“Having involvement with Elburton Villa, on and off, for the last twenty years or so, it is a sad state of affairs that I see at the club at this present time. The club began many years ago with the aim of providing football, in the Elburton area, for the local youth to play amateur football, the quarry company made the grounds availble with this ethos in mind, the park and ride scheme was over turned, on the strenght of the argument, that the venue was vital to youngsters playing football. Over the years the club has been cared for and nurtured by voluntary committees and hundreds of good, unsung voluntary helpers, who's aim has been to provide facilities for local youth football.
It appears that the present "caretakers" have taken their eye off the ball and are implementing their own interpritation as to where their emphesis of support should be directed, i.e. the first team.
Respect to Scott Bamford for his defence of the current situation at the club, however the Vice Chairman, who initiated the appeal for funds, is conspicuous by his absence from this site.
The managers have been asked to collect, what they condsider to be, fees beyond the comfort zone of the majority of the players parents. Yes, the managers where asked if they would continue to manage a team at the club,but after putting both their and the parents concerns to the committee about the fees and no compromise being reached, felt the committes was pricing DJM teams out of the club, so parents and managers have voted with their
feet and have subsequently left , taking the players with them to other clubs, who's fees they consider to be more realistic.
The voluntary manager's, who have the players interest at heart, have to take into consideration, not only fees to clubs for registration and administration, the manager then has to find finance for team strips,tracksuit tops,referee's fee's, training facilities and trophies at the end of the season, the cost's of which can be funded by sponsorship, (if you are fortunate to get any) the shortfall being met by the deep pockets of the parents.

One would suspect that the present committee at Elburton Villa would have had prior knowledge of the proposals, that are in offering from Plymouth Argyle,and subsequently use the financial benefits, from the professional club using the facilities at Haye Road, to help subsidise the club and it's teams or at least keep things at a staus quo and so ease financial pressures on the club, parents and managers.
Previous contributor's have asked how many spectators attend Elburton Villa home games, I think the point being made was that ,possibly at this time, stands are not paramount to the progress of the club at this present time of it's development.
Wishing all parties the best of luck in the future.”

“Dave , thanx for the first sensible response , I for one am sorry to see Jeff's team not playing at Haye Road next season , as you probably know My company sponsored the team for a couple of seasons and I came up to watch you at least half a dozen times last season , £160 per player is far to much money for anybody to pay but that money never went to the club and that is the point I am trying to get across . The fees for all teams at Haye Road are £1000 per season now , that includes team Reg , individual player I.D. , Insurance and pitch fees . I bit high it may be but the cost of running all three pitches is very high , In an ideal world the club would have a big sponsor so all teams would not have to pay any fees .
If your team or any team had got just 4 companies to sponsor boards around the pitch that would have paid the fees and left you paying a lot less to the manager of your team .
All the best at Hooe Rovers”

“Scott I do not want to ge into a public slanging match. The facts are that my son played for the under 15's. We were charged £100 for the year plus £2.50 a week for training (approximately £160 in total). The £2 match fees were not paid at Elburton but in response to a previous post who had stated what other teams charge. Whether you like it or not this is fraction of what other teams charge. The under 15's have now joined Hooe and are charged £10 a month for 8 months which includes everything and a lovely pitch to play on.”

“Ian , Plymouth &
Dave , Plymouth

In fact if you put up what team your son's played for last season , I will let you know if that team paid there fees to the club .
For a fact I can tell you that only 2 of the DJM Sides paid there pitch and reg. fees .
Where's the money gone ? ask your manager .
Why don't people get the facts before they comment ?”

“Ian , Plymouth &
Dave , Plymouth

The Money you are talking about is collected by the individual Managers not the club .
£1600 + £2 match fees does not go to the club .
Each team is run separately under the banner of Elburton Villa .
I'm sure that if players and parents did fund raisers and got sponsors then the Managers would lower what they asked you to pay .
Elburton Villa does not collect that sort of money from there teams - FACT .”