A community football club has launched an appeal to help provide a badly needed all-weather pitch to replace the often flooded ground.
Hatherleigh Football Club and Hatherleigh Youth FC has launched an online Go Fund Me appeal to raise initial £25,000 to buy a plot of land on which the artificial ground will be built.
The club offers football for players from five years to adult, with boys, girls and mixed teams in the North Devon League and the men's team in the Exeter & Devon League first division. The club is over 100 years old with 170 registered youth players.
Simon Lassam, club spokesman, said the club has been forced to cancel matches or missed training and hire pitches for home matches or for training – costing them thousands of pounds. Families also cannot travel long distances to alternative grounds.
A new pitch would not only remedy this and release funds for other benefits but would also have the wider benefit of providing a ground for all local community sports and games groups.
He said: “This winter alone, the youth football club is spending over £6,000 hiring pitches in four different locations. Even with this expenditure, it is still likely that some winter matches will have to be rescheduled due to bad weather.It also means players and parents have to travel further afield every week – some travel almost 50 miles to get to training and back. Some players struggle to get to training at all because their families cannot get them there.”
There are few local all-weather training grounds suitable for football, forcing the club to hire pitches further afield weekly from September to March with the added cost passed onto membership fees.
Simon added: “A new all-weather pitch will be available for any local team, clubs and groups, and should be one of the best all-weather facilities in the area. We are not the only football club struggling to find good pitches to train and play on, so when our teams are not using the pitches, other teams in the area should be interested in booking it. All of which generates an income for the football club and allows us to invest further in football in Hatherleigh for current and future players.”
The initial £25,000 will enable the current landowner and the football clubs to complete the sale as soon as possible. The club will then start fundraising again to create the new pitch.
Simon said: “Donations will be put directly towards the land purchase and the associated solicitor and legal fees. Any money remaining after the purchase will be used to start the process of planning and creating the new pitch.
“We’re a friendly, local club providing opportunities for hundreds of young people to have fun playing football, to make lifelong friendships and to fall in love with the game so that as many of them as possible continue to play once they reach adulthood.”
