Shocking announcement made by chairman Paul Barthorpe on the future of Farsley Celtic

A shocking announcement has been made by outgoing chairman Paul Barthorpe on the future of National League North side Farsley Celtic.

Paul Barthorpe steps down as chairman and give full control to the board, no longer having anything to do with the Farsley besides owning the land.

Plenty of blame being dished out in the below statement, and it is genuinely quite the astonishing read, with fans having plenty to say about him…

Club Statement 📰

Read ➡️ https://t.co/weJvV0vt5m pic.twitter.com/h0p4wQhrcG

— Farsley Celtic (@FarsleyCelticFC) February 11, 2025

STATEMENT:

In reality we aren’t a natural National League North level club, we don’t have the fan base, the match attendances, the income or revenue streams or enough volunteers to put together a robust infrastructure to support an operation to run a club at this level.

It went bust trying to do so in 2010, it had issues again in 2018/19, and it has been an ongoing challenge in my time at the club. Realistically the only thing that has maintained the club at this level for the last 5 years has been predominantly my wallet. Money papers over the cracks, and hides the problems.

To try and solve this problem, I looked to invest heavily to create a profitable business to support the club and the footballing side of things, by laying a new pitch.

To achieve this when we recieved planning permission in June of 2024, we entered an agreement with a private matched funding partner to work along side us to fulfil the pitch installation.

As previously stated one of the issues we had is that the initial main contractor let us down three times on start dates which knocked us back massively. The lengthy process to get out of that contract and appoint a new main contractor, with the ongoing legal efforts to get back not only our payments to the original contractors but also the penalties we are due for their breaches. Apart from the obvious further impacts on cashflow, this put a major strain on the agreement with the funders as all of the agreed dates and milestones with them were no longer valid. I agreed to pay interest on the monies as per the agreement even through we hadn’t received the funds to keep the agreement in place, and to keep monies available for when we were ready. Which again was killing cashflow, but I had no choice but to stay and keep pumping money into the club.

The ongoing social media campaign against me that resulted in death threats, assaults, criminal damage, by ‘fans’ falsely reporting us to the council, the planning department, our local MP, dozens of social media posts shared across sites, going to local and national papers, engaging a blogger to post a story on YouTube, and airing as much dirty laundry publicly as possible, boycotting games (which has now ended) other board members and club volunteers being abused, and our social media accounts having been hacked.

This all had a significant impact on our ability to run the club, it made it very difficult for us to get any improved terms with new and existing suppliers and creditors, which took away badly needed funds, it made any sort of sponsorship near on impossible, again not giving us access to funds, even when we got a new front of shirt sponsor that announcement was met with ridicule. Trying to attract and bring in new players to support a new manager, was incredibly difficult as few of his targets wanted to come. Boycotting games, despite the club offering free transport to those games, again removed a source of income.

It also made it impossible for us to demonstrate a positive community relationship, which meant we weren’t able to finalise our plans to open a community trust, so we couldn’t access any grants, or centralised funding which again deprived us of significant monies, that we could have used to resolve many of the issues being mentioned.

This is categorically not me blaming anyone, or attacking anyone or trying to shirk any accountability or responsibly, this is me being straight about the effects to the business of the months of criticism and negativity with our genuine experiences and ‘lived in’ perspective from inside the club, and how it hindered the business, in the hope that in reading this it will cease for the clubs benefit.

The reason I am doing this is because not only have I been blue lighted to hospital twice in the last 3 weeks with stress related heart issues which at my age shouldn’t be happening. But someone has contacted our pitch funding partner directly sending them links to various socials, press and a YouTube link telling them not to get involved with our club, and the board as a result have concerns that the pitch won’t be completed in time.

Given the significant impact this has had on my health, and the continued damage being caused to the club as I have tried to highlight, I have held talks with the board about taking a step back and resigning from the chairman role and let the board take full control in running the club, which they have effectively been doing for the last week anyway, and when this is finalised I’m sure they will announce it. Having put in so much hard work and money over the last 6 years for it to be like this really hurts. But I hope this act means there will be more support and more positivity towards the club and the board, as they are all like me volunteers, all good guys and all have the club at heart, and we are all desperate for this to work out.

Paul Barthorpe

Further update from the club: “Farsley Celtic Football Club is delighted to confirm that four of its directors are set to take over the running of the football club and its associated business, FC2010 Ltd.

Directors Paul Glover, Josh Greaves, John Stubbs and Jon Wickham will be taking the lead in running the football club and FC2010 Ltd. Chairman Paul Barthorpe has resigned from the football club after almost six years.

