Plans afoot as Fort FC work towards a brighter future
Fort William FC may not be able to play Highland League fixtures on their home ground at the moment but there is still plenty of action going on at Claggan Park.
Ambitious plans for a new clubhouse to replace the current structure have been prepared and submitted by D K Design, Fort William, for consent.
Club chairman John Trew said: ‘Everyone is aware that the club has struggled in recent years but there have been several changes made recently which makes the new board optimistic about the future.
‘If approved, the new clubhouse will play a major part. It will be available for community hire for events, parties and funerals with money paying off the loan and funding the upkeep of the building.
‘Nobody will be making a profit from the clubhouse. Everything will be ploughed back into youth and senior football, and the upkeep of Claggan.’
Having spent several thousand pounds installing new drainage, re-seeding and purchasing new ground-keeping machinery last year, the club has recently completed negotiations with Highland Council for a new lease of Claggan Park to secure the long-term future of the club.
The board are now looking to local businesses to help do this by sponsoring advertising boards to be positioned on the new railings around the pitch. The boards will cost £250 with an additional sum of £60 to cover manufacture (with the board then belonging to the purchaser). Boards that have been sponsored in the past and are still in the club’s possession can be reused to save the manufacturing fee.
‘We are selling boards to fund the construction of the new clubhouse with any shortfall being made up of an interest-free directors’ loan to the club,’ explained Mr Trew.
‘As we are not currently playing our home games at Claggan Park the payment will include the advertising for the whole of next season as well as the remainder of this one.’
The new clubhouse is one of a long list of improvements and initiatives taking place at the club over the past months, some of which have grabbed the attention of the national media.
‘We have appointed a new manager (Shadab Iftikhar) who, although relatively young, has considerable experience at local and indeed international level and who, following his appointment, has been interviewed on national television, including the BBC and Sky Sports,’ added Mr Trew. ‘We have recently signed several new exciting young players and they have made an immediate impact, with results in recent weeks improving. At the beginning of February the club drew 1-1 at Huntly with their club officials conceding we were the better team.’
The club are also currently involved with a film crew detailing its progress with a view to a BBC documentary being released in due course, as well as a gaining a strong and increasing social media following with over 12,000 followers on Facebook.
To get involved or to sponsor a board contact the club by email at fortwilliamfc@ highlandleague.com or phone 07885 810661.
On Saturday Fort suffered a narrow defeat at Grant Street Park in the Breedon Highland League to mid table Clachmacuddin FC. The hosts opened the scoring through Martin Callum but Fort stuck in and Yves Zama grabbed the equaliser early in the second half. Connor Bunce struck the fatal blow later on in the match for the hosts to lift the Simon Shields Trophy.