Liverpool’s newest football club took stock of their efforts to get off the ground so far when members held their inaugural meeting this week.
Monday night saw the first gathering of officials from City of Liverpool FC, as Chairman Paul Manning and Finance Director Peter Fermage were joined by around 30 people along with representatives of the media to discuss progress to date.
Important issues on the agenda at Jack Jones House in the city centre included the latest on finding a manager, what league the team would join and what ground they would play at.
Mr Fermage took questions from members and assured those present that ground sharing with Bootle FC is just a quick fix to help with their application to join the North West Counties League.
He said: “We are looking for a stadium partner that is interested in City of Liverpool FC. This is not just talk, we are working extremely hard towards this. We want to start in a small ground and move to what will essentially be a non-league standard ground.”
Although a new stadium would cost around £250,000-300,000, Fermage and Manning insist this is a small figure with the funding available.
“Companies by law have to demonstrate social value and we’re talking to about two dozen companies and organisations about the possibility of them funding us as a way of putting something back into the community, as we are a community club,” the board stated.
They also revealed plans to join step six of the English football pyramid and their application to the FA has been supported by the North West Counties League.
Chairman Manning was keen to stress that even if the application was unsuccessful, the side would still be playing football come July, at the very least in the West Cheshire League which have invited them to join.
Fermage spoke of his surprise relating to the quality of the managers applying, saying: “The applications have blown me away. We’ve had nine for first team manager and two for the reserves. I’m really optimistic after reading them.”
Manning added that a manager who has won the league in the past has applied as well as a boss from the league above and even existing managers from teams higher up the ladder. He also said that a Premier League youth team manager is willing to get involved.
“We’re a brand new club with no history or allegiances, hopefully just a bright future,” Manning concluded.