A NON-LEAGUE soccer membership proprietor says he has been “bodily attacked” and acquired “hand-delivered demise threats” from thug followers.
Farsley Celtic, who not too long ago appointed ex-Premier League ace Neil Redfearn as boss, are in dire straits each on and off the pitch.
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The West Yorkshire outfit, who proudly boast they’re the best ranked village membership in England, slipped into the Nationwide League North relegation zone after the weekend’s stalemate with Warrington City.
However they haven’t performed a “residence” recreation all season on account of large delays putting in synthetic floor at their Throstle Nest floor and have been compelled to play 70 miles away at Buxton as a substitute.
Followers, who’ve boycotted matches, have accused proprietor Paul Barthorpe of attempting to “smash” the membership and consider he’s extra curious about attempting to promote their residence stadium to housing builders.
Nonetheless, he has insisted he has no plans to try this as he provided hope that the stadium work would lastly get accomplished by the tip of March.
The chief additionally revealed {that a} strict covenant exists on the land and that the stadium is not going to “at any level” be bought to housing builders.
In a prolonged assertion, Barthorpe additionally opened up concerning the bodily abuse he had acquired in addition to claiming that irate followers had broken his property.
He stated: “Folks saying I don’t care, I’m destroying the membership, I’m not investing within the membership, I’ve ulterior motives which clearly couldn’t be farther from the reality!
“This has been my life for nearly six years and anybody who owns a enterprise and commits all the things to it is aware of the unconditional love you’ve for it!
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“If my motivation was to run it into the bottom I wouldn’t have saved investing to the degrees I’ve on a weekly foundation.”
Barthorpe then added: “There have been accusations of a lack of awareness being shared and an absence of readability.
“The reality is I’ve had a lot of demise threats hand delivered to my residence handle, I’ve been bodily attacked, I’ve had my automobile broken thrice, my automobile tyres slashed, objects thrown at my home.
“And a lot of different incidents which have occurred immediately after membership posts or immediately after different posts which might be damaging and significant and as normal shared throughout a number of social media websites.
“All of that is at present below investigation and we’ve been due to this fact suggested to maintain our posts to a minimal, in order to not escalate these incidents.
“We’re additionally aware of sharing any points or issues we could also be encountering, as these get weaponised and used in opposition to us repeatedly on social media.”
Barthorpe then ended his assertion by calling for all followers to unite and assist them to battle relegation – however his assertion was met with a fierce backlash.
An announcement from the Farsley Celtic Supporters Membership stated: “We notice the chairman’s newest assertion over delays in laying a 4G pitch on the Citadel.
“To be clear: FCSC condemns within the strongest doable phrases any threatening behaviour in direction of the chairman or another consultant of Farsley Celtic.
“Such actions, if they’ve occurred, don’t have any place at a household membership like Farsley.
“We look ahead to seeing the outcomes of the police investigation into the alleged incidents.
“We welcome the newest announcement of a begin date for the brand new pitch and we hope the newest date is extra correct than earlier bulletins.
“We additionally notice that after once more the chairman has chosen to make use of the membership’s media to subject self-indulgent PR spin.
“It’s disappointing the chairman once more appears intent on blaming everybody else, followers (once more), contractors, the council, amongst others – for the membership’s present disaster, somewhat than taking accountability as chairman. Finally the buck stops with him.
“FCSC’s present boycott of ‘residence’ video games performed at Buxton will proceed.
“We reiterate our earlier requires Mr Barthorpe to promote the membership to a extra accountable proprietor on the earliest alternative.
“We would prefer to take the chance to welcome new supervisor Neil Redfearn to the membership and we want him properly in such troublesome circumstances.”
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