Club's name could live on
ONE of the region's most successful non-league clubs has had the curtain brought down on its era.
Bedlington Terriers – whose name has been synonymous in footballing circles for over a decade – officially dissolved after insurmountable debts left the club with nowhere to turn.
Although they managed to put their off the field problems, when chairman Graham Burnard and the entire committee resigned in October, behind them to finished second in the league last season, the writing was on the wall.
Over the past month the club has held two emergency meetings with the public to discuss the future, been locked out of their Welfare Park ground after Wansbeck Council changed the locks following a failed inspection, and the entire playing staff plus managers and acting chairman Keith Perry left.
A shadow committee was recently formed to try and keep the club going but last week at the Northumberland Football Association headquarters the plug was pulled with outstanding debts rumoured to be in the region of 38,000.
But the name of Bedlington could continue with a new club possibly being set up, although having to start two leagues lower.
Mike Amos, chairman of the Arngrove Northern League, said: "Bedlington's was the most remarkable success story in the last 25 years of the Northern League so naturally we are very saddened at their sudden departure from the league.
"That said, any who had attended the crisis meeting two weeks ago would have regarded the decision as inevitable.
"The club was in an apparently inextricable financial mess and despite the best efforts of Wansbeck Council, seemed to have too big a mountain to climb."
And Mr Amos warned other clubs: "There are lessons to be learned by us all, not least that clubs' accounts must be scrutinised very carefully both by county FA's and by leagues.
"It may be unavoidable however that so many clubs have their eggs in one financial basket."
He added: "Bedlington Terriers have given us some wonderful moments in the past decade. We wish the new club every success and hope that the time will come when they can return on a sound footing to the Arngrove Northern League.”
Jim Tyler, who has been helping trying to save the club, said: “It was decided to start a new club on the understanding that the debt from Bedlington Terriers would have no hold over us.
“I feel very sorry for the debtors because personal friends are amongst them but with money of that magnitude there was understandably no-one prepared to be elected onto what would have been a Terriers committee.”
He added: “However, in a bid to sustain football in Bedlington, a new club with a new name – possibly ‘Bedlington Community Football Club’ are hoping to be accepted into the second division of the Wade Associates Northern Alliance League.
“If that goes ahead we would consequently start at the bottom – and then there’s only one way to travel and that’s up.”
Officials in the Northern Alliance League say they do have a vacancy but Bedlington would have to apply and be accepted at their next meeting on July 27.
The potential club has already received a boost with an accountant and chartered physiotherapist both offering their services free of charge.
Wansbeck Council has told fans that they will offer every assistance if they decide to form a new club. Chief executive Bob Stephenson has said the Terriers have debts of 38,000 and this figure could rise. He warned supporters that they should seriously consider if they wanted to take over the club, although he pledged the council’s support in establishing a constitution, membership policy, and the election of a new committee, to enable them to play at the Welfare Ground from the beginning of next season.
But they were further advised that the council would not accept any person who had been associated with the management of Bedlington Terriers Football Club, as a member of a new club or a committee representative, he said.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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