'No doubt it would have fallen through the cracks' - Stephen King made sure Charlton Athletic Women turned out to be a happy story and not a horror story

Former chairman, who spent at least £300,000 funding the club during testing times, reveals inside story on Thomas Sandgaard's unpopular name change attempt

Stephen King shares his name with a world famous horror writer, but he actually played a life-saving role in Charlton Athletic Women avoiding a macabre ending.

The Addicks head into the 2026-27 season as a Super League side. It will be their first campaign back in England’s top flight since they were disbanded in 2007 following the men’s relegation from the Premier League.

But without King’s financial support, not to mention his time, it’s very plausible that there might not have been a team to watch.

He started sponsoring Charlton Athletic Women in 2010.

When Charlton Community Trust chairman Jason Morgan revealed they would be unable to continue funding the women’s set-up - after an accountant estimated it was going to lose £28,000 - King stepped in at the start of the 2011-12 campaign.

“I told him I would underwrite any losses for that next season,” he told South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition. “First of all because I didn’t think it would cost £28,000. And even if it did, that is the price you pay to keep something going that you love.”

King went on to become chairman of the women’s team and was their sole director in 2014, when one of the requirements of competing in the WSL was that the club needed to be a separate legal entity from the men’s side.

King, a chartered safety practitioner, estimates he had spent in excess of £300,000 by the 2018-19 season.

“It’s not like I was on the minimum wage and stacking shelves in a supermarket,” he said. “It was my hobby and passion. But £300,000 was a lot of money then and still is a lot to me today. Yet it’s a drop in the ocean when you look at teams in the division we are just leaving. They are paying that for players.