Farsley Celtic: Leeds-based non-league outfit dealt blow as supporters’ club announce boycott

The grass pitch at Farsley’s home ground, The Citadel, was dug up at the end of last season to make way for an artificial surface.

However, according to club chairman Paul Barthorpe, “unavoidable and totally unforeseen" problems have delayed the laying of the astro turf. As a result, the National League North outfit have entered a groundshare agreement with Derbyshire-based Buxton.

Farsley Celtic Supporters’ Club met earlier this week and unanimously voted to boycott games played at Buxton’s home, The Tarmac Silverlands Stadium. The stand-off will last until January 1, when the club are expecting to return to The Citadel.

The supporters’ club had previously issued a vote of no confidence in Barthorpe and called for him to sell the club.

In a statement, the supporters’ club said: "We are increasingly embarrassed by how Farsley Celtic is being run and the continuing uncertainty surrounding the club.

"The chairman has been unwilling to give a definite date for the recommencement of pitch work at The Citadel. We still have no confidence in the statements made by the chairman regarding the recommencement of the delayed pitch works.”

In a club statement issued to The Yorkshire Post, Farsley said engineers had been unable to return to work on the pitch this week due to adverse weather conditions.

The club said: “All of the dates and deadlines given for works are ones that we are passing on from engineers, we have not created these dates ourselves.

“We are working to a programme of works and processes supplied to us, that has been shared with and agreed by the league. We are wary of sharing any of this information publicly because if there is any sort of problem with it, it becomes branded as ‘misleading information’.”

The supporters’ club have also called for an end to matchday volunteering by members at home games.

A spokesperson for the supporters’ club insisted their boycott is a continuation of their solidarity with players, staff members and stakeholders.

In response, the club said: “Clubs like ours run on the goodwill of a small handful of matchday volunteers, and should those volunteers no longer continue, then it is the club that suffers nothing else.

“The chairman continues to invest heavily in the club on a weekly basis to ensure its operational activity and survival through this tough time. A further reminder that all issues surrounding the pitch are as a result of the chairman and the board’s desire to invest further in the club, to develop it and make it bigger and stronger.

“Had there been no ambition, desire, a lack of care or effort, commitment or willingness to invest then none of these issues would be happening.

“Everyone has the right to choose how they spend their free time, and should that be a decision to not support the club and its players while they are playing at Buxton then as stated that’s a personal choice. It’s our choice as a board to continue to support our players whenever and wherever they are playing wearing our badge.”

Last month, as exclusively revealed by The Yorkshire Post, members of Farsley’s playing squad united to accuse chairman Barthorpe of “breaking trust” over alleged late wage payments.

In response to the allegations, Barthorpe admitted there had been issues with late payments but said it was due to a bereavement and disputed how the situation had been characterised by the players.