Yorkshire non-league club withdraws from Northern Premier League but will be reborn next season

​Marske United have been saved by a combination of fundraising and financial contributions to ensure they will continue as a football club from next season and beyond.

But they were unable to raise the £120,000 needed to get them through to the end of the current Northern Premier Division season and have had to withdraw from the league.

Marske plan to return lower down the pyramid next season.

A club statement read: “Marske United Football Club faced the real threat of extinction.

“Our village football team has punched above its weight for many years, achieving exceptional success along the way, but unfortunately stretched itself too far and lived beyond its means.

“The price of a rapid rise through the leagues is exponential for a volunteer ran football club.

“Ever increasing travel, wage and maintenance costs, alongside greater infrastructure requirements and the pressures on unpaid volunteers are just some of the many challenges faced by non-league football clubs throughout the region and across the country.

“These issues combined with our own unique circumstances such as floodlight sabotage, pitch related postponements, and material delays in last summer’s essential drainage work which prevented any pre-season home friendly revenue ultimately brought an existential threat to Marske United, which has been fighting to survive from week to week.

“In all our efforts, our number one objective has always been to try and save the football club.

“The club is sorry for how the situation has been handled from our perspective.

“However, today we can confirm that we have ultimately been successful in our mission.

“Thanks to the fundraising efforts, and significant financial contributions from the new directors, we now have enough funds to service and stabilise the critical concerns needed to ensure our football club can continue to exist.

“If this money had not been raised, then Marske United would not have been allowed to return in any familiar name, shape or form at any level, or play at Mount Pleasant ever again.

“The club has been saved.”

The statement continued: “However, our second objective was to save our season.

“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts on and off the pitch, we will not be able to achieve this after exhausting every available option to raise the £120,000 in funds required to get the First Team to the end of the season.

“The ongoing weekly and monthly costs to operate at this level are just too great, even with the implementation of further significant cost saving measures to reduce the deficit.

“At this stage any further attempts to continue down this path would ultimately jeopardize objective one, as there are no guarantees we would be successful in our efforts, and these would most likely be detrimental to our main mission, leaving the club with no funds, nor future.

“However, our collective efforts have not been in vain.

“All of the money raised so far will provide our community club with a solid foundation to rejoin the football pyramid at lower-level next season where space is available.

“This will provide Marske United with a platform to rebuild again properly in terms of organisation and infrastructure, and the club will survive.

“Thus, with a heavy heart the club informed the Northern Premier League and the FA of our decision to withdraw from the Northern Premier League Premier Division which has been accepted.

“We would like to place on record our thanks to all official stakeholders for their assistance, guidance, and support behind the scenes, which is often unseen by most.

“The Marske United junior teams will continue to play this season. We also plan to move our remaining Marske United Reserve Team fixtures from New Marske Sports Club to Mount Pleasant to continue to provide weekly football for the community, free of charge, as per North Riding League regulations.”