Sunday league team Kexborough Chiefs survive as a club despite COVID wiping out revenue streams.
The team from Barnsley were dangerously close to liquidation after COVID hit as players were told to stop paying their subs with all league fixtures being cancelled for almost a year.
Heroics of shot stopper Joseph McDonald and his teammates meant that after coronavirus was in their rear-view mirror, Kexborough Chiefs would still exist as a team.
With the club having no income during the lockdown, McDonald recently asked the rest of his team to join him in paying money lost during the pandemic to keep the club in a stable position with fears of another lockdown growing.
When asked why he decided to do this the goalkeeper said that “I love playing football, we are all mates in this team and we all want to keep playing together and this allows it”.
Before the pandemic the team didn’t have many players and looked in danger of lasting just a few more months. Manager Brandon Benson then reached out and the team now has about 25 players who all seem to get on really well.
The group consists of players who are all around the same age and have known each other for years now. The manager said that “everyone getting on so well has really helped on and off the pitch” as players will regularly socialise together away from football before getting together on a Sunday morning to try and get a win as a team.
With the club now in a place where they are financially guaranteed to be playing football again next season, excitement can start to grow, and the players can start to enjoy their football without uncertainty hanging over their heads over whether the club can continue.
In the past, Kexborough Chiefs have also done money raising events to help out the team financially with players bagging shopping for people in Barnsley town centre, but it was agreed within the team that they might just be a little bit too old and it wouldn’t have the same effect that it had when they were all 9 and 10 years old.
However, if the club does need money any time soon, bagging groceries at the nearest supermarket is proven to work so can be helpful to any lower league side.
Comentarios