During the past five weeks the future of the club has been at risk and all our efforts each day have been spent solving the short-term financial problems without compromising our long-term future, says Dulwich Hamlet chairman Ben Clasper

DULWICH HAMLET chairman Ben Clasper has issued the following statement:

“Most importantly I hope as many of you as possible are well. I hope you are all finding ways through the personal and professional challenges of the lockdown and if there is anything we can do to help please email community@dulwichhamletfc.co.uk.

It has taken longer than expected to be able to provide a meaningful update so please accept our apologies for the delay.

We have been frustrated that the progress of the football authorities has left us unable to communicate where we stand as a club until over a month into the shutdown of football activities.

Football has not dealt well with the situation but I can assure that having been party to many of the discussions the blame does not always lie where you have been led to believe by the press and social media commentators.

After this week’s National League vote, we finally know that the 2019 20 season has come to an end so I would like to thank you all for your heartfelt support and I cannot over-emphasise how important that decision is.

It means we will survive and we will be back together with our community whenever the time is right for our sport to restart.

We have prepared for four different scenarios for whatever happens next and our role is to support the national and local authorities by implementing whatever decisions they take on when it is safe for us to be together again at Champion Hill.

The vote means we are free to plan and free to communicate with our fans and so going forward we will provide regular updates on a variety of subjects including those some of you have already enquired about.

During the past five weeks the future of the club has been at risk and all our efforts each day have been spent solving the short-term financial problems without compromising our long-term future.

Whilst we will go into more detail later about how we intend to overcome the challenges ahead of us, I cannot tell you how moving it has been to find the door is open whenever we have called to discuss our situation, in particular so far, London Borough of Southwark, our sponsors, Crystal Palace FC and our own supporters’ trust.

If I have one disappointment it is that because so much of our community work is based on bringing people together there was no natural transition to helping during a lockdown but due to our proximity to King’s College Hospital, we have offered the use of the stadium and surrounding lands to the NHS whilst they are evaluating what they need.

Please stay safe and please look out for each other in whatever way you can.”

Visit Dulwich Hamlet's website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/dulwichhamlet/