Lane Of Woe

Once non-league titans, Worcester City now sit in a sorry mess of the club's own making. Homeless and nearing penniless, it has recorded a near £300,000 loss for last season to reduce its war chest from the sale of St George's Lane to only a couple of hundred thousand.

Current estimates say the club is expecting a loss this season of £60,000 in the officially amateur Step 5 Midland Football League where many of the lower end clubs barely pay players at all. However, at the top end, contracts are issued and six-figure overall wage budgets are common.

Chairman Anthony Hampson, a divisive figure among supporters having presided over much of their misfortune over the past ten years, says an 'out of control' wage bill was to blame for the losses with a £7,000-£8,000 a week budget planned during their final season in the National League North. Former Manager Carl Heeley has disputed Hampson's account, saying also becoming a Director of the club was the worst move of his career.

This season's loss will leave the club with around £150,000 of the proceeds of the sale of St Georges Lane, having spent £600,000 exiting a fruitless agreement with a developer to build a new stadium, and losing another £500,000 plus in the intervening years of homelessness.

Hampson says the club may have to go 'fully amateur' to afford a new stadium, with one Director - Club Secretary Kevin Preece - resigning his Directorship this week and calling for an AGM, the club's first in two years, to tell shareholders the true picture around the club. Joint Manager Lee Hughes followed shortly after, opting to move back up the divisions to Halesowen Town, saying that different Directors told him different things about Hampson's comments.

A second player exodus in 12 months is widely believed to be on the cards with the side holding only a slim chance of promotion back to the semi-pro ranks, currently sitting nine points below their landlords and derby rivals Bromsgrove Sporting, themselves at a low ebb after a major financial disaster.