The Steven Gerrard Football Academy has tried to distance itself and the eponymous former Liverpool and England captain from any mention in the public outrage caused by two non-league football clubs being forced to quit their home grounds after they were bought by a property company based in Singapore.
Club man: Steven Gerrard steered Rangers to the Scottish title this year. Whyteleafe FC’s future, meanwhile, is far less certain
One of the now-homeless clubs is Whyteleafe FC, who on Monday night issued a strongly worded statement announcing their withdrawal from the Isthmian League because they could not negotiate a new lease on their Church Road ground with new owners, Irama Sport.
Irama Sport have done much in the past to publicise a close association with another giant of Liverpool FC, Ian Rush.
Irama Sport’s company logo says it is “powered by Ian Rush”.
But as they encountered fans’ anger over the threat to the existence of two non-league clubs, Irama were describing the former Wales international striker as “a real estate investor and partner with Irama in all our football grounds…”, adding that the former player should not be held responsible for any of Irama’s acts.
“Irama own these football grounds and have no affiliation to the clubs and teams using the grounds,” they said.
Irama Sports has done much to promote its association with Rush
Irama’s website lists a range of projects with the Ian Rush Foundation which they claim to have provided around Sin$750,000 (more than £400,000) in assistance and equipment to sports and charitable causes, mostly in the Far East.
This week, they were appearing less-than-charitable to English non-league football.
The Steven Gerrard Football Academy, based in Liverpool and which can charge up to £10,000 per term for young hopefuls to attend its courses, is due to begin operations from the Whyteleafe ground in September this year.
As they sought to distance themselves from the crisis facing Whyteleafe this week, one of their directors responded to media enquiries by writing, “We would not like to be mentioned in any articles being published at this moment in time.”
In the past year, Irama Sport has bought the Church Road ground in Surrey and the Culham Road Stadium in Abingdon for an overall £795,000, as previously reported by Inside Croydon.
On Monday, Abingdon Town also issued an announcement, stating that they were also withdrawing from their league, the Hellenic, blaming “ridiculous demands” from Irama.
‘The pride of East Surrey’: Whyteleafe’s Church Road ground might not be staging any Isthmian League games next season
In Whyteleafe’s case, the club’s youth and women’s teams plan to continue operating from Church Road, where they will pay hire fees to the new owners.
At the Isthmian League annual meeting on Monday night, the Leafe’s fellow clubs agreed unanimously to keep a place open in their South Central League for 2021-2022 in the hope that the club’s senior men’s side might yet be able to find an alternative home ground.
That could be less-than-straightforward. After two incomplete league seasons with virtually no gate receipts because of coronavirus, the club’s statement claimed that they had been forced to pay Irama £50,000 – a massive amount for non-league clubs; about one-third of a week’s wages for Premer League players – in “back-rent” which the club disputes was ever due.
The club is already without a first-team manager, after Harry Hudson, the former Croydon FC boss, quit in March. Hudson had been in charge for three seasons, of which only one league campaign had been completed because of covid.
Coming to an Irama-owned football ground near you…
At the time, Mark Coote, the Whyteleafe chairman, hinted that his manager’s resignation was connected to uncertainty created by covid and the change in ground ownership.
“Harry asked for commitments from me and I simply could not give him any,” Coote said.
“The club can’t commit to anybody at the moment, whether it be for next season or with what’s going on with the lease. Harry is an ambitious guy and has decided to move on. I didn’t want to stand in his way.”
Hudson remains an integral part of the Croydon Arena-based Kinetic Foundation, a youth sports and education charity, which has also had use of the facilities at Church Road.
This week’s announcements offer little assurance to fans of Whyteleafe, nor Abingdon, where fears expressed over whether the grounds would be used for property development have been rejected by Irama, who claim that their only building plans for Church Road are for classrooms to support the various courses to be held there.
Whyteleafe FC’s statement on Monday shocked the tight-knit world of non-league football.
“It is with deep regret and sadness that we informed the Isthmian League earlier today that Whyteleafe FC will not be playing in next season’s Isthmian South Central League,” it said.
“The club has been forced to give up its Step 4 status after new owners of the Church Road ground refused to negotiate a new lease or licence agreement with the club for the 2021-2022 season.
