Hull City have been slammed by in a statement by Bridlington Town chairman Peter Smurthwaite for moving their U23s home stadium to an East Riding County Football Association owned ground.
The Tigers’ U23 team had played their home football at Chadwick Stadium, the home of North Ferriby United. However the club decided this summer to move away from there and had talked with Bridlington Town about moving to their Hudgell Stadium. Those talks did not work out though and instead Hull elected to use the East Riding County Football Association owned stadium Roy West Centre.
This has angered Peter Smurthwaite, chairman of Bridlington Town, as he believes this takes money away from local non-league football. He believes that the move has hurt North Ferriby as well as other teams in East Yorkshire by handing more money to the local FA which he already gives £30,000 in affiliation fees. They also gave over £1,000 to the local FA in fines due to bookings and red cards.
Smurthwaite said: “I am really disappointed at this decision and I am sure North Ferriby United will feel very much the same that this revenue from Hull City will not be helping the Non-League football clubs in this area. I know the revenue previously received was a great help to North Ferriby who had achieved great success in recent years with the FA Trophy win and appearing in the National Conference League bringing great prestige to the area.”
I”t’s not too much of a problem for our club because we have not received any money from Hull City in fact they would not even send us any of their teams for a pre-season friendly this season yet have played Whitby Town and Pickering Town this pre-season.”
“The decision means the ERCFA are depriving non-league clubs of this vital income which is frustrating because they take money from the local clubs which helps with the upkeep of their facilities. Last season we paid £300.00 in affiliation fees and £1285.00 in disciplinary fines from our teams.”
