Nelson the latest to fold?

According to a report in The Lancashire Telegraph (1) Nelson “has folded“.  They have resigned from North West Counties Football League, and their website (2) has gone down.  Whether there are things happening behind the scene to allow them to ‘do a Grays’ or if there are plans forn AFC Nelson I don’t know – if anyone with their ear to the ground in the Ribble Valley knows more than the fairly scant information available publically, please share it with us.

Chairman and Managing Director Alan Pickering has said “Over the past few seasons the club has struggled to continue, particularly financially. Combined with a paucity of officials, sponsors, volunteers and spiralling costs, the decision to with draw the team has been made. Attempts to sell the club have been unsuccessful so far, despite many meetings and negotiations, but that position remains.“

From the Google cache of the club’s website (3) I have found that on Wednesday it announced that “After the recent loss of his father, who had been connected with the football club for half a century, current chairman Alan Pickering has decided now is the right time to offer someone new the opportunity of taking over this historic East Lancashire Football Club“, which would suggest that ‘folding’ might be a premature term to use.

Certainly the loss of Nelson would be very sad indeed.  This is a club that beat Real Madrid (OK, it was in 1923, but it was in Spain) and played in the Football League from 1921 to 1931.  In the latter year they narrowly failed to be re-elected, and were replaced by Chester City.

[On the subject of requests for help from readers, I'm still hoping someone can advise what has happened to Richard Rundle's excellent Football Club History Database Mk.2.  Do any readers know?]

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