SAVED: Bulwell FC's future is secured

Chairman Andy Radford announced in January that he would be stepping away his role for family reasons, ending an 11-year association with the club.

He appealed for anyone interested in taking over his role and that of several other departing family members to get in touch, but no firm interest was forthcoming until last week - just nine days before the deadline for the club to notify the FA of its intentions and whether they would be disbanding or not.

Radford said: “I’m overjoyed that a group of four people have come forward and agreed to take on the day-to-day running of the club.

“This means Bulwell FC will continue to operate and I have agreed to be on hand in an advisory role to help the new people out.

“I’ve also agreed to their request to continue in the named role as chairman but as I say, it will be mainly in an advisory capacity and not in the same daily manner that I have up to now.

“The quartet have all been a part of this club either in the past or present and have experience in both playing and managing.”

More details of the group are expected to be released in due course once any formalities have been completed.

Radford has overseen a successful spell in charge of the Bulls, with the club having risen to step seven of the football pyramid for the first time in its history and achieved FA Charter Standard status in 2013.

This season they are 14th in the Central Midlands League South having won eight of their 24 games so far, but Radford believes a change in league may be necessary for the 2016/17 season.

He said: “Because things took a while to happen it meant Basford United, who kindly host our home games at the moment, had to consider other arrangements in case we weren’t continuing, which I can’t fault them for at all given the financial element involved.

“As things stand, we may still have use of the Greenwich Avenue facilities but on a different pitch to the one we use now.

“That pitch has facilities that will suit the criteria for the Notts Senior League rather than the Central Midlands League, so it seems highly likely we’ll be making a lateral movement back to the NSL but remaining at step seven.

“Chris Munroe, Basford’s chairman, has been fantastic to us over the years and without him Bulwell wouldn’t be where we are now, so he deserves great thanks.”

Radford says he intends to watch Bulwell as much as possible next season, and hasn’t ruled out a return to a more active role in the future.

He added: “I’ll certainly be there as a spectator, as will my parents, and we definitely won’t stand by and watch them struggle if there is anything we can do to help.

“Maybe in a year or two I might be in a position to play a more active part, we will see, but for now it’s fantastic that this group of people have taken the reins.”

Bulwell are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Mickleover RBL in the league, before they then play Sherwood Colliery in the Phoenix Trophies Floodlit Cup at their Greenwich Avenue base next Tuesday night.