, it would surely have been the fatal blow to the world’s oldest professional football club.

In the aftermath of his departure, Eriksson opened up to the press about his decision, saying: “Time was short and in the end, I signed the agreement to leave because the alternative would maybe have been for the club to disappear.

“I tried as hard as I could to find people to help us, I’ve been to Norway, to Sweden, to Spain, to London many, many times to find investment.

“I am very sorry because I liked the club and everyone there, they are very nice, very genuine people.”

Remarkably, despite the twisted fairytale playing out behind the scenes, Notts produced a run of 14 wins from the final 18 league games to race to the League Two title.

For all the chaos, it is a season fondly remembered by Notts fans to this day, although with a firm feeling of relief.

Had it not been for Eriksson, it’s plausible there would have been no more Notts County.

The Swede’s selfless actions ensured his legacy among Notts fans will forever remain that of a good, honest man, who put the club first, in a time when very few behind the scenes did.