LLANDUDNO Albion have said this will be their last season, with the club set to fold after failing to reach a ground share agreement as part of FAW licence regulations.
The Ardal Leagues North West (Welsh third tier) club had shared the OPS Wind Arena with Llandudno Cymru North side Llandudno FC, but have played just one home game since September after an inspection of the pitch by UEFA and the FAW found a “slight health and safety issue in one area of the pitch”.
Forced to play every game away from home since then, a club statement in early January said they were facing a “huge problem” financially, despite fundraising efforts.
With the OPS pitch not expected to be remedied until March or April at the earliest, Albion have now confirmed that this will mean the end of their nine-year journey.
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In that time, they have been promoted three times and won five trophies, but part of the Tier 3 licence for next year stipulates clubs must have a shared ground agreement by March 1.
With this seeming increasingly unlikely, they have made the decision to call it a day with the club not willing to play away for another season, and difficulty attracting new committee members.
A club statement said: “After nine years, 272 games, 862 goals, three promotions, five trophies and a FAW trophy final, this will be the last season for Llandudno Albion.
“As part of the Tier 3 licence for next season we must have a ground share agreement in place by March 1 which is obviously not possible at Llandudno at the moment.
“We would then need a season long commitment from another club which we know is extremely unlikely given the challenges we have had this year, and to be honest another season practically playing away isn’t something we would consider again.
“It has been a matter of when, not if, the club calls it a day after the disappointment in never being able to secure our own ground.
“The future commitment of our core players in which is the heartbeat of this club and the difficultly of attracting new committee members are all factors in this. Running a club with mostly a one man committee just isn’t sustainable long term.
“Dropping down a league was never considered, it just isn’t in the DNA of this club to take on a lesser challenge - we have always strived to play as high as possible.
“Given all these reasons and more we just feel like it’s the right time to walk away. It’s a shame the decision was made for us with the pitch and not many from Llandudno have had the chance to see us play this year but hopefully people can now get to one last game.
“We are extremely proud of everything this club has achieved from an idea of getting a couple of mates playing football together to reaching a national final, only to be cancelled due to Covid.
“More than all of that, we have always tried to do things the right way, we have never paid a player wages to play for this club, it’s always been for the badge.
“I can assure we will be giving everything in these last nine games, we have never been relegated so that’s the motivation going into the final games.”
The club is planning on having a “big party” to celebrate all they have achieved, and venues and times for the remaining games will be released in due course.
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