'Football clubs we were up against earn 20 times more'

Chairman Lee Harding said he had to delay payment to his manager [BBC] The chairman of a relegated side said they were competing with football clubs earning up to 20 times their revenue. Braintree Town Football Club were relegated from the National League on Easter Monday after a 0-0 draw with Woking, and with three games still left to play. The club were promoted in 2024, but manager Steve Pitt said they were unable to keep "key players" due to the financial "chasm" between them and the rest of the division.

Chairman Lee Harding agreed, and added: "Braintree is trying to compete with clubs that have got income streams 10, 15, 20 times that we've got. We are, for all intents and purposes, a semi-professional club trying to compete in a full-time league. " Braintree's average home attendance figure sits at just above 1,000 this season.

Elsewhere in Essex, Hashtag United owner Spencer Owen asked the Isthmian Premier Division to relegate them due to unsustainable finances . Pitt described the early demotion as a "bitter pill to swallow", with the hope that they would be battling until the final day. However, he told Ian Puckey on BBC Essex that competing meant getting "creative" due to finance problems and losing the "spine" of his team over the summer.

He added: "The gulf and the chasm between clubs like Braintree and the bigger clubs just seems to get bigger and bigger. And the budgets, well, the budgets that some of these clubs [have] are eye-watering. " Steve Pitt understood the off-the-pitch challenges the club faced [Warren Muggleton/BBC] Harding understood the challenge his manager faced.