Fans ‘fear for future’ of Isthmian League club with Chelsea urged to help save them

Fans ‘fear for the future’ of Isthmian League club Kingstonian, with Chelsea being urged to open their eyes and help save them.

The club doesn’t currently have a home ground to call their own and have been sharing a ground with Tooting & Mitcham United at Imperial Fields.

But now they’re set for a another groundshare, their fourth, miles from home, and are pleading for Chelsea to help get them back at Kingsmeadow.

In the past, Kingstonian had their own stadium, Richmond Road from 1902 to 1988 and Kingsmeadow between 1989 and 2017.

But Kingstonian suffered financial difficulties in 2001, the same year they reached the FA Cup fourth round and a year after they finished 5th in the Conference, so AFC Wimbledon purchased Kingsmeadow two years later and allowed Kingstonian to continue using it.

AFC Wimbledon then had plans to relocate to a new ground, Plough Lane, with Kingsmeadow then sold to Chelsea for their women’s side to use in 2016.

As part of the sale agreement, Kingstonian was not allowed to stay at Kingsmeadow.

They started a groundshare with Leatherhead. at their ground at Fetcham Grove for the 2017–18 season, then the following season they moved again to King George’s Field in Tolworth, sharing with Corinthian-Casuals.

Then an agreement was reached with Tooting & Mitcham United to play at their Imperial Fields stadium for the 2022-23 season and have been there until 2024.

But from 2024-25, Kingstonian will play at Raynes Park Vale for an initial two seasons commencing next season.

Attendances have since dropped massively, only a couple hundred through the turnstiles, with supporters and ownership not getting on, while there’s an acceptance among fans that the club could be set to fold in the next 10 years.

Kingstonian used to be non-league establishment with their own ground and a dedicated local community.

Now they are homeless, virtually fan-less and as far as many can see, future-less.

More below on how it happened – and how Chelsea could save them https://t.co/7boKGy1gEs

— James Gray (@jamesgraysport) April 25, 2024

“A miracle might happen. Chelsea might suddenly realise that they have a lot of skin in this game, frankly,” Richard Exworthy, the head of the Kingstonian Supporters’ Club, tells i.

“I won’t go to another league game at home until we’re playing back in the borough of Kingston,” Exworthy adds. “It’s very sad.”

You really have to feel for Kingstonian, and their fans have noticed that Chelsea Women have only ever played at Kingsmeadow, just once on a Saturday this season, with the other bigger games held at Stamford Bridge.

He says: “Now if Chelsea could wake up to the fact that the women’s team play on a Sunday and that ground-sharing with a non-league team who play on a Saturday makes perfect sense…

“We’ve tried to convince Chelsea that it’s even in their PR best interests to see Kingstonian return to Kingsmeadow because otherwise they will have the death of a club partly on their hands.”

After being approached by the publication, Chelsea declined to comment.

78 year old Martin Tyler often watches non league, more so after retiring from commentating.

Tyler tells i: “I’m saddened by what’s happened [at Kingstonian] – but the one thing is that it’s the circle of life maybe. I hope that they will find a way back towards where they were before.

Two years after their FA Cup run, Wimbledon offered Rajesh Khosla, an unpopular chairman with Kingstonian fans, a fee reported around £2.5m for Kingsmeadow.

“When we were there, we didn’t have a home because it was AFC Wimbledon’s ground – but in seven years there was never any suggestion of playing anywhere else, and at least it was in the borough,” Tyler added.

“Now the fans are heartbroken. They don’t really know from season to season, maybe from month to month, where it’s all going to end up.”

It was sold to Chelsea  more than double what they paid for it a few years later at nearly £7million, with half of that helping the Wombles move to their new stadium. However for Kingstonian, they were left with no home.

Jon Tolley, a lifelong fan of Kingstonian, and a former Liberal Democrat councillor in Kingston, told i: “Wimbledon got double good luck and Kingstonian got double bad luck. That’s life. We’re due some luck.

“The [Kingstonian] directors at the time put out a public statement saying ‘It’s in the best interest of Kingstonian to leave Kingsmeadow’ which is something that no fan really thought, but it seems that that was part of what they had to do to get the blood money [act of generosity on the part of Wimbledon], if that’s how you want to say it”, recognising the damage that would be done to Kingstonian by the deal, with ‘an endowment of over a million pounds to Kingstonian, and there were instructions for the funds to be used for ground rental or construction costs.

