AN ABANDONED football ground where Premier League legend Micah Richards started his career has been left to rot.
Fans of West Yorkshire team Farsley Celtic – in the National League North – are demanding club bosses quit over the eyesore.
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They are having to make round trips of 140 miles to watch HOME games – currently totalling almost 30 games.
Their historic pitch, at The Citadel – previously called Throstle Nest, has been dug up and is just mud, the terracing is dilapidated and the gates and turnstiles are padlocked.
Former Manchester City, Aston Villa and Fiorentina right back, Micah, 36, grew up in Chapeltown, Leeds, and played for local team Farsley Celtic as a youth.
Since retiring, he now works as a pundit for the likes of Sky Sports Football and BBC’s Match of the Day.
Plans to lay an artificial 4G playing surface at The Citadel are massively behind schedule and there is no sign of work at the ground.
The club’s official supporters’ group continue to call for chairman/owner Paul Barthorpe to leave the club, saying they have shown ‘remarkable patience over several years’ with him.
Farsley are currently playing home games at Buxton, in Derbyshire, with no fixed date for their return to The Citadel, while key players and staff have departed of late, including popular physio Gareth Liversidge after 18 years.
Farsley’s chairman had his car windscreen smashed following his side’s FA Cup last month, allegedly by two fans.
Local resident Isabell Jenkinson, 70, who was walking her 12 year old cocker spaniel Polly beside the empty Farsley ground, told The Sun: “All my kids used to play here. Football, cricket, the social life.
“My ex husband used to go to the games and my lads were fans.
“That pitch was supposed to be already laid, I believe, and it has never been done. But everything is dilapidated.
“The explanation is that this geezer that has got it now is putting no money into it. He’s not looking after the community.
“There is upset and anger in the community. The young men, they are angry.”
Isabell said that Farsley Celtic used to be a “fantastic” club, but it has “gone to the dogs” and “wrack and ruin” since new owners took over.
She said that she is missing the sound of the crowd on a Saturday home game.
Miriam Hitchman, 70, lives directly beside the ground and has been forced to maintain the football club’s wooden boundary fence after it toppled over onto a public footpath.
Miriam said: “A few winters ago, the Farsley Celtic’s wooden fence was practically down across the path.
“Parents and children use the path and I could see a terrible accident could happen. So me and my son tied the fence up with string to try and right it.
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“The string is still there and the fence is no closer to being repaired.
“The club has a responsibility for that fence. I’ve warned the directors about it and I got my MP to come round, but it remains an accident waiting to happen.
“We never have any problems with the football fans, but the club is terrible. The state of that pitch is appalling. It needs knocking down and houses built on it.
“The whole thing is an eyesore.”
She said the disuse of the pitch is now attracting youths from out of the area, throwing stones.
A recent bonfire at the club for Plot Night attracted around 1,000 people paying £3 each.
Miriam said: “That’s the biggest crowd the club has had here for ages, but there when no fans.”
Farsley fan Derek Smith, 63, said: “It is shocking how we have been treated.
“Some supporters are still making it to what are laughably called our ‘home games’, but it can’t go on like this. Buxton is not exactly close and takes hours to get there and back.
“The chairman needs to go and money needs to be pumped into the club.”
Another fan, George Fearnley, commenting on social media, stated: “Us fans have done 28 away games in a row because of him (Paul Barthorpe).
“We’ve had problems way before this and we will way after this even if the pitch does ever get put down with him at the helm.
“The supporters have unanimously realised one thing, he must leave, he must sell the club.”
Farsley Celtic FC said: “The chairman and the board aren’t going anywhere.
“We are committed to this club and this project and have backed this up with words, time, actions and significant investment over the years and continue to do so now on a daily basis.”
‘NO MEANINGFUL INCOME’
It said there had been “no meaningful income” at the club since April, “so all operating costs have been covered by the chairman since then”.
The statement said Mr Barthorpe had covered the club’s operating costs of up to £15,000 a week, yet had been “subjected to constant ridicule, personal abuse, threats and even had his property criminally damaged with the value of the damage running into the thousands”.
Farsley Celtic Football Club Supporters’ Club said in a statement: “Farsley Celtic Supporters’ Club notes with frustration yet another defensive statement from the owner which again sees him reluctant to take any responsibility for the current chaos surrounding the club.
“As owner, the buck stops with you, no-one else.
“The relationship between the owner and supporters have been strained for several years and we have shown remarkable patience.
“We cannot envisage relationships with supporters improving should the owner remain.
“The supporters’ club notes the owner provides no explanation for the delays in the pitchworks at the Citadel.
“It fails to explain why no work has been undertaken for six months, nor does it state specifically the nature of the problems at the ground.
“We have been given no reason why the dates stated by the chairman for the recommencement of pitch work have all been pushed back and the basic reason for why work has not been undertaken has not been addressed.
“We still have no set restart date, or date when football will again be played at The Citadel.
“The chairman’s statement also fails to mention or address why key staff have left the club.”
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