Berwick fans asked to share burden

Berwick Rangers played giants Rangers twice in 2002

Supporters of Berwick Rangers are being asked to help the club by buying shares in the Scottish League team.

The club, situated just on the English side of the border, has only three home games in August and September, and the board is appealing to all fans for their help in dealing with cash-flow problems.

The club is close to its overdraft limit and money is needed to meet essential running costs.

Around 90,000 shares at £1 each are available for purchase in blocks of 50, and the club would like football-lovers to buy shares in the next six weeks.

The club puts its problems down to paying high wages as they chased success over the past couple of seasons, despite only averaging gates of around 500 for home games.

Wage structure

The club is the only senior side in Northumberland but many people in the county follow Newcastle United, Sunderland, or even Hearts and Hibs in Edinburgh.

Berwick Rangers committee member John Bell said: "We have a lot of competition from clubs north and south of Berwick.

"Over the past couple of years the club has been a bit ambitious, and maybe has been a little bit guilty of spending more money on players' wages that we could afford.

"There is a now a new wage structure paying less than we did, however those players on existing contracts will still be paid as normal."

He said the 90,000 shares were the remainder of a 300,000 share issue from a few years ago, and that the club hoped to sell 10,000 in the next few years.

'Quirky position'

Mr Bell said: "We have a very loyal group of supporters, who buy season-tickets, shares, and match programmes, but now we hope to appeal to other people to buy shares.

"As the only English team playing in Scotland we are in a quirky position that appeals to people in other parts of the country, and just recently we had someone from Bristol spend £1,000 on shares.

"Given the serious situation the Club is now in, there's never been a more important time to buy shares."

The club, which starts the season away to Arbroath on 9 August, enjoyed two money-spinning Scottish Cup games against Glasgow Rangers in season 2001/2002.