“All these Chelsea fans should be coming should be coming to Ks. But we need a home and we need a way of saying to them ‘Come here every week’,” Taimour Lay says, a barrister who had been part of a small group of locals who attempted to save the club with their own cash but got turned away.

“Being able to go into the local community and say, ‘Look, we’re 10 minutes down the road’… but at the moment, we’re an hour down the road. So it’s just pointless.

“There’s nobody under 16 at our games, there just isn’t. That whole generation has been lost. And if I was 16 now, I wouldn’t be going to Ks. I went to Ks because it was down the bottom of my road.”

“We’ve probably got another 10 years before we’re going bust,” Tolley says.

“But that’s the problem. The existential nature of it is that we’ll have 40 fans at games – and I’ve been to games this season, where the official attendance is 180 or something like that, but you count the crowd and it’s less than 100 because they include season ticket holders and complimentary tickets who didn’t turn up to make it seem less embarrassing.

“So yes, the legal entity of Kingstonian FC Limited exists, but that’s not the club that I fell in love with. That is dead already.

“I think there’s always space for Kingston’s football club, but under this ownership, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

“The money has actually turned us into a zombie club, because you have a board of directors who just use the money to keep the club going, rather than build a future.

Tolley adds: “[Yioryos] may well know all the names of all the players, but in my opinion he’s got no understanding of how to build a standing on social media, of how to get people onside, of how to build a movement, of how to get support from the Council or the FA to get the grants to plug into the money which is existing there.”

The blame doesn’t solely lay with Vasilaras with Kingstonain fans voicing how dissatisfied they are in a survey by the supporters’ club with the club’s directors, due to the follow, non-attendance, poor communication from management to supporters, poor matchday experience and poor quality of football on offer.

“I usually attempt to bring friends along to games,” one respondent said.

“But the past two seasons have been nothing short of depressing and so I haven’t bothered.”

A long statement was issued by Vasilaras after the club were relegated to the 8th tier this season.

12 Kingstonian fans turned up for the away game at Lewes, wearing shirt with the message “SACK THE BOARD”.

Vasilaras responded by saying he will “not hesitate to impose long-term bans on any individuals who individually or collectively continuously create a negative atmosphere at our matches”. It smacks of “the beatings will continue until morale improves”.

A group called Kingston Bridge Holdings (KBH), local business owners and fans tried to help out with an investment of around £150,000 across five years to keep the club going and to work towards finding a solution to their homelessness.

Brrister Taimour Lay, adds: “They were always reluctant and slow/ It took months and months to get any information or answers out of them.”

i have struggled to get any information out of Vasilaras as the season comes to an end.

The only statement is the one he said after relegation was confirmed.

STATEMENT (from Vasilaras):

With our relegation confirmed on Saturday 6th April following our 3-1 defeat to Margate, I would just like to say that despite being devastated at no longer being a Step 3 club, something we’ve been since 2009, it was something that was inevitable and that the new Board of Directors and myself had come to accept when we came in, in part due to the poor run of results that the team had suffered prior to Tutu’s appointment, despite having spent circa £80,000 in playing budget costs up to that point but also being honest with you all as I was during the meeting on Saturday 17th February 2024 after our fantastic win against Bognor Regis Town in telling all that were present that I had to make the extremely difficult decision for the good of the club to significantly cut the playing budget as, to put it simply, the money was not there for us to keep spending what we were spending, it just wasn’t sustainable.

The combination of a horrendous run of results in the League, FA Cup and FA Trophy, plus heavily reduced “home” attendances this season at Tooting and Mitcham have made it very difficult for us as a club financially.

The level of playing budgets that are now required to compete at Step 3 are just not financially sustainable given our current position as a club, something which sadly has been illustrated by our friends at Margate FC, who recently announced annual losses of over £260,000 and sadly find themselves fighting for survival in the Isthmian Premier League.

On that note, as supporters I urge you to remember the following two things:

1. The only income we receive due to not having our own ground is match day admission revenue, season ticket sales and sponsorship income, the rest of the significant annual shortfall is at the benevolence of the Club Directors.

2. The above is down to the historic actions of Rajesh Khosla and his sons as well as the Board of Directors before them who ploughed our club into administration, something which EVERY board since then has had to pay for the sins of those individuals.

