In the current financial climate with funding cutbacks hitting amateur sports hard, Sunday league football teams are having a hard time balancing the books.
One club in particular, Senrab FC, has hit the headlines this week after a plea for financial assistance to keep them from folding.
The London based boys club boasts an alumni of top flight players like Sol Campbell, Jermain Defoe, Lee Bowyer, and Chelsea’s very own John Terry.
The club have been operating for nearly fifty years, and former Chelsea player Ray Wilkins played for the them back in the sixties.
With the local council savaging the clubs funding last year and the cost of hiring training pitches sky-rocketing, beleaguered club secretary Tony Carroll made a plea for assistance.
‘We can’t sustain the current situation much longer. We’re robbing Peter to pay Paul all of the time.
‘Senrab just about keeps its head above water but only because we put our own money in. Years ago I put my mortgage in to help.’
John Terry has now come to the rescue of his former club, donating an undisclosed sum to keep the organization afloat.
Terry said, ‘When the seriousness of the situation was brought to my attention through reading the Daily Mail, I immediately wanted to help.
‘Having made contact with Tony Carroll, I’ve made a donation that I’ve been told should keep the club in a healthy position for the next few years.
‘If some of the ex-players could also follow suit I’m sure this would help secure the long-term future of the club.’
Club secretary Tony Carroll was clearly relieved by the news.
‘Thanks to John, the weight of the world’s been lifted of our shoulders. We can look forward to next season knowing we don’t have to beg and borrow to survive any more.
‘It’s going to make so much difference, there are teams without kit, so we’ll furnish them with kits. Some of the balls are really worn out and dirty so they will be replaced.
‘Seeing all the faces on the children will be brilliant. They’ll all come running over, especially the little ‘uns. It’s the kit that they live for, it makes it special. You see them wearing it to school.
‘We can send coaches on courses, we’ve got some really enthusiastic young ones and they must get their badges, and we can start training twice a week. We’ve got to send off CRB checks and we’re applying to be Charter Standard, that all costs money. I would have paid for that myself.
‘What it gives us now is a foundation but it gives us so much scope.’
A charitable act from Chelsea’s skipper, one that highlights the growing financial difficulties amateur clubs are having to face in today’s tough economic times.
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