Please see detailed statement below which covers the main points:
– The Club & Academy is well positioned to get through this difficult period but requires further support moving forward.
– The Club has been overwhelmed by the support of the Supporters’ Club and other donations which have amounted to over £7000.
– Ryan McKnight to resign as a Director of the football club (but remains a Director of the Frickley Athletic Community Foundation).
– Club desperately requires new volunteers for roles right across the club
– New investment and Board positions are being invited to help provide a competitive playing budget for the 2020/21 season.
– No timescale has been given of a return to football but Club & Academy planning for all scenarios.
Firstly, as a Club Board we wish to send our best wishes to everyone connected to the football club and the wider SESKU community. This is a defining moment in everyone’s history and the terrible severity of it has only been matched by the goodwill, altruism and love we are also witnessing not only across SESKU but the country as a whole.
We have, as a board, waited until we have been in possession of all the facts surrounding our situation before making this statement. The aim of this release is to inform you of:
A: what has happened to the club in recent weeks
B: reassure supporters of the club and academy’s immediate future and
C: to make clear what the reality for the club is moving forwards.
All clubs are under a huge amount of emotional and financial stress at this time. For many, ourselves included, the months of March, April and May are, from a revenue perspective, perhaps the most important and lucrative quarter of the year.
The club has without question lost tens of thousands of pounds of budgeted income as a result of the league being expunged and the ban on social gatherings meaning all the other non-football events in the diary now being unable to happen. Additional salt in the wounds has been unlike other league, the Northern Premier League are not helping their clubs financially and there has, at this point, been no financial help earmarked from the Football Association or the Premier League.
Some clubs will not survive this (as we have already witnessed this week).
Frickley Athletic will, for the following reasons:
1. Frickley Athletic are a well organised and run club. We have no arrears with HMRC in respect to PAYE or VAT liabilities and our day-to-day creditors are all paid up to normal trading arrangements. In fact, we have made it a priority over recent weeks to get the club to a position where it owes no normal trading partners anything.
2. The Directors have been very busy ensuring that the club is positioned to receive all possible government and industry funding. We can confirm that this has included placing the contracted players on furlough and receiving in additional government support as detailed by the Chancellor.
3. We have a unique and fantastic Supporter base. As we reported last week, the Frickley Athletic Supporters’ Club have donated £6100 to the club from its funds to help it through this current situation. We again want to thank everyone connected to the Supporters’ Club and of course its members for this incredible act that has helped us secure the club during this period.
4. Additional fundraising: via the JustGiving page and additional fundraising the club is expected to receive at least an additional £1000 from people who care about their club and its future. We say thank you to every single person who has donated.
5. We have seen a number of existing supporters join the ‘100 Club Lottery’ and also making additional donations direct to the club, again our huge gratitude.
6. As mentioned above, the club can confirm that the contracted players have been placed on furlough. The club also wishes to thank the management and coaching staff for their understanding and financial assistance in recent weeks. Dave Frecklington has been in regular contact with us a Board and we have been working together to get through this period as a group.
A combination of these items means that whilst this is perhaps the most challenging financial situation the club has ever faced, our club will get through this situation.
As mentioned earlier, others won’t. This club must never take advantage of or be forgetful of the things have meant it is able to get through this period.
Frickley, like so many clubs, is the cornerstone of its community. Its origins from the Frickley Colliery demand that the club not only continues for the current generation to enjoy and interact with but acts in a manner that best future proofs it for generations, yet to arrive.
This is the weight of responsibility all Club Directors personally take on and the help from fundraising efforts helps more than is imaginable.
Like most places this terrible event is also highlighting the very best of communities. We want to say special thanks to the following groups and individuals that have helped not only the club but also our community:
1. Our amazing media team: as many of you have been enjoying and interacting with; Michael, Ken and Chris have been producing virtual games via twitter as well a constant stream of timely messages across the club’s media and social channels. You guys are an amazing asset to the club and we thank you. Much of that requires visual aids and we want to take this opportunity to thank Jerry (OnionBag) for all his work for the club. It’s at times like this having those visual assets/memories are so important.
2. South Elmsall Town Council: we enjoy a brilliant working relationship with our local council. Their ‘isolation meals’ service has been inspired and the way Claire and her team have continued to provide services and contact to the people of South Elmsall has been outstanding. Well done to everyone concerned.
