The Chairman says...

Here is Liam Hickey's latest piece, which appeared in Tuesday night's matchday magazine against Harlow Town

FROM THE BOARDROOM
Good evening everyone and welcome to Champion Hill, especially our visitors from Harlow Town. I would also like to welcome our match sponsors, Veterans For Peace, an organisation made up of ex service people who believe that there are peaceful solutions to the troubles that we face.

Well, it would be remiss of me not to start with Non League Day, what an amazing occasion. The crowd was magnificent but the generosity of those attending was just overwhelming. To raise over £9000 to be shared by our two charities, The Copleston Centre & Lambeth & Southwark MIND was beyond all our expectations.

On top of that, to receive such favourable comment from the mainstream media also shows just how important this club is and how we are a leading light in the world of Non League football. Coverage on Sky Sports News, Sky News and also The Times is something we could only have dreamt of just a few years ago.

I would also like to thank Needham Market, our visitors on Non League Day, for the part that they played in the success of all our initiatives. However, my greatest thanks is to the Football Committee, Supporters’ Trust and all our amazing volunteers who pulled out all the stops.

Both prior to and after the game, we have also featured further in the media so I will also give a bit of background to that. The feature about our stance on betting sponsorship was not something we courted but rather a statement designed for our own fans. It has been a long standing policy not to promote this industry and so we agreed with the Bostik League that we would show our support of them by carrying the logo on our website but also make a statement. They were fully supportive of our stance.

The not so good piece that ran in The Independent may have shocked a few people but it was felt by all the stakeholders in the club, the Football Committee, Supporters’ Trust and Team Management that we needed to let everybody know the restrictions under which we all work. We remain supportive of the plans for a new stadium but really need a more constructive dialogue about the vision for the club.

On the field, despite all the injuries to our players, we remain in contact with the leading clubs and this augers well for the future as the season progresses and our team becomes more settled. I hope all the fans realise that we are doing it tough at the moment and having to juggle finances to keep the playing staff at the standard we need to be competitive.

We are now looking for a number of new sponsors so that all our youth teams can be kitted out just as smartly as the first team. We are looking for businesses that will pay £2500 per team, or £4000 in the case of the Under18/19 team, to secure their name on all the young Hamlet players kit, tracksuits, bags and training gear. If you are a business that would like to support youth football then this is for you so get in touch with me to discuss the options.
Enjoy the game and thank you for your support. If you have any ideas or comments then please feel free to ask for me at the Boardroom, call me on 07967 212353 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liam Hickey
Chair of the Football Committee