GROUND DISPUTE TALK IS MET BY SILENCE

UNCERTAINTY prevails over City of Liverpool’s future at Bootle with neither club confirming or denying whether the ground sharers have been shut out.

The Purps announced at 10.30pm last Friday night that their Northern Premier League West match at home to Widnes had been postponed “due to completely unforeseen circumstances”.

It led to online speculation that the fan-owned club, nomadic since its inception in 2015, had been locked out due to a rent dispute.

City of Liverpool chairman Paul Manning referred back to the club’s post on social media site X – formerly Twitter – highlighting the circumstances were “out of our control”.

When asked for the reasons, whether the club had access to the ground now or whether he could offer anticipated timescales for a return, Manning refused to comment further but did later commit to providing more detail in the forthcoming week.

Joe Doran, a trustee and the treasurer of Bootle, took a similar stance, saying the situation was being dealt with as a private matter.

He said the clubs were in discussion with the Northern Premier League but would not comment on the online speculation or the prospects of City of Liverpool returning to play from Vesty Road. He also refused to confirm or deny rumours of a rent dispute.

City of Liverpool played its first five years from Bootle but left at the end of the second Covid season – 202021 – acknowledging that “relations between the two clubs had frayed against the backdrop of the pandemic”, adding that the feeling the arrangement should end “was largely mutual”.

The Purps banked on moving to Prescot Cables but that deal fell through, leaving less than a month to sort a suitable home.

That issue was resolved through switching to Rivacre Park, home of Vauxhall Motors, but they returned to Bootle for the start of the 2022-23 season.

In interviews with website Off The Park at the time, Doran said that deal had been struck through “very professional” discussions, while Manning said both clubs had “accepted their roles in the disintegration of what was a good relationship.”