Julian Fox (left) and Lee Carpenter (right) setting up on the TV Gantry at Wembley Stadium last month for the National League Play-off final on behalf of Boreham Wood.
FCVideo – The small highlights company with global ambitions
by Steve Clare, London
One of the regular features at the recent ConIFA Football World Cup was the presence of a lone camera recording the games. Many of the participating sides, as well as ConIFA itself, used the work product both for social media use or to scout opponents.
The firm hired to do it was FCVideo, and their story is very recent. They started covering English non-league football in 2005.
It all began in the county of Middlesex, perhaps more famous for Wembley Stadium and Heathrow Airport. Julian Fox was the Middlesex County FA Youth Cups Secretary. That year, he had to organise 11 County Cup Finals. He granted permission for one of the finalists to have their game filmed by a video company and DVDs to be produced. To him, It seemed a shame that the other ten were not filmed. It also seemed like a business opportunity.
Discussing the idea with Lee Carpenter, a friend and work colleague from the high street bank, they decided to start up a joint venture and sideline. It began humbly with the founders buying a camera on eBay and investing in any necessary computer software.
They created a business name FC Video, (now FCVideo) with the double meaning of Fox/Carpenter and Football Club Videos,. Fox made enquiries at his local Isthmian League Club, Staines Town about being allowed to practice filming their games, The first game recorded was a pre-season friendly against Reading on 13th July 2005. That season they went on to film all of Staines Town’s home games, posting highlights online and improving techniques, making them ready to sell their service to local cup finalists.
Their brand spread quickly. In 2006, Hillingdon Borough FC reached the final of the FA Vase, and asked FCVideo to accompany them on the team coach to Birmingham, and to film the final.
In February 2007, Garry Haylock who had recently become manager of Yeading FC from the Conference South, advertised for someone to video all their home matches for coaching purposes. FCVideo were able to answer the call. At the end of the season, it was announced that Yeading would be merging with local rivals Hayes FC, with Haylock being appointed the merged club’s manager. He agreed to retain the services of FCVideo for the 2007/08 season, an association that has continued to this day with the newly formed Hayes & Yeading United.
Haylock left the club in 2011 to become manager of Farnborough FC, and asked FCVideo to join him. Although change of owners meant that Garry’s stay was short lived, FCVideo have remained with Farnborough ever since as a result.
The growth of videos appearing on social media brought FCVideo to the attention of more and more clubs, and by recruiting friends to join the workforce, they have been able to provide the service to more local clubs.
Fox is still a little surprised at how far they have come in such a short space of time:
“We’ve just been surprised that we have had the opportunity to film so many games in so many different grounds, especially Wembley Stadium, and working for managers we used to watch play professionally like Alan Devonshire, Phil Babb and Paul Hughes. We’ve got to meet some great people and made so many friends.”
Over the 13 years, FCVideo’s cameramen have filmed games at 127 senior grounds, which have included Wembley Stadium, and other stadiums of leagues clubs including Crystal Palace, Reading, QPR, Birmingham City, Coventry City, and they have been providing footage of Boreham Wood and Maidenhead Utd home games to contribute to BT Sport’s National League Show.
They were at Wembley this year as Boreham Wood narrowly failed to become the latest club to join the Football League, in a game covered on this site.
[See: ROVERS RETURN: Ten man Tranmere beat Boreham Wood in Wembley wonder]
In 2012, video footage posted on YouTube as a “free kick howler” from a Hayes & Yeading Utd v Chelmsford City league game went viral, with over 1 million views, and the footage was used on BBC’s Football Focus & ITV’s London News.
In 2016 a goal scored by Dave Tarpey for Maidenhead Utd had an estimated 10 million views world- wide in a few days, and was used on Sky Sport’s Soccer AM with the player appearing on the show, being labelled as one of the best non-league goals of all time.
The company is still ambitious according to Fox:
“It’s great that we’ve been able to give a couple of teenagers the opportunity of working for us so if they can use anything of what they’ve learned from us on their CVs or in future careers that would be special.
We are working at full capacity as we still have day jobs, so it’s just about continuing to develop and get better at what we do, and for the clubs and managers we work with to be successful.”
This month, they recently covered 22 games from the CONIFA Football World Cup, live-streaming games to the world. FCVideo currently now own five video cameras and have the use of two provided by BT Sport for National League games.
“If we can be approached along the way to do something like the Conifa World Football Cup again and continue to get the really positive feedback we have received up to now – then we’ll be very happy!”
Clearly the next ConIFA Cup which will almost certainly be played outside the UK is a challenge they would relish. We will know where after the ConIFA AGM in January and then they can make the big decision; is FCVideo ready to go international?
At the pace of their current progress, they will be more than ready.
