Sponsors boost for Cit­i­zens as sea­son closes

Bangor Mail - - Sport -

NEW and re­newed spon­sor­ship agree­ments have given Ban­gor City a wel­come offthe-field sea­son-ending boost.

The Cit­i­zens were “de­lighted to con­firm” that Co­leg Me­nai and the University of Ban­gor have re­newed their re­spec­tive deals with the club, with that news topped off by a spon­sor­ship deal with a multi­na­tional pizza gi­ant.

Papa John’s Pizza have agreed to come on board dur­ing a hugely im­por­tant pe­riod for the club as they look to avoid fur­ther com­pli­ca­tions of the sort that ham­pered this sea­son’s chal­lenge in the Huws Gray Al­liance.

Gary Tay­lor-Fletcher’s side were in con­tention to chase down even­tual cham­pi­ons Air­bus Broughton un­til club debts of £80,000 were re­vealed, caus­ing a num­ber of in­flu­en­tial squad mem­bers to de­part.

Off the field the club, which plays its games at Nant­porth, has suf­fered months of se­ri­ous prob­lems, such as bills go­ing un­paid, play­ers not be­ing paid wages and the resignatio­n of club au­di­tors.

But the club have given mem­bers of their academy struc­ture some valu­able first team ex­pe­ri­ence, with the likes of Gethin Thomas and Sam Jones im­press­ing con­sid­er­ably dur­ing the lat­ter stages of the cam­paign.

The club also re­vealed that “dis­cus­sions are on­go­ing with a num­ber of po­ten­tial lo­cal sponsors as they see value in back­ing their club”, with fur­ther de­tails set to be re­vealed in due course on the sta­tus of those ne­go­ti­a­tions.

It’s been a tur­bu­lent sea­son for the Cit­i­zens which has led to sup­port­ers

pos­si­ble form­ing their own break­away club.

The de­ci­sion was made at an Ex­tra­or­di­nary Gen­eral Meet­ing last month by Ban­gor City Foot­ball Club Sup­port­ers As­so­ci­a­tion.

A state­ment by the as­so­ci­a­tion said it had agreed to in­cor­po­rate as a Com­mu­nity Ben­e­fit So­ci­ety (or Sup­port­ers’ Trust) and set up a new club, not in op­po­si­tion to Ban­gor City FC “but as insurance against what we con­sider to be the real threat to top level foot­ball be­ing played in the city.”

The state­ment con­tin­ued: “Over re­cent months the SA Com­mit­tee have taken some ini­tial steps in prepa­ra­tion for the possibilit­y of a new club through li­ai­son with the FAW and lo­cal stake­hold­ers, as a re­sult we have a pro­vi­sional agree­ment to use a Tier 3 com­pli­ant ground in the Ban­gor area.

“We have also ap­proached a well-re­spected lo­cal man­age­ment team and come to pre­lim­i­nary agree­ments with a kit sup­plier.

“We will now en­sure that new club is reg­is­tered with the FAW be­fore a dead­line of 1st June.

“The new club is a creative and pos­i­tive solution for an ev­er­chang­ing and pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion. We are not dis­own­ing Ban­gor City FC or its his­tory, the club is OURS, it be­longs to the fans and lo­cal com­mu­nity.”

In March, for­mer Ban­gor City FC boss Stephen Vaughan Jr re­turned to the club as chair­man.

The for­mer direc­tor of foot­ball and man­ager of the team quit his role as as­sis­tant man­ager of Mal­tese club Mosta FC in or­der to re­turn to the Cymru Al­liance club.

He said takeover in­ter­est had not come to fruition and he needed to re­turn to the helm to pre­vent the club from fall­ing into ad­min­is­tra­tion.

● Ban­gor City’s sta­dium at Nant­porth: the club has been able to an­nounce good news as the sea­son ends, with the con­fir­ma­tion of ex­ist­ing spon­sor­ships and a new agree­ment with Papa John’s, in­set

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