DOWNTON Football Club is looking to raise more than £10,000 in order to build a new clubhouse - the first opportunity in 115 years for the club to have its own clubhouse for parents, players and supporters.

The club needs to raise £20,000 to pay for the essential works needed, and if the Downton community can raise £14,000 from more than 100 donors through a Crowdfunder campaign, Sport England will match this effort with a further £6,000 through its ‘Active Together’ initiative launched to help sports club adversely affected by Covid-19.

This “vital” cash injection would help the club to get the Clubhouse and Sherwood Suite open again as a “fantastic facility for both the football club and the wider community”.

The club says the village’s sporting and wider wellbeing activities have faced “significant disruption and difficulties” as a result of the pandemic, but before the pandemic struck the club had experienced “extraordinary growth”.

Salisbury Journal:

From just two adult men’s teams five years ago, the club now has ten youth teams from Under 5s right through to an Under 18 girls’ team.

The ambition is to have more than 20 teams by 2023/2024, including teams for boys and girls at every age group as well as ladies and veterans’ teams.

But Covid-19 has knocked the club’s progress, with the rules against large community gatherings causing massive damage to its ability to generate income to keep the club going – large fundraising events that are the lifeblood of the club, such as the Cuckoo Fair, the Downton Classic Car Show, club barbecues and formal dinners have been cancelled, and matchday sales of drinks and snacks have all but stopped too.

If the club can raise the money, it says it will have two major benefits.

Firstly, it will enable the club to generate much needed income, which initially will make up for the significant losses caused by Covid-19, and in the longer term will help the club improve its playing facilities and coaching offer.

Secondly, the club says it will “enable us to relaunch the venue as a place where the whole community can come and take part in a host of wellbeing activities”.

It adds that the interior of the Clubhouse is “very dated, furniture needs replacing and the bar and other services need an overhaul”.

For more information, go to downtonfc.co.uk/latest-news.html, or to make a donation to support the fundraising campaign, go to crowdfunder.co.uk/downton-football-club-community-clubhouse-project.