Thank you for choosing to come and share Boxing Day with the club and welcome to visiting friends and families who may not have been here before, I hope it proves to be an enjoyable afternoon for you all. We host Carshalton Athletic again as we did this time last year and that means welcoming back their manager Peter Adeniyi who spent five years with us a player before moving to Carshalton to complete a similar spell there.

If the repeat of our 2023 festive fixture leaves us with a sense of déjà vu then so will my updates on the goal for the year ahead with the new stadium as 2025 sees us enter the final year we have to start work on the consented scheme before losing our planning permission.

I had expected to report that at least one of the council meetings we have been waiting on was completed before today’s game but we have heard that we are now looking at the new year and that is a worrying development having continued to put our faith in ‘let the process play out’ rather than campaign to force the issue.

Our priority is to understand why these delays have seen 2024 come and go without the progress promised and then secure a commitment for completion as early in the new year as possible, it is time to force the issue because it is the club that is most at risk. The club’s plan was to stay sustainable before using the new stadium to support the expansion of our youth teams, academy, community facilities and sporting provision.

That plan could have survived another year before the recent Government Budget delivered a huge blow to our financial sustainability. If we can’t afford to continue ‘as is’ in 2025 our alternative is to start the expansion without waiting for the new stadium and accept the risk to the club that we are now effectively placing a bet by funding projects in the knowledge that only the delivery of the new stadium and the ability to stay and play at Champion Hill for the time it takes to move will cover that bet.

Two things that are not in our control which is a position we have always tried to avoid to safeguard the club for the next generation. In the new year we will make the plans we have been working on public and it is our job to make sure the council, the community and the delivery partners in the development all understand the position the club is in going into 2025 and why our future is back in the balance. 

Next up at Champion Hill: 

We return to SE22 on Saturday when we host Bognor Regis Town. Get your tickets here.