AFC Liverpool members have hit the first milestone of over £1,000 for the development fund of our new community stadium for the city of Liverpool.

The latest total as of today is £1099.92, and we want to send out a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the fund. The target may be huge, but with every pound the club receives we are that one step closer to achieving our dream of a home in the city of Liverpool. Even though this figure is small in relation to the target, this has been done without a massive push. We have had a Sportsman’s dinner with Liverpool legend Joey Jones, and our members have raised funds through the Liverpool to Chester bike-ride, dividing funds raised between Claire House and the stadium fund. In addition to that, we have had kind donations from other members of the public and our own members, but that’s it really. The club have had to sort the day to day running of the club as a priority, but now that is going extremely well, we now want to turn our attentions to the stadium fund. As of today, the club would like to announce that a percentage of prize funds won through FA competitions will go straight to the fund, and at the end of the season at the AGM, members can decide what percentage of profit the club has made, will go into the fund too.

Gary Beggs business development officer for AFC Liverpool states ” We launched this fund earlier on in the year with a huge target of £500,000. Even though seen by some as being impossible, I felt we had to put a realistic target for the project to actually get off the ground. We could have set a target of £10,000 which would have been an easier target, however the reality is that amount wouldn’t get us much at all. We probably wouldn’t need to get to that figure for us to get moving with the project, as we would get backing from sports funds – but if we get anywhere near that, it will massively help us!!

I honestly think we can easily get to our target if the whole LFC family get behind us, so if you can help us – please do. A Christian Poulsen transfer fee could have built 2 or 3 community stadiums in Liverpool!

Can you believe that in 2011, the footballing city of Liverpool has no home for semi-professional football ?!  We play outside of Liverpool in Prescot, not because we want to, but because we have nowhere to play in the city. Its either park football – which is not suitable for our level of football in the FA Pyramid, or Anfield or Goodison Park – that’s all the city has!!  I would love us to be playing our games at anfield but its never going to happen, and to be honest, I’d rather play at Prescot than at Goodison Park.  Joking aside, we owe a massive thank you to Prescot Cables Football Club for giving us an excellent stadium to play in! When other non league teams turned their backs on us, they opened their arms and welcomed us, and we are eternally grateful for their support! Although we are happy at Prescot, they know and we know that we can’t play there forever, and we owe it to them to move as quickly as possible.

AFC Liverpool is now well established and operating better than it has ever has been before – we have achieved our first promotion, we have 14 youth teams set up including a Women’s and Reserve team. It would be a huge shame for it all to come to an end because we have nowhere in the city to play our football. We are currently negotiating with the council to secure some land in the city, so we can then start to apply for funding from Sports England, Lottery, the Football Foundation and other funding bodies etc. However, until we have that land, we cannot start applying for the funding, so there is a desperate need for us to start raising our own funds.

Our stadium will be a community stadium giving us a great platform to play our football, but also to give local residents a facility to be proud of, a facility that they can use on a day to day basis, and more importantly, somewhere they can be proud of. This city hasn’t had any facility like this since the demise of South Liverpool, and we want to create a new facility the whole city can be proud of. There is a reason why LFC Reserves, Liverpool Ladies, AFC Liverpool and AFC Liverpool ladies play outside the city, and it’s because there is nowhere to play in the city. Please support us if you can, I know times are hard for everyone at the moment which hasn’t helped our cause, but we appreciate every single donation!! You can donate from as little as £1.

Thank you so much, it is really appreciated!!!

If you wish to donate to the ground fund please click here:

http://afcliverpool.org.uk/go/paypal-groundfund

If you wish to offer free help or free advice with the stadium project please e-mail:

businessdevelopment@afcliverpool.org.uk