Wednesday, February 11, 2009 19:35
For the past 6 months Faversham Town Football Club have been engaged in negotiations with The Abbey School regarding a joint venture to bring a Football Academy to the Town with the intention of providing local youngsters the opportunity of extending their education and developing their footballing skills.
Negotiations between the club and School were conducted with The Abbey School's Head of P.E, Simon Finlan and Darren Hare, Year Head and Assistant Manager at Dover Athletic.
As recently as January 19th 2009 the club believed that negotiations were progressing well and a joint meeting took place at Salters Lane between FTFC officials, a representative of the Conference Youth League and Darren Hare - no mention of any concerns from the School were raised at this meeting and no formal correspondence between FTFC and The Abbey has taken place during the intervening weeks.
The club were, therefore, disappointed to hear that the School had decided to enter into negotiations with Dover Athletic.
In light of the events detailed above the club, after careful consideration, decided that they had no option other than to raise the issue into the public domain and, as a result, issued the following statement to the press.
ABBEY SCHOOL SHUN TOWN IN FAVOUR OF DOVER ATHLETIC
Plans to open a Faversham Town Football Academy were scuppered this week as The Abbey School took the decision to shun local club Faversham Town FC in favour of another Kent club some 30 miles from the town!
The committee of the Salters Lane club have been actively involved in preparations for the Academy with Senior members of the school’s teaching staff since August 2008 and believed that negotiations for the new project were almost complete.
A spokesman for Faversham Town FC stated that:
“Faversham Town FC were approached by representatives from the Abbey School during the summer of 2008 to participate in the setting up of a Football Academy to provide a combined further educational and sporting facility for local youngsters.
It was acknowledged from the outset that the Academy would benefit both parties but that the ultimate winners would be ‘local kids’ encouraged to extend their learning whilst having the opportunity to participate competitively in their chosen sport.
Following a combined visit to an existing Academy project at Barking Abbey School in East London a working group from the club put together a written proposal to the school outlining the associated running costs for the inaugural season, these costs included everything from supply and laundry costs of playing kit through to the provision of refreshments following Academy matches.”
The Academy footballing side would have participated in the Under 18s section of the Conference League a pre-requisite of joining requires affiliation to a football club with senior status along with the associated facilities.
The club spokesman continued “Our negotiations have been conducted with The Abbey School’s head of P.E Simon Finlan and year head, and Assistant Manager at Dover Athletic, Darren Hare.
We made it clear to the school representatives from day one that Faversham Town FC were not in a position to fund, or partially fund, the project a fact that was acknowledged by the school.
It was never our intention as a club to benefit financially from the project but it was agreed, by both parties, that operational costs would be incurred and that these costs would be met by the school.
The club was offered the opportunity of making a ‘fast buck’ prior to the start of the season when Norton Sports made us a ‘very generous offer to ground share, the club declined that offer.
FTFC’s sole motivation for this venture was to provide local youngsters with the opportunity to enhance their footballing and educational skills with the added bonus of seeing them progress through the ranks wearing a Lilywhite shirt.”
Other benefits of the intended partnership would have seen both parties actively supporting the other in the pursuit of grant funding to improve the facilities available to youngsters within the local area, FTFC had already agreed the shelve plans to install an all weather playing surface allowing the school a free-run in delivering a 3G pitch at the school.
The club concluded their statement by stating:
“We are, obviously, disappointed that the school have opted to proceed in this project without us, FTFC have invested a great deal of time and effort into driving this forward and feel that a combined partnership between club and school would be the best option for the town.
The club believe that we have approached this project in a professional and transparent manner and can only reiterate our disappointment in the outcome.
We will, however, continue in our quest, as a community club, to support and work with local youngsters as best we can.”