Lancing football clubs cannot agree over terms of payment

Following the article in last week’s Herald, United and Rangers management met to discuss Rangers using Croshaw Rec going forward.

The meeting concluded with an informal agreement that Rangers would pay £40 per week for training and a reduced rate of £10 per match on Sunday afternoons. It was also agreed that Rangers would be able to use the facilities for committee meetings and utilise storage areas free of charge.

Then a letter was sent out to members of Rangers, signed by chairman Peter Luff. It said: “Lancing United Football Club went to great lengths to raise the money required to build this facility through grants and other means... this money obviously will need to be repaid.

“LUFC has turned to Rangers in an attempt to reclaim this money by charging us for the use of the park. LUFC, as a show of good faith and for the good of its members, agreed to pay the £40 weekly charge.

“However, it would be remiss of us not to balance our costs in other ways. We asked LUFC to assist with this by allowing us to use the pitch on a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, they did not agree to this, wanted us to pay virtually the same that we pay for Sompting Rec, which is a far superior pitch.

“Unfortunately, there are some short-sighted people that assume money in the bank is there to be spent until we are at £0. We are a very well run club, we have been extremely prudent with our finances, the day-to-day running of LRFC is more than we receive from your contributions, hence we have the six-a-side and other fundraising events so as not to pass that cost on to you.

“LUFC has finally agreed to give us the use of the pitch on a Sunday at a reduced rate which is now acceptable to us.”

Directors of Lancing United’s Limited Company decided, on the back of the letter and comments made at the club, that the relationship with Rangers was deemed untenable as ‘we simply can’t trust them anymore’.

A spokesman said: “They continue to do things behind our back, publishing information that is factually incorrect and making us look unorganised, poorly managed, financially stretched and desperate. This could not be further from the truth. The fact that we have been operating since 1946 speaks volumes about the strength of our club.”