Hull United AFC Club Statement

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

Firstly the club would sincerely like to apologise for the lack of information in recent times, we hope this statement will answer a lot of questions and lead to a more open club and fan relationship in the future. We wanted to avoid mistakes in the past where stories true or untrue were played out on social media.

After the events of a turbulent season for the senior team’s setup, we have taken time to evaluate what has happened and why certain events may have unfolded as they did, which ultimately resulted in the 1^st team been effectively relegated from the NCEL league. This is obviously a huge disappointment to all at the club, not least the fans who have followed the first team home and away.

The FA were unable to place the 1^st team back in the Humber Premier League as it was deemed to be full at the time of application. In reaching this decision the FA consulted views from the NCEL, the Humber Premier league and their own colleagues. Obviously the club are disappointed but accept and respect the decision of the FA. At the current time it is not feasible to run the first team in the Central Midlands league, due travel distances and kick off times of mid-week matches. In light of this the plan is for the Hull United Reserve team to effectively become the first team playing in the Humber Premier League Division 1.

The committee take responsibility and realise that mistakes have been made in the organisational structure and administration of the senior set up and acknowledge that too much responsibility was on the shoulders of too few people. Effectively the first and reserve teams ran independently, made their own decisions and reported these in to the committee. This will not happen in the future, lessons have been learned and the first team/senior teams will have to report fully in to the club committee as all the youth teams have done. More importantly they will be supported with a more hands on committee at senior team level to ensure that if problems do occur than we can act on it immediately and prevent a small issue becoming a bigger problem further down the road. All communication from the FA and Leagues will be sent to the Club Secretary not the first team secretary as happened this season, this will ensure everyone involved in the running of the club will be aware of everything that is going on with every team from the academy to the first team.

Any decisions made will be in the best interest of the club as a whole.

The youth set up of the club has continued to perform and be administered very well, with teams of all abilities playing for Hull United at various age groups. We will continue to support our youth teams and help provide facilities and equipment that make the children’s time in youth football an enjoyable and memorable one. Their funding is secure, we are still pleased that the youth team money is never used to subsidies a senior team, it never has been and this will always be the case at Hull United. We’re committed to helping our youth teams raise funds to continue their excellent work in providing a great environment for children to play football in and we aim to provide excellent facilities for them to play at.

Our youth teams continue to have excellent relationships with clubs across the area and this is something we aim to build with the senior teams. Banter is fantastic but we need to remember we must be respectful of all teams at all times.

Hull United have been very successful at helping raise the profile of non-league football in the area and perhaps we were somewhat lacking the right experience to ensure we could run correctly at that step 6 level. We wish all our local teams every success in the future and hope we can help them in further raising the standard of non-league football and access to it in the Hull & East Yorkshire area in the future.

We can confirm we have a signed agreement in place with the Steve Prescott Centre for the first team to play from there in the 2016/17 season and are working on an agreement for a 10 year lease to enable us to develop the ground with the aim of a return to non-league football at the earliest opportunity.

The Steve Prescott Centre will provide a great training venue for all our teams and will also be used to supplement existing match day facilities for our youth teams. Work is ongoing at East Mount Recreation Centre and that will continue as a we look at ways to help improve facilities there.

It is well known that Curtis Woodhouse resigned as manager recently. Curtis left with our thanks for all that he achieved on the pitch with his team last season. A move onwards was always on the cards once Curtis had completed his UEFA B badges and we wish him every success at his next club…knowing Curtis he’ll have something up his sleeve!

Ian Ashbee is unable to commit to putting the time in the Chairman’s role demands, therefore we can confirm that Ian Ashbee has stepped down as chairman with immediate effect. Ian has been honest and upfront and made it clear at the start of his tenure that he wouldn’t be able to provide much support in the day to day running of the first team and club. Hull United AFC would like to place on record our thanks for the support Ian Ashbee has shown the club and the amount of financial support he has provided throughout the course of a turbulent season. Ian will always be around and about the club and has stressed he will continue to support the club however he can moving forward in developing the senior team and the club as a whole.

The club are therefore actively seeking new volunteers to help with administration and would be interested in talking to anyone who may be interested in taking up the role of Chairperson. We will also be talking to supporters who have followed the club since its inception to see if they can become more involved with the club itself.

More news will follow regarding the infrastructure of the club, but anyone interested in any of the following roles or by becoming an active volunteer please email info@hullunitedafc.com  or contact us with a direct message on social media

• Chairman
• 1st team manager
• 1^st team secretary / match day secretary
• Fundraising officer

Other roles are available but the above are ones we need to fill first.

Thank you for your patience over the past season and particularly the later stages, we hope you continue to follow and support Hull United AFC, we’re confident with a few additions we can start afresh and build a club not just with the aims of returning to the NCEL but one where the children continue to love playing for our youth teams too.

Hull United AFC.

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