CHAMPIONS PARK HAVE NOW BEEN RELEGATED

CELEBRATIONS at Worcester Park for winning the Cherry Red Combined Counties Division One championship were cut short – after they were told they had been relegated.

Despite the wishes of the league, they have been demoted by the FA to the Step 7 Surrey Elite League because their ground at Worcester Park Athletic Club in the London Borough of Sutton was ruled not to be up to scratch.

It was estimated that the club may need to spend more than £50,000 to bring their ground up to required standards, as not only would floodlights be required but also a 100-seat stand.

The improvements would also preclude cricket being played there, said a club spokesman.

Three other clubs from their league, Farleigh Rovers, Staines Lammas and South Park Reserves – all long-standing members of the Combined counties League – have also been booted out of the Step 6 division.

Step 6 clubs were told of the FA’s ground grading requirement at the start of the 2015/16 season, and again last August.

Combined Counties fixture secretary Alan Constable said: “The league did not want to lose these clubs. We’ve made our point to the FA on numerous occasions but they were determined to act on this occasion.”

A Farleigh Rovers club statement read: “Whilst in an ideal world we would have liked to have done [the extra work needed], at present, it would have placed a huge and unsustainable financial burden on the club, and therefore meant we ran the very real risk of bankrupting the club.”