SOUTHALL Football Club were dealt another blow on Tuesday night, after their £4 million plan for the 25 year lease of Spikes Bridge Park was turned down in favour of a soccer academy.

The London Soccer Academy, run by Joseph De Graph, is now waiting to be rubber stamped as the new tenant of Spikes Bridge Park in Southall, beating off stiff competition from Gold's Gym, The Asian Health Agency and Southall FC.

The setback again throws into question the long term future of Southall FC, who hoped to acquire the 19.35 acre derelict site to construct a facility of excellence, maintaining the surrounding parkland for recreational use.

Southall FC, who made it to the 1986 FA Vase Final at Wembley, have not had their own training ground since 1992.

Ealing Borough Council's evaluation board adjudged the club's bid to be too ambitious, saying: "Our outline preliminary discussions with the planning department revealed that in planning terms the proposals put forward by Southall FC and Gold's Gym were unlikely to be acceptable."

The council's evaluation report claimed: "The two financially best placed bids wish to run the facilities largely for the benefit of their members and for profit."

Amar Mehli, a Southall FC spokesman, hit back at the board's decision, saying: "The council needs to show a bit of vision and foresight, it's not all about what we're doing today, it's more about what we can do tomorrow.

"You can't continue to patch over the past. Spikes Bridge Park needs a great deal of capital investment to bring it back to what it was, a lot more than what is currently being proposed."

However, under section 123 of the Local Government Act, the council is obliged to get the best consideration for what is essentially disposable land. Therefore, due to their financial shortfall, any decision made in favour of The London Soccer Academy would ultimately need to be decided by the Government.

Southall FC will write to Tony Blair and continue to fight to be housed back in the borough, following the closure of their Western Road Ground in 1992.

They are currently ground sharing with Chalfont St Peter FC based in Buckinghamshire. The club will be looking at other options in nearby Osterley and Northolt.

The London Soccer Academy, derived from Ealing United FC, currently coaches ten teams made up of players within the borough.

The academy hopes to be in Spikes Bridge Park by the end of January next year. Joseph De Graph said: "I'm looking to work very closely with Southall FC. They are firmly in our plans, we can't possibility utilise the whole park ourselves."

November 14, 2002 09:00