Ringmer FC: A club in crisis

Manager Steve Johnson quit following the club's annual general meeting last week. He was quickly followed by his players, while on Monday evening this week chairman Richard Soan also tendered his resignation.

Mr Soan said his decision to stand down '“ ending an 18-year association with the club '“ was due to "family, business and health reasons".

But club has been split down the middle over a row concerning the transfer of deeds '“ the ownership of the ground '“ from the club's trustees to the board of directors.

Some claim the board needed the deeds in order to secure a bank loan "to take the club forward" but others claim the Blues were already 150,000 in debt and a further bank loan would be detrimental to the Caburn outfit.

At the club's AGM last Wednesday, club members voted against transferring the deeds from the trustees to the board.

That prompted Johnson's '“ and his players', who were also at the meeting '“ to hand in their resignations.

Johnson this week warned the decision could send the club backwards, and that the events had left Soan a "broken man".

He said, "The board just wanted to take the club forward but the members wanted to take it backwards.

"These people have driven him (Soan) out. It's a joke. He's a broken man right now. It's an absolute disgrace.

"They absolutely slaughtered Richard. Somebody stood up and said, 'why don't you resign?'. They got a few hear hears.

"I have had some decent jobs in football but Richard is the best chairman I have ever worked for. All he ever wants is the best for the football club. And it's cost him a fortune.

"He has been tremendous. He has never said 'We're doing badly so I'm going to cut your budget'. In fact he went the other way and said, 'What do you need'?

Talking of his own '“ and his players' '“ decision to quit, he said, "I can't work with people who are not football people.

"Marc (Whiteman) just turned around to me and say, "What chance have you got Johnno? What chance have we got?"

"We were hoping that Richard would stay and fight them off. But once we knew Richard was fighting a losing battle we all decided it's not the club for us.

"We wanted to go onwards and upwards '“ not backwards. But that's the way the club will go. And it's the way they want it to go.

"It will only take them two years to go down two division but it'll take another five years to go back up again.

"We had an average gate of around 65 for home games last season. There must have been 120 people at that meeting, some of them I have never seen before at the club.

"If all the people who turned up for the meeting turned up to the games we wouldn't have this problem."

Bob Munnery and Steve Oliver have stepped up from the reserve and youth teams to take over as joint managers of the first team. It is believed players from the youth team will make up the bulk of the 1st XI next season, although the Sussex Express has been told that as many as half a dozen of the players who quit last week may indeed stay on.

But Johnson said Munnery and Oliver were facing an uphill battle. "They're going to be lambs to the slaughter," he said.

"There are some good players there but they're not ready to go in (the first) team. If anybody thinks they are, they're deluding themselves. There are maybe three or four ready to step up but certainly not 16.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my two years with the chairman and the board. The chairman and board have put their hands in their pockets and put money into the club. The others are just members and use the football club. But they think they are the lifeblood of the football club.

The trustees are made up of three men: Graham Pitts, Alan Cherryman and lead trustee Stanley Williams.

Mr Williams said, "We found out that the club was in debt, we believe to be in excess of 150,000.

"The board wanted to secure the deeds to the ground in order to facilitate a further loan.

"They cannot afford to run the club as it is. What's the point of borrowing more money? You're only adding to the excess. The bank are only going to add interest to our outgoings.

"That was our reasoning '“ to protect the membership of the club.

"The vote of the members was 90 per cent of the view that things could not go on as they were.

"There's only so far you can dip into the bottle."

David Ruffles has been appointed as acting chairman.