The management committee of AFC Llanelli were bitterly disappointed with the news that the FAW Council had turned down the FAW Domestic Committees proposal to let AFC Llanelli and Barry Town United reform and become full members of the FAW and join the Welsh League structure for 2013-14 season. The decision made at the Bi-Monthly FAW Full Council meeting held at Betws Y Coed last Thursday has stunned Llanelli and Welsh Football in general.
All AFC Llanelli have asked is to rejoin a league it first joined in 1912-13. The club has never been a member of its area association at first team level. This decision will put the future of Stebonheath Park, a ground where football has been played since 1923, at grave danger. A ground where the FAW will be proud to host three games of the UEFA European Womens Under 19 Finals this coming August, thanks to the support of AFC Llanelli and Llanelli Town Council.
On Saturday AFC Llanelli agreed to join forces with the hard working committee of Barry Town United to fight this decision together. All the present management of AFC Llanelli wish to do is reform the club from the ashes of Llanelli AFC, a club which 12 months ago qualified for the Europa League and was in the black financially as it had been in each of the six previous seasons under the ownership of Nitin Parekh.
Nitin Parekh bought Llanelli Football Club in 2005 and he wanted to be competing for the league title and cup competitions, both domestic and European, and to have a thriving academy and youth team. From 2005-12 this went well with the club winning the Welsh Premier League, the League Cup, the Welsh Cup, the FAW Youth Cup and competing in Europe for seven seasons, the highlight playing in the Champions League in 2008-09 season.
The club was also aware of its social responsibilities setting up a charity in 2009, raising over £7000 over the last four years. It has brought 13 orphans from Latvia and Lithuania to Wales on trips of a lifetime, visited orphanages in Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and helped underprivileged children in Glasgow and Kenya. The club has also visited sick children close to home at Morriston Hospital, Swansea and further afield in Kuopio Finland. The players also helped raise funds for local charities such as Movember, Lucy’s Dream and Diabetes among other worthwhile causes. The club even had a letter of praise from the FAW Council for its charitable work in 2009, the very people who have now made a decision which would end Llanelli Football Club. The future of the charity is now very much in doubt without a football team to help it raise funds.
The downfall of the previous club at the end of the season was due to the commitment of the owner to honour a budget given last July which he could not honour in the end. The players, management and supporters of Llanelli did all they could to keep the club going until the end of the season to keep the integrity of the Welsh Premier League intact, a success in itself in the end.
The players played for nothing, the committee worked endless hours to make ends meet to fulfil fixtures, with one or two even putting their own money into the club to make it to the end. No one could save the club finally though apart from the owner and on the 22nd April 2013, came the final outcome.
It hasn’t ended there though with the current management of Llanelli AFC assisting the Insolvency Practitioner and helping all the players compile claims for loss of wages. Nobody has walked away within Llanelli and work has been going on behind the scenes to reform the club from the ashes of Llanelli AFC.
Big plans have been put together over the last six weeks to turn the club into a community hub, with a five year plan in place consisting of a complete sporting experience from minis to juniors to seniors to promote football to all genders and ages within our community. Like Barry have already stated this FAW decision appears to contradict the FAW strategic plan for involving local communities in running football clubs.
Sadly this decision is also likely to mean the end of Association Football in Llanelli, a club with a history dating back to 1896.
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