10:00am Thursday 11th March 2010
By Tom Parkes
A FOOTBALL club’s future is in doubt after they got the red card from using their home ground.
The trust which manages Wivenhoe Town’s Broad Lane base has locked up the gates and claims it is owed £10,000 in rent.
The cash-strapped side could face eviction from the Ridgeons League if they fail to fulfil fixtures, and will possibly even face extinction if they are left homeless in the long term.
Officials had to hastily postpone last night’s reserve team match and the club has only ten days to try to resolve the dispute, before their next home first team game on March 20.
The rent row is between the club and Wivenhoe and District Sporting Facilities Trust, which was put in charge of managing Broad Lane when Colchester Council bought it in 1996. The trust collects rent to pass on to the council from Wivenhoe Town and three other tenants – Wivenhoe Tennis Club, Tempest Football Club and Wivenhoe Youth Football Club.
However, Wivenhoe Town first team manager Mo Osman says the row is abour red tape, rather than the club being in the red at the bank. He said he understood the club had not been paying its bill of £3,500-a-year, as the figure was not legally stipulated in its contract, and lawyers had advised the board it should not pay until an amount was legally agreed.
He said talks were ongoing to determine what the fee should be. Mr Osman said: “All this has been under discussion for two or three years, but now the trust has resorted to underhand tactics.
“There is no court order or eviction notice. It has no more legal force than if we were to get in there tomorrow and change back again.
“If it was all legally settled and we had to pay them £10,000, we would pay it, but this just seems like bullying.”
Andrew Nightingale, chairman of the sporting facilities trust, said Wivenhoe Town was given a “rent holiday” which helped it keep going when it was in financial trouble last year.
He added: “Provided we meet the rental payments to Colchester Borough Council, then the future of the site as a community facility is secure.
“We are very pleased Wivenhoe Town Football Club survived last season and that the rent contribution holiday the trust helped them do this.
“However, the subsequent failure of Wivenhoe Town Football Club to provide us with either a budget or a repayment plan which demonstrates the club’s viability is deeply disappointing. ”
Mr Nightingale added: “We haven’t done anything that we understand to be illegal.”
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