A community football club was forced to reform after a couple stole £100k.
Southport Athletic Junior Football Club was forced to start from scratch after the previous club, Phoenix JFC became tainted when Simon and Michelle Marshall dipped their fingers into the club's savings. When it came out two years ago that the club had been rinsed by the pair, chairman Alan McCoombe took the decision to reform as Southport Athletic.
Now, having left their spot on Russell Road and having to start fundraising from scratch again, things are finally looking up as the club begins to grow. Alan, speaking to the ECHO at the club's pitch on Ferryside Lane on a sunny midweek morning, told the ECHO about how the club is looking to build toilet facilities to help grow the club.
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The 64-year-old surveyor explained the toilet facilities are crucial if the club wants to introduce girls teams each week, as well as providing facilities for children and parents who have disabilities. Before the club was drained of its money there were plans for a community hub to be built using money secured from grants, mostly from Merseyside Police after the club was given £75,000.
Now the club currently has a container on a field owned by Sefton Council as its base, much less glamorous than planned when the funding was approved by Merseyside Police. Alan said: "We're trying to be part of the community. It's not easy to do, it's worn people out because we've got so much to do all the time.
"People are spending 15-20 hours a week on the club alongside families and jobs, and I'm sure Paul [Mullen] and Ben [Minto] spend more. From thinking wow, we've got this facility in Southport that no other club would have other than a couple of places who have their own pubs and clubs on-site, but we didn't have that.
"We just have a pitch that is marked out and the rest is down to how you deal with it. It's just trying to get that across to people and telling them if they have just £1 to give us to help get those facilities quicker.
"We don't want to be waiting another ten years, we waited ten years last time and now we're back ten years. We are doing better, our account looks a lot healthier now than it certainly was before.
"We try to make provisions for new kids. In the summer we're hopeful of doing a bit of fundraising that we're hoping we'll be able to share with local charities as well. That's where we're at. We've worked really hard for two years and the momentum is good."
As it stands, the club has a number of teams ranging from under sevens up to under 18s, with some age groups having two teams due to the number of children involved. The club also has a transparent way of dealing with their accounts with them being published on the website for all to see.
The club has also gone cashless to ensure no money goes missing in the future. When the club was initially set up during the pandemic, Alan admitted that he struggled to get the club a bank account but knew the club had to be reformed otherwise people would associate them with the Marshalls.
Alan continued: "Originally we were at Russell Road but because of what went on we had to move on. Kindly, Sefton Council offered us the opportunity to come here to play our football and from what I understand it hasn't been used for many years as a sports recreation ground, and it is a sports recreation ground.
"We did a lot of fundraising which, during lockdown, wasn't easy. We had people getting their legs waxed, a big bike ride, I'm a bit old so I got my hair died pink and blue which I had to keep for three weeks.
"We raised some money and thankfully some local businesses helped out by sponsoring our kits and things like that. We managed to raise several thousand pounds but then we had to start looking at equipment. Even things like defibrillators went missing at the time.
"We didn't get one bit of kit back [from the Marshalls] apart from some wrecked goals. Sir Kenny Dalglish very kindly introduced us to McDonald's and they came along and brought some kits and footballs which was great.
"During lockdown, it was really, really difficult."
Michelle and Simon Marshall were the directors of the club. It secured a £75,000 grant for a new clubhouse and had around £41,000 coming in from player subscriptions.
But while building work stalled and players went without proper equipment, the Marshalls and their three children holidayed in the USA, France and Italy - enjoying meals out, paintballing and boating trips. Liverpool Crown Court was told Mrs Marshall, 42, was chairwoman and treasurer, while her 47-year-old husband was the secretary and welfare officer of the club.
Mrs Marshall admitted two counts of fraud, relating to £99,453 in total, and Mr Marshall admitted one count of fraud, relating to £12,686.
Mrs Marshall was jailed for two and a half years whilst Mr Marshall was handed 15 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and told to complete a 30-day Rehabilitation Requirement and 250 hours of unpaid work.
Alan was at the sentencing, where he said he
"I went to the sentencing, the police asked us to attend. I'm not bothered about the Marshalls anymore but I went with Paul and when the judge said 'take her away' it was horrible.
"I got no joy from that. I know she's done wrong but it wasn't something I took pleasure from at all."
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