3. All our supporters who are Key workers. The medical professionals, the teachers, the lorry drivers and those working across food retail – we are so very proud of everything you are doing. Club Volunteer, Lee Gray, who is working directly in Covid-19 clinics has also been maintaining the club’s dialogue with the local ambulance service as the Defibrillator at the club has been called out more than once in recent weeks.
Whilst we are pleased to assure supporters that the Club and its Academy will make it through this current situation we want to bring you up to date with other (non-Covid-19 related) changes at the club that present both challenges and opportunities for us moving forwards.
The North of England Football Academy, who have invested heavily into the club (in both monetary and time resource) are due to end their formal association with us this month that will include Ryan McKnight leaving as a Director. In the past three years they have been instrumental in the football club being able to:
A: Complete and open the Pavilion
B: Set up the Frickley Athletic Community Foundation (formed in 2018)
C: Bring the Frickley Athletic Academy into the main Football Club
D: Rebuild partnerships with local stakeholders
E: Create one of the most professionally run clubs in the non-league
F: Clear the club’s day-to-day creditor base
G: Maintain the club’s playing position (with some great games and record breaking runs on the way)
H: Redevelop the club’s media offering and output. Massively increasing its reach via social media.
I: Leave the club with an exciting management team and excellent group of players
The club are also delighted to announce that the North of England Football Academy (NEFA) are to write-off a significant six figure sum of loans into the Club. NEFA Director, Ryan McKnight said:
“We have had a hugely positive experience at Frickley and it is sad to say goodbye to the club and the friends we have made. We are, however, doing so with the club in a much stronger financial and structural position to the one we arrived to. The club didn’t have much of a chance three years ago and was in a very poor financial position. I am confident that with the people and plans in place there is no reason why the club can’t continue to serve its supporters and local community with the pride that defines the club and South Elmsall.
“We want to take this opportunity to pay special thanks to the club’s Directors; Penny Wall, Phil McCroakam and Stuart Highfield who have been fantastic to work with, love this club dearly and whom the club could not have been without. Equally, there is a long list of volunteers and supporters that have been brilliant to get to know, become friends with and help into the club.
“I would also like to place on record my thanks to Spencer Fearn who played an important part in the management and direction of the club from the dug-out and also off the field helping develop initiatives such as the Frickley Athletic Community Foundation, 100 club and driving sponsorship revenues.
“Despite him moving on from the club in his management role in October 2018, he still continued to work behind the scenes to help the club progress.
“We want to implore the people of South Elmsall and the businesses within it to continue to support the football club. We have been proud to have played a positive role in the club and added a few pages to its history. That’s all you can do as a Director of a club and I’m proud that as a Director along with the rest of the board we have put the club in a position to get through this where others will not.
“We look forward to visiting Westfield Lane in the future and wish the club nothing but the best”.
As mentioned, unlike other leagues, there is to be no financial assistance from the Northern Premier League for its clubs and as of yet, there are no plans for financial assistance from the Football Association. In fact, the loss of the league’s sponsor (BetVictor) will have repercussions for all clubs at our level beyond the current situation.
So, given both of those scenarios we are calling on any individual or organisation that would be interested in becoming a senior figure at the club (in Board position) to come forward. The Club is of course looking for additional investment into helping us continue to build the competitive ability of the first team as well as the off the field operations. Anyone interested or requiring more information should email phil@frickleyathletic.co.uk
As described above we are an extremely well ran club that can offer so much to new investors/Directors in the future. The reality is that without new investment the club will have a much-reduced playing budget for next season as all clubs realign financial priorities further against the fallout of Covid-19.
As we start to think about next season, Frickley Athletic (like all clubs) relies on its sponsors, supporters and volunteers to keep coming, to keep helping and to keep sponsoring – your support is the lifeblood of this club. More than ever we need to hear from people who want to help in the following areas:
– Commercial/Sponsorship
– Matchday volunteering (incl under 21s matches)
– Grounds maintenance
What you as individuals/businesses can do to help the club right now: – Donate to the Club’s JustGiving page – Join the club’s lottery ‘The 100 Club’ – Want to sponsor the club for the 2020/21 season? Email penny@frickleyathletic.co.uk
Once again, we wish everyone the very best over these testing times and look forward to having you back at Westfield Lane as soon as possible.
Thanks
The Board of Frickley Athletic Football Club.
Notes:
1. Any Academy related queries should be made to Jane@frickleyathletic.co.uk
2. Any media related queries should be made to michaelj0hns0n@hotmail.co.uk
3. Any commercial queries should be made to penny@frickleyathletic.co.uk
