YOU CAN’T RAID US OF IDENTITY!
CHAIRMAN Stephen Harris insists there are “no plans” for Worcester Raiders to get swallowed up despite a takeover by the owners of the city’s rugby club and League Two Morecambe.
The West Midlands (Regional) League (WMRL) Premier Division outfit have announced they will play from the 11,499-capacity Sixways Stadium, home of Premiership Rugby outfit Worcester Warriors, next season.
Warriors owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham formed Worcester Football Limited this week, a company which Harris confirmed had been set up to run Raiders. Goldring and Whittingham, both directors of Morecambe, have declared significant interests or control in the company.
Football Association (FA) rules state “no person, company or business institution… may at any time be interested in more than one club” without “prior written consent”.
When contacted by The NLP on Friday, the FA said it had “not been notified of any change to the ownership of Worcester Raiders” but Harris said the relevant information had been put forward that day, anticipating no problem with getting the deal ratified.
Investment
The move has led to speculation the club will be rebranded as Warriors but feedback from Sixways indicates it will “remain as Worcester Raiders”.
Harris said: “We have already discussed potential name changes but decided to keep it as Raiders. Nothing is set in stone in life but they have no plans whatsoever to change the team name at the moment.
“We are going to have our branding and merchandise in the club shop so I can’t see a reason to change it once people get used to it being Raiders.
“I don’t believe it will get swallowed up. It will always be Worcester Raiders, we still have the same fans and we are going to encourage new ones to the club.
“We may gain fans from Worcester City, we may gain fans from Worcester Warriors and the way I see it we have a club that everyone in the city can support.”
The sticking point is likely to come if Raiders wish to enter the FA Cup, with any interest in a second competing club limited to 10 per cent of the shareholding according to rules in place last season.
The paperwork lodged with Companies House shows 1,000 shares in Worcester Football Limited divided between Goldring (100) and Bond Group Sixways Limited (900), another company owned by the owners, although Harris says 10 per cent of the shares are set to be distributed to Raiders’ existing committee.
There is a precedent for ownership of more than one English club. Alan Hardy held an interest in Notts County, then of League Two, and Ilkeston Town with the latter stopped from entering the FA Cup at the time.
Harris confirmed Raiders had applied to play in the FA Vase in 2020-21 in the hope of making the cut for the FA Cup a year later but that the situation had yet to be discussed with the new owners.
Raiders are a relatively young club who have predominantly recruited from the Worcester area and formally entered the National League System by winning WMRL Division One in 201819.
On retaining an involvement in the new set-up, Harris added: “I have a meeting with the MD (Peter Kelly) on Thursday. I think they want me with them and let’s see if they want that to be in a temporary role for a year or permanently. I am still chairman for the moment.”
He confirmed decisions on budgets and the firstteam management would be taken by Goldring and Whittingham with “no plans to change” joint-bosses Karl Gormley and Chris Cornes “for now”.
Potential
The move comes as a surprise after Raiders had contributed to the redevelopment of previous home Claines Lane, owned and operated by Worcestershire FA.
Work on the revamp continues with Worcester City, a fan-owned club that held takeover talks with Goldring and Whittingham last year, set to move in from the start of next season after seven years of groundsharing at Kidderminster Harriers and Bromsgrove Sporting. “Things were not right for us at Claines Lane,” said Harris. “We have been offered a better facility with huge potential. We had to think very hard about it, a lot of hours went into digging holes and laying concrete but we felt Warriors was a better option.
“We get on very well with Steve Goode (chairman, Worcester City) but felt it was going to be very difficult to share facilities.
“We thank Worcestershire FA for the opportunity to play at Claines Lane but unfortunately we didn’t think it would work with us and Worcester City there.”
Neither Goldring nor Whittingham was available for comment.