Worthing FC bouncing back after coronavirus robbed them of National League promotion with £150k stadium revamp appeal
WORTHING FC are bouncing back after coronavirus wrecked their promotion dream – by raising £150,000 and getting their ground ready for when they do hit the big time.
The South Coast side were top of the Isthmian Premier League by seven points with eight games to go before their season was controversially null and voided.
It meant owner George Dowell’s hopes of turning a debt-ridden club facing extinction into a National League South side within five years of buying them were dashed just weeks before becoming reality.
The former Worthing full-back’s investment has seen them gain what arguably should be two promotions, established them as one of the best supported sides in the country at their level and become a true community hub thanks to the new 3G pitch.
And after the disappointment of this season he is more determined than ever to push on to the next level – but knows it won’t be easy.
George, who was told he will never walk again after breaking his neck in the 2010 crash, said of this season’s cruel climax: “It was a kick in the teeth after a really hard-fought campaign.
“We linked up with a few other clubs that weren’t happy about it and put in a petition to overturn the decision. We were representing about 150 other clubs.
“We sent it to the FA but it didn’t get overturned. It was a stab in the dark really but we thought that it was only right that we try.
“We’ve just kind of accepted it now and are planning for next year.”
That planning involves raising the £150,000 needed for their Future’s Bright Stadium Improvement Project so that if Worthing do reach the National League South next year, the ground is ready.
They want to use the cash to erect state-of-the-art floodlights, build a much-needed new bar and food area with a toilet block and update the dressing rooms.
The Premier League Football Stadia Improvement Fund will match whatever is raised. And with £110,000 already in the bank thanks to supporters’ groups, sponsors and donors, George, chairman Barry Hunter and manager Adam Hinshelwood among others launched a video appeal to raise the remaining £43,000.
George, whose Mackerel Men are giving 100 matchday tickets to locals carers and their families for every £10,000 raised, confessed about his time in front of the camera: “I didn’t enjoy doing my bit, it took 100 outtakes to get it right. But I knew it was important for us to do, to ensure we conveyed the right message of what we’re trying to achieve.
“Fair play to the bloke who edited it together because the content we gave him, it wasn’t great.
“But he stuck a bit of piano in the background and it worked out quite nicely.”
It certainly struck the right notes, with £13,000 raised within the first two days of the appeal.
George revealed that if the initial generosity continues, the new developments should be in place for the start of next season.
Quite when that will be no one knows, with doubts still surrounding football’s return this season.
He added: “If we do raise the funding hopefully the buzz about that will be good and people will come down to see it in the next few months and if they like it they will stay.
“It will mean we can play the level above, and there’ll be a few minor things that we need to put in place if we wanted to play National League proper.”
Promotion will be far from easy though, and George admits failure to achieve it in the near future will be hard to take.
He said: “I don’t want to put all the pressure on the next few years, but if we don’t go up I’ll be even more gutted about how this year ended as it is a really hard league to get out of.
“It’s going to be a challenge, we’re nowhere near the biggest payers in the league so this year was a really good season, the fact that we were right up the top for the majority of it.
“The manager knows that and we know that as a board but sometimes the fans see you at the top and they expect you to do that again and again. And it just doesn’t always work like that.
“Hopefully it will, we’ve got a good squad, but sometimes it just doesn’t click for whatever reason.”
So is sealing promotion and improving the ground part of George’s new five-year plan?
“I was thinking about that because as they null-and-voided the last one I think in my five-year plan I get an extra year, surely,” he jokes.
“This is the fifth year coming up, when we hopefully get promoted. We had that last year and we were so close but, oh well.
“But if it happens then I’ll say this counts as the fifth year and if it doesn’t happen, then I’ll just stay quiet.”
The Future’s Bright project has now raised over £28,000 in just 5 days, that’s over 65% of the target.