00:00 It's just heartbreaking for the players and the management and the owners of the club
00:06 and the volunteers who've worked so hard to... and I go back five years here to haul the
00:13 club back from almost going under, being 72 hours from going under, to promoted back into
00:20 the National League, to playing in the FA Cup first and second round, to a Wembley visit,
00:24 to escaping relegation on a shoestring budget near enough, and then getting in the playoffs
00:30 and going to Wembley again next month, and to have something else that would have been,
00:35 I'd say arguably unquestionably, the biggest move in Gatehead's history to get into the
00:41 Football League is just astonishing.
00:43 The EFL confirmed their reasoning regarding preventing the club from playing and added
00:47 that an independent arbitrator had also rejected a Gatehead appeal. The club then outlined
00:52 that they are still challenging the matter, and finally the council also provided their
00:57 side of the story, with Carruthers giving his judgement on where the issues came from.
01:04 I understand to a point what they're trying to do, they are trying to bring in an external
01:12 company to run their leisure facilities, such as, you know, we had the situation with Bertley
01:17 Leisure Centre, the situation with Gatehead Leisure Centre, obviously the international
01:20 stadium is part of that, and it stems to the fact that they can't give Gatehead a solid
01:27 ten year security of tenure in the national stadium, because there is a tender process
01:32 going on for a new owner of the stadium.
01:37 As the statement said, they offered ten years with a break clause, now that would contravene
01:42 EFL regulations, which means they just couldn't accept that.
01:48 And then you look at the EFL, who, I mean there are clubs we could both name that have
01:52 ground-hopped, you know, you look at the Coventry City situation, they've played at, and I'm
01:57 not apportioning blame to Coventry City there by the way, because this is just facts, they've
02:01 played at three different grounds in about five, six seasons.
02:04 Protesting supporters of the club outside the Gatehead Civic Centre then made their
02:09 feelings clear.
02:10 It's just disgusting the way Gatehead Council's treated the club, EFL, the way they've handled
02:16 the situation.
02:18 Very worried about the long-term future of the club and the short-term future as well.
02:21 Probably the best we've ever played in a long time, right, and for the council to not say
02:26 the new lease on nothing like that is absolutely disgusting.
02:31 Finally Carothers outlined what would come next.
02:34 The club's pure focus is on that FA Trophy final, behind the scenes I know they are working
02:40 on, and I think they said in their statement that they couldn't comment further due to
02:43 legality, so there are legal processes going on which we have to adhere to as journalists
02:48 and onlookers.
02:51 So at the moment it's kind of a waiting game just to see what happens.
02:53 This is a club that is working for the community and now it's time for the community to work
02:57 for them.
02:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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