I've prepared an article entitled "25 years at HUFC - What's Changed & What Needs to Change" but as a precursor to this I write openly to you all with grave concerns as to the future of our Football Club & Local Football in general.

I will keep it as short as I can, so you will hopefully have time to read and digest my issues.

Hampsthwaite United Football Club are one of the strongest sides in the Harrogate & District. In 2011 we were playing in the Harrogate & District Association Football League Division 3. We only had one side.

5 years later we are playing in the Premier Division, with a Reserve side in the Second Division and a Sunday side playing out of the Sunday Claro League.

While every Club in our area has either shrunk or folded around us, we have swum against the tide and grown.

This season we have grown to the point whereby we've taken on brand new facilities that have increased our running costs.

We are extremely disappointed to note that while we have grown in line with our aim to provide the best playing facilities to our players, the League we are playing in has not.

Despite constant attempts to address this issue with the Harrogate League we've come up blank, without a response.

Our Reserve Team played in a 13 team division last season. Offering 24 games. 12 of which we play away from home, generating a 100% profit to the Club from match fees.

This season our Reserve Team will complete 50% of what is to be a 16 game League season on the last Saturday of this month. We have lost 8 games on last season & in turn 4 away matches. In total a 33% decrease in income, despite an increased expenditure on new playing facilities.

Our 1st Team isn't faring much better. Fixtures have been slightly offset through County Cup entry but even that cost us £25 & we'll complete 8 of 18 League fixtures on the same final Saturday of October.

So I'm writing to County FA now to simply ask you, what is your goal for Amateur Football?

What exactly do you class as grassroots?

Is it our local side Harrogate Town, who ironically don't play on grass but a beautiful new 3G surface or is it Clubs like ourselves, who despite doing everything in their power to grow, sourcing numerous sponsors to stay alive, keeping people interested to be one of very few Clubs in the Harrogate District capable of putting 3 teams on a pitch every weekend?

We've done our part. So why aren't County liaising with local leagues and asking them why they aren't doing theirs? We're a Football Club. We need Football matches to survive.

We have been given no choice but to start looking further afield to obtain the quantity of fixtures we need to fund the Club, starting with the West Yorkshire League, which next season would be our League of choice. We're prepared to travel to obtain a healthy fixture list, but why must leagues such as this have such high level ground and facility requirements, Standard Chartered etc? Is that not detrimental to the FA's mandate of GROWING the national game from the ground up?

I genuinely look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter because we've done everything we can to build a Football Club, so why are we being punished for it?

Kind Regards,
Jono Way
Hampsthwaite United.