Chairman, manager and players leave Leyton
GORDON Boateng says Leyton’s future “is in the hands of the gods” after a mass exodus from the crisis club.
Manager Boateng, his staff and players have joined the chairman and club secretary in leaving the club – which is currently suspended from playing Ryman League football for a breach of league rules.
Boateng said: “It is a very sad time at the club, with the loss of the club chairman and club secretary, two men who have been with the club for many years through the good times and bad times, two guys who are real club men.
“When I got the phone call from the chairman Tony Hardy telling me the situation and what sort of situation the club was in, he said that he can no longer act as chairman of the club, which after years and years of being involved in the club was the hardest decision he has had to make, and if he knew this was going to happen, he would have never got me involved at the club.
“Tony is an honest guy and a real club man. For him to leave firstly is a big lost for the club because of the hours he put in along with the secretary Steve Bellanoff, another long standing member of Leyton FC.
“Now with the two of them gone and after a long meeting with my players and explaining the situation at the club, the whole squad decided as they don’t recieve any type of expenses, but still felt they will get together and try and figure out ways of helping generate money for the club.
“But after learning the actual financial situation and no longer being able to play football anytime soon, they all decided it was also best to leave the club and seek football elsewhere, which left me and my management team with the rug being pulled from under our feet and having no choice but to also depart as there will be no point in anyone staying without any football being played and especially no guarantees that Leyton FC will kick another ball in the Ryman League for the remainder of this season.
“This decison wasn’t taken lightly and with all the problems the club currently has it is a massive shame as the reason me and my team came to lowly Leyton was to help the club find their feet and build again, stablise the football team and get back up the league.
“It is a massive shame that the club are at this point, after only being there for a short space of time and with the weather playing havoc over the Christmas period that didn’t help football wise and for a club in Leyton’s situation it didn’t help massively financially, which made the task even harder.
“The future of the club is up in the air and only time will tell what the outcome will be but with no football being played it doesn’t look good and we all wish Leyton FC well as it is still a well respected club.”