I would finally like to thank ALL our loyal supporters for your continued support this season, it’s appreciated by all involved. I know it’s been a very hard watch, I can only promise you that in preparation for next season at Raynes Park Vale we have been doing our upmost as a board to give you all a club and match day experience to be proud of and enjoy again.

AFC WIMBLEDON-DONATED MONEY FOLLOWING OUR DEPARTURE FROM KINGSMEADOW

On the subject of supporters recently wanting to know more information on what was agreed with AFC Wimbledon upon us leaving Kingsmeadow, all we will be saying on the subject is as follows. The following statement was written in association with Malcolm Winwright, John Fenwick and Mark Anderson as they were owners, directors and shareholders when this agreement was negotiated and subsequently agreed.

None of the existing Directors or incoming new Directors were involved in the club as officers of the club at the time, hence why we felt that this section surrounding “what was agreed with AFC Wimbledon and why” was best covered by the outgoing Directors. Everything else covered within this statement has been written by myself on behalf of the new Board of Directors.

There were several agreements between Kingstonian FC and AFC Wimbledon relating to the termination of the lease that took place at the end of May 2017.

All directors past and present fully understand that these arrangements remain confidential between the parties. This is normal commercial practice.

However, I can comment on one agreement referred to as The Donation Agreement.

It was well established that leaving Kingsmeadow would put great strain upon resources as leaving the Borough meant lower crowds, no secondary revenue from the bar, match day catering, etc.

Therefore, agreement was reached with AFC Wimbledon that an amount could be used to assist that missing revenue for a limited period of seven seasons. That will finish at the end of the current 2023-24 season.

This agreement allowed withdrawal from the jointly approved Escrow account.

This timescale negotiated was on the expectation that Kingston Council would give us serious support and assistance in finding a new home within that timescale. At the start we received great support from Leader Kevin Davies resulting in a pre-planning application regarding Chessington Golf Centre. Which included a cost-free swimming pool for the borough!!

However, once that stalled and Kevin was replaced via local elections, we have not until recently received the same enthusiasm from our council.

There may be light at the end of this tunnel, but again, this is subject to discussions which should remain confidential until such time that there is confirmed significant news.

The income received has helped the club over the last seven seasons pay the significant operating costs involved, which, as I’m sure supporters can appreciate, cover a wide variety of costs and expenses, which are as follows: training ground facilities, insurance policies, coach travel, FA and League fees, player registrations and fines, all required kit and playing equipment, accountants’ fees, payroll admin fees, auditors’ fees, professional fees, physio supplies, match day security, storage containers, photography, bank charges, Under 18s team costs, etc.

BUT NOT our biggest operating cost, which is of course our playing budget.

All the outgoing Directors and myself have invested considerable time and enormous sums of our own money into the club over those same seven years and many years prior to that. This to keep the club afloat, find a new home and trying to compete on a sporting front, which is not easy given the significant costs involved in the running of a senior non-league football club at Step 3, whose only incoming is match day ticket admission sales, season ticket sales and sponsorship. Therefore, the significant shortfall every season has been made up at the benevolence of the Directors.

The new Board of Directors, led by me as the majority shareholder and Chair, have made significant financial commitments that we will personally and collectively invest all we can financially into the club, along with attracting and securing as much sponsorship as possible. Our aim is to significantly reduce any further withdrawals from the AFC Wimbledon-donated money for ground sharing costs. If we can achieve that, it means we only draw funds to pay any new ground related costs.

It is safe to say that the balance of the extremely generous donation from AFC Wimbledon is 100% enough to allow us along with various grants available to be in a position to build our own home, once we’ve identified a suitable site, agreed terms and obtained planning permission – none of which will be easy as we all know – BUT it’s the one thing that we as a board are 100% determined that we will achieve. It is the legacy we will create for future generations of Ks’ supporters, including my own children, to enjoy.

Since July 2006 when Mark and Malcolm rescued Kingstonian with audited debts approaching £100,000, the club has never defaulted on any payments.

I am delighted to announce that after very amicable and swift negotiations, an agreed mechanism is now in place to substantially reduce and write off all current Directors’ loans over the next five seasons.

I will also take this opportunity to confirm that since 2006-07, no Director or Shareholder has taken any funds out of the club, except to repay short-term cash flow loans.

The certified accounts at Companies House fully reflect all outstanding loan totals each year. They currently stand at circa £350,000. This amount does not include £100,000 written off by the shareholders some years ago.

