Southern League club Nuneaton Borough reportedly receive an ‘eviction letter’ with their game moved amid ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
Coventry Telegraph have looked into the matter, discovering that an eviction notice was placed on the gates of the ground in Liberty Way on the 24th of October.
Boro were unable to play Tuesday’s game against Bromsgrove Sporting at their own stadium, and quickly announced they had to play it elsewhere.
Nuneaton Borough tweeted: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, tonight’s game between Nuneaton Borough and Bromsgrove will not be hosted at The FCS stadium. It will now be hosted at Hinckley LRFC instead.
“All tickets and season tickets will remain valid and you will still be able to pay on the gate.”
Due to unforeseen circumstances, tonight’s game between Nuneaton Borough and Bromsgrove will not be hosted at The FCS stadium. It will now be hosted at Hinckley LRFC instead.
All tickets and season tickets will remain valid and you will still be able to pay on the gate. pic.twitter.com/wv9KIkj5bR
— Nuneaton Borough FC (@NuneatonBoroFC) October 24, 2023
A letter, from Shergroup enforcement, states: “The landlord of these premises hereby gives you notice that he has re-entered this property on 24 October 2023 at 06.00am under the terms of your lease and has taken back possession of them.”
It goes on to say that contact must be made with an assigned person ‘in connection with gaining entry to remove goods from these premises’
“IMPORTANT: You cannot lawfully enter these premises. Any damage caused to these premises will be dealt with as criminal damage.” CoventryLive understands that this includes access to the club office as well as the changing rooms.
Just hours prior to the league fixture, the Southern League – Premier Central game was held at nearby Hinckley LRFC, with Nuneaton going on to win 2-0.
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire understand that a board meeting has been scheduled for the club to plan its next steps, and will need to clarify the situation quick.
The club at first stated ‘unforeseen circumstances’, with Coventry Telegraph saying the notice is the latest issue to surface surrounding the club’s use of the ground, owned by third party group.
The FA have been made aware of the situation at Nuneaton, telling Coventry Telegraph that it is ‘aware of the situation’, but, in the first instance, it is for the club and the league, The Southern League Central, to decide what happens in the future.
Jason Mills, Southern League secretary has since said to Coventry Telegraph that, for confidentiality reasons, he is unable to comment, but the league are holding ‘ongoing discussions’ with the club.
Volunteer and supporter Michael said, as per the BBC: “It’s quite sad really, I’ve followed them since their great FA Cup runs in the 1960s.
“This is an ongoing thing with Nuneaton, we always seem to have money problems. We lost Manor Park and we don’t want to lose this.
“We’re about £650,000 in debt, we were in debt last year when we had a successful season and £160,000 was still added on to what we’ve already got.
“It’s a crying shame that it’s come to this.”
CLUB STATEMENT:
On Tuesday morning (24th October) our staff turned up to the club as normal to be met with a Notice of Re-Entry.
This notice advised that the landlord (Arden Tigress) had taken back the possession of the ground.
This was the first we were told that this was their course of action and we had no prior notice or even a phone call suggesting there was any issue.
We then contacted Arden Tigress and was initially told that this was an admin issue as they had not received an email from the club advising of future payment schedules.
For clarity, the club has been behind in rent payments since 2019 and Covid impacted everyone.
We have since made great progress in catching up with rent arrears and had good dialogue with an Arden Tigress Representative and we were currently on course to be level on all payments by December this year .
Further to this, on Tuesday as soon as this situation arose our Chairman offered to personally pay all outstanding rent to rectify the situation. He also managed to hastily arrange a host venue at Hinckley Leicester Road to facilitate the playing of our league game that evening, in which our staff and volunteers managed the evening superbly and ended with a great 2-0 win.
Massive credit must go to the management team, players and fans who put aside all these issues and represented the club in fantastic fashion, Thank You.
The current situation is quite fluid and everyone is working tirelessly behind the scenes to try and find a solution that keeps Nuneaton Borough at the FCS Stadium, however without our home we are in a critical situation.
The lost income from matches and events will damage the club ability to continue.
As we haven’t got the full information from Arden Tigress about the possibility of returning and what their plans are, we can’t plan or find solutions straightaway.
We apologise to all our fans and everyone involved with the club and who cares about the club that we don’t have more of a positive update to share, as soon as we have some more info we will release a further statement.
We will be in a position to confirm details of Saturdays game on Friday morning, yet again, we apologise for such late notice.
Twitter users reacted as the Southern League club receive an ‘eviction letter’ with their midweek game moved amid ‘unforeseen circumstances’…
@BattlefieldBen: None payment of ground rent is my guess or in arrears.
@jordandavies09: Is this the right thing to do? Some elderly fans without social media won’t have even seen this
@LiamSan88593064: This don’t look good
@69_simo: If it was anything other than major, they’d have said surely 🤔
@davidpercival42: You just need to tell your fans whats going on at the club
@Upton_Blues: Never a good sign, very short notice and no proper explanation. 🤔🤔
@ticope87: Is that allowed? 😂
@IamTils: Weird this
@Bolty_78: Are you going bust again or maybe run out of flares?
@jay37592284: So sad
@bekhowell41: Go and get the buckets…
Mike Jakeman: Is there any further detail on what the “unforeseen circumstances” are? It would probably stop unnecessary speculation
Daniel O’Sullivan: Clubs going bust no money locked out of the ground not paid the rent
Lee Randle: Isn’t it about time Nuneaton Boro fc told fans the truth?
Kevin Moore: Unforeseen circumstances 🤣🤣🤣 A notice of eviction is not unforeseen, it would’ve been known that something could go through the High Court and then eviction notice is served!!
Lee Jones: Surely the club should give a reason why ??
https://t.co/N9D9jfAAMF pic.twitter.com/JT9VjMNJwZ
— Chris LC Smith (@theraffleboy) October 24, 2023
Nuneaton getting the results from their “Raise The Rent” fundraiser pic.twitter.com/dA20byDLVz
— You Yeltz! (@YouYeltz) October 24, 2023
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