“Home to the Leafe for more than 60 years, Church Road was purchased by Irama last year at auction after the previous owners went into administration.
“Despite numerous attempts by the Trustees, current management committee and an independent fan-led group to discuss a way forward, Singapore-based property development company Irama – the new landlords – activated a break clause to terminate the club’s lease on July 31 this year.
“This was despite the club paying Irama nearly £50,000 of back rent that the new owners had been told by the administrators was due for the administration period. Whyteleafe didn’t believe this was the case as the club had been paying all the landlords’ costs during that period to keep the ground viable and to protect the value of the facility.
“But Whyteleafe FC believed Irama were acting in good faith and also wanted to have an ongoing working relationship with the new owners and despite the lack of income during the covid-19 lockdowns paid the back rent.
“Our withdrawal from the Isthmian League is a devastating blow to everybody involved at the club, the fans, players local community and the wider football family. We would like to thank all of you.”
Nuffink to do with ‘im, guv: Irama have issued statements to distance Ian Rush from the clubs’ crises
In a flurry of their own statements in response to criticisms from Whyteleafe and Abingdon, Irama said variously that, “Ian Rush has no involvement in the running of this company and only wanted to use the grounds to create a ‘don’t pay to play’ scheme.
“This is not any fault of Ian’s and [he] has no involvement of [sic] dealings with tenants.”
Rush has previously said that, “My Foundation has come to get kids off the street and give them a better life. I come from nothing. I want to see kids go in there and smiles on their faces.”
Irama claimed that the Church Road lease was terminated not by themselves, but by the trustees of the football club.
“We have taken over the facilities and spent thousands of pounds on repairing and replacing structures of the club that have been left unfit for use and unsafe,” Irama said, something hotly disputed by sources at the football club.
“We have tried and have still been actively trying to accommodate the Whyteleafe first team as we know how much the club means to the fans and the players and we want to ensure that the community that has been built all these years continues to thrive.”
‘A real estate developer’: one of the disclaimers issued by Irama about Ian Rush
And apparently determined to take no prisoners in what is developing into a bitter war of words with Whyteleafe, Irama’s statement said, “It is very unfortunate that we are being used as the scapegoat for a club that has in fact been poorly run the last couple of years and exploited by some of the individuals in charge.”
Meanwhile, Marc Garnett, the marketing director of the Steven Gerrard Football Academy, was also keen to distance his organisation from the troubles of Whyteleafe’s first team.
Whyteleafe will be the Steven Gerrard Football Academy’s first UK venue outside of Liverpool when its courses begin there in September. In an email sent by Garnett yesterday, he wrote, “Our arrangement at the club is very much that of hiring facilities and our intentions from September onwards will be to support the local community by way of providing voluntary coaches and [continuing professional development] for clubs.”
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: Croydon was named the country’s rottenest borough in 2020 in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine – the fourth successive year that Inside Croydon has been the source for such award-winning nominations
- Inside Croydon: 3million page views in 2020. Seen by 1.4million unique visitors
I’ve only once visited the Church Road ground, but it seemed a very pleasant setting for non-league football, so I’m sorry that Whyteleafe’s predicament is so serious. If, according to Abingdon Town, Irama are making “ridiculous demands”, I’m surprised that Whyteleafe’s youth and women’s teams plan to continue operating from Church Road. If their hire fees are acceptable, isn’t that an option for the men’s senior team, even if a new lease would be preferable?
Is the ground is in the Green Belt. I think it probably is, but found that the Tandridge Planning Local Plan map lost all detail when I zoomed in via Google, so it was not possible to see the designtion with certainty. .
If so, it stands a much better chance of staying as a football ground, than if it were included in the Whyteleafe urban area. The Whyteleafe area is a happy hunting-ground for developers seeking to redevelop big old houses on big sites with replacement new estates. A nice simple football ground in leafy Church Road would be a juicy site for new houses, if planning permission were granted.
Let’s hope that the club can persuade the freeholders to change their mind.
Pingback: Weekly Review: 5 October 2021 - The FA Trophy | From Hashtag United to Wembley
So sad to read this and hear the horrible outcome. I only played one season for Whyteleafe sue to injury and illness in 1972. I so enjoyed the then players as buddies and always assumed the club would rise up the leagues. RIP.