In a statement, all four said: “It’s a great honour to be the custodians of this incredible football club and we are excited by the challenges that lie ahead. We are very proud to be involved and our focus now is to work together with stakeholders and fans to build a sustainable and successful club on and off the pitch for the long term.

“We’d like to call on all supporters, the wider Farsley community, everyone connected with the club and local businesses to come together and back us as we look to forge a sustainable future for Farsley Celtic FC.

“A lot of work lies ahead, but if we are all united we are confident we can achieve a stable future for the club we all love.”

Further information on the laying of a new pitch at The Citadel will be provided in due course.

An open meeting sharing further information will be held at a date to be confirmed next week. The meeting will be open to supporters and members of the public. A meeting with supporters’ club members will be held tomorrow (Thursday).

Mr Barthorpe currently retains his stake on the holdings company, FC2010 (Holdings) Ltd.

The club is committed to keeping supporters and shareholders informed but asks for patience during this period of transition.

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Twitter users reacted on the shocking announcement made by chairman Paul Barthorpe regarding the future of Farsley Celtic…

@Strategic_FC: Happy for the Farsley Celtic fans being rid of what sounds like, an absolute bellend. Here is hoping someone new can come in and help!

@kajer87: “This is categorically not me blaming anyone, or attacking anyone or trying to shirk any accountability or responsibly” says man trying to shirk any accountability or responsibility

@ryandunbar1996: Realistically the only thing that has maintained the club at this level for the last 5 years has been predominantly my wallet…. as an outsider looking in this quote smacks of arrogance surely

@smith_tommy: Who’s signed this statement off 😂 how embarrassing

@1Tomhemingway: Been a long time coming this. Everyone knew pitch was never going to get done. Leaves the club with no manager, not good enough players, no funds and certain to be relegated. Congratulations on destroying @FarsleyCelticFC #FarsleyCeltic #bust #relegation

@2801brandon: what a salty first paragraph. must be a right bellend

@_NateTweets: Maybe if the owner sorted their ground out and didn’t make them play miles away, there would be fans, attendances and volunteers… Insulting the fans, making endless excuses and blaming everyone else for his own incompetence is mental.

@aaron_challoner: FINALLY! Some good news but there is such a job to do at the club. The rest of the board have to pick up the pieces and try to move the club forward but hopefully the club can get back to where it needs to be. This club has a lot of untapped potential to reach and I feel The Celt Army can get to that stage with the right leader in charge behind the scenes. #CeltArmy | #FarsleyCeltic

@GazBH86: Nobody should have to deal with abuse but I will say that this shambles is down to Paul being in way over his head. The ‘it’s everyone else’s fault but mine’ & ‘we’re punching too far above our weight to sustain’ excuses don’t fly.

@CobblerSeanTB: Christ on a bike… the statement is basically ‘Farsley are tiny, I’m amazing and generous and never get anything wrong, other people are at fault and everyone pointing the finger at me is disgusting and has caused me to be hospitalised… but I’m not blaming anyone’…

@reallordgreen: Did he want a thank you or something? Should have pissed off ages ago. Decides to do it now and blame the supporters (whilst saying I’m not blaming anyone) Salty as fuck 😂😂

@ffscurt: if you step into football club ownership, it’s no secret that it is a bad BUSINESS decision. you cannot run a football club, in the NLN/S at a profit. it’s impossible. Get fucked Barthorpe. stay out of our sport, stay away from football club ownership. permanently.

@CraigAndrew3: Genuinely shocking read. This man does nothing but shift blame to others and then cry ill health and stress to try and get the fans to feel sorry for him. Sell the club for Christ’s sake! Also, saying the club is playing above their level is an insult to the fan base.

@dylanwade11: That first paragraph is hilarious, what a wanker

@matts_N7: Saying he’s not blaming anyone whilst blaming everyone. What a twat.

@y2Jtwo: I assume no PR consultant was involved in this. I do not wish Mr Barthorpe ill heath or personal harm. But. This has been a shambles of an epic level, full of smokescreens, deceptions, and false truths. The club, though smaller in fan base, can be enough to compete at this level

@StevenCDavison: Mentions his health first and then the state of the club 😂

@COYRCOYRCOYR: Saltier than the bottom of a KP Peanuts packet

@BenStonestreet7: “This is categorically not me blaming anyone, or attacking anyone or trying to shirk any accountability or responsibility” whilst actively doing all of the above??

@chrisrad76: Me me me me me me me me

@mattybinns04: Ahahahahhaha bye bye barthorpe 😍😍😍😍😍