Partner Article

Macclesfield Town reverse enterprising "pay-to-play" offer to fans

Macclesfield Town football club have backtracked on their enterprising idea to offer members of the public a chance to play on their pitch.

The club had planned to allow fans to play in a competitive match in return for a £20,000 sum.

In a statement today, the club said: “The “pay to play” proposal was one of many innovative ideas that have been considered in the last few weeks to raise both funds and interest in the club. It was intended to be a light-hearted idea that would be of interest only to our local media.

“We now recognise that, whatever controls are put in place, it creates a possibility of altering the outcome of a competitive fixture and as such, clearly crosses an important line with respect to the integrity of the game. We are therefore withdrawing the offer and would like to apologise unreservedly to the football authorities and to the Football Conference for our error of judgement in this matter.”

Macclesfield Town were looking for innovative ways to alleviate serious financial difficulties and the idea had attracted considerable national media interest.

Recently the club’s owners transferred their shares into a Community Interest Company and Cheshire East Council acquired the freehold of the club’s ground.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .