Connect with us

Non League

Newly formed phoenix club apply for league and will return to 13,350 capacity stadium

Newly formed phoenix club Widnes Town apply for league inclusion for the 2026/27 season, and will return to the 13,350 capacity DCBL Stadium.

On the 29th of June 2025, Widnes FC announced that it had withdrawn from the Northern Premier League Premier Division, which would have been their highest ever level, having won the Northern Premier League Division One West title in the 2024/25 season, 882 fans in attendance for the 1-0 win against Trafford.

But a turbulent off-season saw manager Michael Ellison leave, as did a number of key players, then an application for a purpose-built facility at the Corporation Club was withdrawn, leading to the club withdrawing of its men’s first team from all competitions with immediate effect.

Widnes Town said in response to a comment on why Widnes FC folded: “the ownership of the old club folded the club without giving the community an opportunity to take it over. The first many knew of the club folding was the actual announcement. The new club is set up as a community entity that cannot be controlled by one person and hopefully we will never see a repeat of what happened last year.”

CLUB STATEMENT:

“It is with great sadness that Widnes Football Club has decided to withdraw its Men’s First team from all competitions with immediate effect.

“The club has been funded by shareholders over the years with the aim of one day owning and operating our own ground, creating a sustainable working model not reliant on any group or individuals.

“We recently withdrew our application for the council-owned Corporation Club that we had agreed a 36-year lease on due to a lack of support or will from Halton Borough Council (HBC) to overcome parking issues at the site.

“The club engaged with HBC when the ground move was obviously in jeopardy.

“The HBC CEO responded with the offer of ‘pulling together a meeting’, which never materialised.

“The club did however meet with HBC Executive Officers where we laid out our short term and longer-term needs.

“We felt at that meeting that we had made headway.

“Since then, the club had only received contact to confirm what we had discussed during our meeting.

“The club pressed for an update and then again for a further update with a deadline set for a response as footballing dates approached.

“No response was received, nor even to just acknowledge receipt.

“It’s not lost us on that the new Runcorn MP visited her local club calling it ‘a jewel in the crown’ of their community while we couldn’t even get an email reply or a simple congratulations as Northern Premier League West Champions from anyone at HBC or our local MP.

“We just don’t matter enough.

“We recently secured the future of our junior section, arranging for them to become Widnes FC Juniors under their own affiliation so that today’s news didn’t affect their football.

“The club offers our deepest apologies to our fans that we couldn’t deliver what we set out to do, despite our very best efforts.

“We would also like to thank our committee, players and staff for their professionalism over the last few testing weeks and for standing by us while we tried to work through the issues.

“Steven Irwin and Sean Miller together deserve special praise for working non-stop in a bid to start the season while accepting there weren’t any guarantees that we ever could.

“We would finally like to say a massive thanks to the committee at the Northern Premier League for all their help and support over the last seven years.

“To all member clubs and fans, thank you – keep supporting non-league!

“It’s a very sad day for us all at the club and we really do hope you keep your fires burning.”

CLUB STATEMENT:

Widnes Town Football Club has today submitted an application to the Football Association to join the National League System as a Phoenix Club under rule 6.3.

The FA confirmed to the club last week that the application would be considered under this provision and that Widnes Town FC will be placed no higher that Step 5 in the pyramid, two divisions below where the former Widnes club were playing when they folded as set out in the Football Association rules.

Our preference is to be placed in the North West Counties League. If the North West Counties League Premier Division was to have less than 24 clubs for the 2026 / 27 season, the legal advice we have received when forming the club would suggest that we would be placed in this Division.

We do as a club, however, fully support the North West Counties League in their position that they wish to retain all of their member clubs. No club should be forced out of the league to accommodate our club.

Should there be no capacity in the North West Counties League Premier Division, our preference would be to be placed in the North West Counties League Division 1 North.

As a club, we also plan to submit an application to the FA Cup and FA Vase as the advice that we have been given is that we will be eligible to apply at the time of the submission deadline.

Widnes Town FC has secured a licence to play home fixtures at the DCBL Stadium in Widnes.

Here’s how fans reacted as the newly formed phoenix club apply for a league and will return to the 13,350 capacity DCBL Stadium…

@daniel14f1: Need to build your own stadium otherwise you’ll go out of business again

@StadiumTravelUK: Great news. Irrespective of league, can’t wait to visit 👍🏻

@werdna67: They need to get away from that ground as soon as possible.

Mark Tinsley: Fuck sake the worst ground ever

Graham Cookson: How are you affording the rent at the stadium?

Angela Garrod: Good luck fingers crossed.

Geoff Douse: Good luck. Must have money to pay to play at the DCBL.

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Non League