We will be making no further comments on this matter both now or in the future.

NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS GOING FORWARD

Our new Board of Directors moving forward, who will all be shareholding directors, will be as follows:

• Yioryos Vasilaras (Chairman)
• Stephen Dormer (Vice-Chairman)
• Jim Page
• Ben Flatt

Stephen Dormer and Jim Page have recently both been accepted by the FA to be club directors, joining Ben and myself in that respect. A significant majority share transfer has all been agreed and will take place between the outgoing Directors and the new Directors at the end of the current season.

I would personally like to thank the outgoing Direcotrs for their significant contribution over the years to our club, without the time and effort apart from the significant personal financial contributions they have all personally and collectively put in over their many of years of service to our club, we simply would NOT have a club.

Special thanks, however, must be reserved for John Fenwick, who is the most genuine, honest, conscientious man you’ll meet, who has worked selflessly every day for the last twelve and a half years to run our club on a day-to-day basis in the most professional way imaginable – so John, thank you, my friend. Mark, Malcolm and Paul, I thank you wholeheartedly for what you have given for our club.

On that note, I have pleasure in announcing in recognition of everything that they have given to the club over the years, John, Mark and Paul will be made Life Members of our club, joining Malcolm, who was made a Life Member some years ago in recognition of his sterling service to the club over many years.

Finally, on this subject – I would like to urge all Ks’ supporters to get behind Stephen, Jim, Ben and myself in a positive manner – we do not need the negativity that has come from a small minority of “supporters”, who know who they are, and, simply put, it will not be tolerated. We will not hesitate to impose long-term bans on any individuals who individually or collectively continuously create a negative atmosphere at our matches and abuse Club Directors online or otherwise – we need everyone to pull together and help us to make our club great again. Simply put – OUR CLUB NEEDS YOU!

OUR STRATEGIC VISION AS A BOARD MOVING FORWARD

As a Board moving forward, our vision is simple – it’s to rebuild the club so that it’s a sustainable, successful football club (first team, youth and ladies’ teams), all playing at its own ground that we can all be proud of.

Our focus will be re-engaging with the local community, especially schools and youth groups (not forgetting our fantastic community partners – Kingston Young Carers), as well as of course local business for much required valued sponsorship, as well as reaching out to Ks fans far and wide who no longer attend, but vitally importantly we also realise the absolute necessity to really revolutionise our social media platforms in order to promote the club in such a way that ultimately helps us build our match day fan base up in order to put our club firmly back on the map in a positive way.

Finally, our fundamental goal is to rebuild our youth setup, which will hugely assist us in creating our own pool of talented young players, with the end goal of reintegrating them and allowing them the opportunity to display their talents in our first team – nothing has made me prouder this season than seeing Jack Lillie, Alfie Burton, Ben Parkinson, Josh Kirkham and Freddie Bailey make their debuts for our great club, huge credit must go to Nigel James, Caroline Rudoni, Rachel Jervis and all of Nigel’s extended team of fantastic coaches for not only mentoring great players BUT, most importantly, fantastic young men who have been a breath of fresh air around our club and are a credit to their families and to themselves.

NEW GROUND SITUATION UPDATE

We have been working really hard behind the scenes with key figures at the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames, with whom we’ve had one successful meeting and have a further meeting arranged for later this month.

As a Board, we’ve identified three potential sites (one existing site and two new sites), two of which are in the Borough and the other admittedly is outside the Borough – all of which we as a board have visited within the last month.

I must be clear that categorically our priority is for any new ground to be within the Borough, but I am also being totally honest with you when I say that we decided to explore an aforementioned opportunity within a very close neighbouring Borough as I’ve certainly learned in my time as a Director of this club that given our situation, it would not be wise or in the club’s best interest to limit ourselves to putting all our eggs in one or even two baskets, therefore we strongly feel that being pro-active and collectively exploring all possibilities, we will give ourselves the best possible chance of achieving our end result, which is of course a new ground of our own to play in, one that we can rightfully for generations to come call “Home”.

Finally on this topic, after thorough research, we have identified and had two meetings each with our chose Architect, Assisted Funding Consultant and finally our chosen Project Manager, so that when “Heads of Terms” for a site are agreed, we are ready to hit the ground running so to speak.

As and when we can update you on this topic, we will do so. However, as always up to such a point where we have something definitely to announce, all matters regarding sites and details will be kept private and confidential by us as a board.

