Wrexham Fans Raise £100k In A Day To Save Their Club
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Aug 9th, 2011
Fans of Wrexham FC que up to make loans towards paying the £250k bond demanded by the conference board.
Fans of Wrexham FC rallied together to raise £100,000 in less than a day to pay off the bond of £250,000 demanded by the conference board on Friday.
The club were granted a 24 hour extension on the conference’s deadline of 5pm yesterday to fulfil the board’s requests which included :
Deposit a bond or bank guarantee of £250,000 into the competitions accounts.
Proof of payment to all outstanding football creditors, including staff and players wages.
Lodge a signed lease, acceptable to the Football Conference, as to where the club intends to play its home fixtures for season 2011/12.
Submit a detailed business plan and revised budget for the coming season.
With the players confirming that they had been paid at last night’s friendly match against Connahs Quay, news filtered through that the issue which needed resolving was a £100,000 shortfall in the money needed to pay the bond.
Club sources this morning confirmed that a shortfall existed and that fans could offer short term loans to pay it off which would be returned to them in the near future.
What followed was a frantic day of fans racing down to the club shop to offer all that they could afford. Several fans gave as much as £20,000 and £10,000 each, others offered all their savings to try and save the club and one man even walked in to offer the deeds to his house. A Canadian fan who woke up to hear the news this afternoon immediately rang the club and gave £10,000. Club officials were said to have been close to tears at the level of generosity on shown, and a Southport fan who posted on Red Passion said that he was giving £1,000 to the cause simply because he loves football.
Updates came throughout the day from the official Wrexham FC Twitter page as the total reached £40,000 in a matter of hours, then £50,000 and by 4pm the £100,000 total had finally been reached. Finally at approximately 4.30pm a statement was put up on the club website to indicate that the club were ok to start the season against Cambridge on Saturday.
The statement read: “Verbal confirmation from the Conference that we’re okay to proceed…”
“After an amazing day at the Racecourse, during which the fans have just been tremendous, we have raised the the amount required to satisfy the requirements odf the bond.
“The out pouring of support has been overwhelming – which just showed once again what the football club means to so many people.
“The Conference still have a few minor issues to clear up, but this is not anything that will cause us to miss starting the season on Saturday.
“Loans have been coming in all day and reached a figure that satisfied the Conference.”
Club officials also told our Wrexham.com reporter at the Racecourse that the Wrexham Supporters Trust are set to call an SGM to gain member approval to buy Wrexham FC from Geoff Moss and Ian Roberts. Once the SGM is called fans will have to wait 14 days before they can vote and hopefully bring an end to the long running sale saga at the club which has taken the best part of a year.
Last week Glyndwr University bought the Racecourse Ground for a sum close to £1.8m from the club owners and are believed to be offering the trust a favourable lease to ensure the long term future of the club.
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