Canterbury City Football Club have applied to leave the Southern Counties Eastern Football League after just eight games of the new season.

Just two years after City were just ninety minutes from appearing at Wembley in the Buildbase FA Vase Final, the desperately sad news was announced on the Club website on Sunday that the Club who has been sharing Faversham Town’s Salters Lane ground whilst trying to return to their home City.

The statement read, “The club this afternoon, 19 September 2021 have made the difficult decision to request withdrawal from the Southern Counties East Football League (SCEFL) due to financial reasons.”

“As a club we have worked hard over the last 14 years or so to have an independent hub in the City of Canterbury. A hub that would not only benefit the City, would provide a platform for young players to progress to a level where they have the opportunity to be paid to play football. Our ambition has always been to have a local club for local people.”

“This weekend we have been informed that we will need to wait 3 years for planning application to be submitted. We will not be able to sustain as a self-sufficient entity the funds required over this period, therefore we are faced with the awful decision to submit this request.”

“We will continue to explore our options to be able to still have a Step 5 football team within the SCEFL set up. The reality is we will require funding to achieve this, without this we have no option other than offer to withdraw from the league.”

“We will issue a further detailed statement in the next couple of days. We would like to thank the board of SCEFL for their help and understanding of this delicate situation.”

The SCEFL board will meet on Monday to review the situation and are expected to release a statement early in the week.

Sadly, it will be the second time that the club has folded. The “original” club was formed in 1947 but ceased in 2001 after the City Council closed their Kingsmead home. The club reformed in 2007, but never had a permanent base and had five temporary homes before arriving at Salters Lane in 2018.

City re-joined the Kent League in 2011 before SCEFL was founded in 2013 and have been members of the League ever since with the undoubted highlight being the run to the Vase semi-final when they were edged out by Cray Valley PM in the last four by 2-1 aggregate score.