NEW K’S LADIES TEAM FOR SEASON 2024-25

Those of you that are eagle eyed on social media may have seen our new social media accounts for our new ladies team, along with trial dates. However, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to officially announce that we will have a fantastically talented new Ks Ladies Under 18s team representing our club this forthcoming season and hopefully for years to come.

The team has been hugely successful over the last seven years playing in the colours of Motspur Park FC under the stewardship of Ks legend “the man with the mullet that does the kit and has a magic sponge”, Mr James “Jamie” Street.

It’s been something that James and myself (as part of our outgoing Board of Directors) have been discussing for the best part of two years. I’m so glad that it is now going to come to fruition and am really looking forward to this team playing in our famous red and white hoops – welcome to the Ks’ family, ladies.

I’m delighted to announced that our new Kingstonian FC U18s Ladies team have been accepted to play in the Surrey County Women’s and Girls League.

I can also confirm that our ladies team home matches will be played at Hawker YMCA, Lower Ham Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT2 5BH.

Trials for the Ladies Team will also be held at the same venue on Sunday 26th May 2024 from 11am to 1pm.

END-OF-SEASON PLAYER AWARDS

Our End of Season Player awards will take place in the main bar at Tooting and Mitcham United FC on Saturday 20th April after our match against Haringey Borough at 5.30pm. All supporters are invited, this is not a ticketed event – please note that the bar will be card only on the night.

The following awards presented will be as follows:

• Managers’ Player of the Year
• Players’ Player of the Year
• Young Player of the Year
• Clubman of the Year
• Directors’ Player of the Year

We would love as many supporters as possible to join us in order to pay respect to the fantastic effort, work ethic, energy and superb loyalty that Tutu, his players and staff have showed the club over the course of this difficult season, but especially since Tutu has come in.

On this note, I would also like to thank our former manager Simon Lane, Simon’s support staff and all players that have represented us this season for their effort and hard work, despite the end result being relegation. All of the aforementioned commitment to the cause of our club cannot be doubted – I wish them all well on their future footballing journeys.

EARLY BIRD SEASON TICKETS, STANDARD SEASON TICKET AND MATCH DAY ADMISSION PRICES

Although we as a board have decided on pricing and know that you will be bowled over by how generous we’ve been with it all, we will not be announcing anything until we’ve had confirmation of which Step 4 league we will be allocated to for the forthcoming season. As soon as we know, we will tell you.

THANK YOU TO OUR VALUED CLUB VOLUNTEERS AND CLUB SPONSORS

I would like to take this opportunity to firstly thank our wonderful team of volunteers, who selflessly voluntarily give up hours of their time for no financial gain throughout the season – thank you to each and every one of you, quite simply without you we couldn’t operate as a club.

Secondly, I’d like to thank our valued club sponsors for their support this season – with special thanks to our main club sponsor Tim Brett, the owner of Surrey Steels. Thank you Tim, your sponsorship is greatly appreciated. If anyone has any requirements for steel fabrication products or services, please give our friends at Surrey Steels a call on 020 3666 0016. If you do, please make sure that you mention the mighty Ks!

Finally on this, I would also like to thank the following companies for their sponsorship this season:

• Cats Protection – Sutton and Kingston District Branch
• Alexander James and Company Ltd – Chartered Certified Accountants
• Lal Akash – Bangladeshi and Indian Restaurant, New Malden
• Fresh Printing
• Fresh Electrical Solar Solutions
• Latimer’s Estate Agents, Kingston
• Wesley Cooper Chartered Accountants, Wallington
• Anderson Travel

To any individual or supporter who has sponsored a players’ kit or match this season – thanks to you all, your support is invaluable to our club.

WE NEED YOU!

Finally, BUT most importantly – WE NEED YOU. Various volunteer roles need filling this forthcoming season around our club, such as:

• Club Secretary
• Club Media and Communications Officer
• Social Media Experts
• Match Day PA Announcer
• Physio
• Match Day Programme Editor
• Match Day Programme Content Creators
• Match Reporters (for programme, website and social medial platforms)
• Radio Commentators

Equally, if you or anyone you know is interested in helping the club in any other way – including sponsorship – feel free to contact me using the following e-mail address: chair@kingstonianfc.com

COYK’S

Yioryos Vasilaras
Chairman, Kingstonian Football Club