As the curtain falls on the 2025/26 campaign, we would like to take the time to reflect on the season as a whole and provide supporters with an update on matters across the club.

First of all, we thank all our fans who have travelled across the country for your unwavering backing – it happens year after year and our appreciation of it is not something we ever take for granted. To our loyal and constant home support, your season average of 1,368 is very strong and is our second highest season average in the NLS in the nine seasons in which we have participated in it. 

(We know it is always a contentious debate when ‘guess the gate’ participants speculate on the size of the crowd! However, for the record we always announce the gate to reflect the actual number of spectators inside the ground. Season-ticket holders who attend are counted and those who don’t are not included, so the average gate is a credit to you all and it does not go unnoticed.) 

The 2025/26 season
Saturday’s result at Worthing was, of course, bitterly disappointing for everyone involved as we marginally missed out on a play-off position. As in previous close seasons, we now immediately turn our heads towards progress and improvement for the next campaign and the planning for 2026/27 – our 80th anniversary – is well under way.

This season has witnessed one of the most wide-open National League South campaigns in recent memory. Such a condensed and tight top seven saw us frustratingly so close to a top-two finish, while missing out on the play-offs by goal difference. Ultimately it was our dropping of points in injury time in the new year (and against Eastbourne at home earlier in the season) plus wasteful efforts in front of goal pre-Christmas that saw us drop points and fail to capitalise on the opportunity we had to take the league – and we weren’t the only club to miss that opportunity.

NLS : the financial realities
The wage structure of the division and overall model at this level of the pyramid needs some serious attention by the FA and Football Regulator. It is simply unsustainable for NLS clubs to be spending well over £1m per season on players alone. Three years ago, an annual playing budget of £600k-£850k was exceptionally strong in this division, whereas this season that figure would place clubs in the mid- to lower spend of the division.

The other challenge and fact of reality in football at this level currently is the vast and unfair disparity between the costs and sporting advantage for some clubs over others. We are a club who proudly over the last six years have stringently adhered to a zero-tolerance policy on lowering standards and compliance in regards to financial matters and payroll.

We always meet our commitment to pay at least the recommended national minimum wage for all staff rather than short-change them with lower cash deals ‘off-book’. Additionally, we always pay full HMRC, National Insurance and other legally required liabilities. We pay VAT on all cash incomings, and all of our playing-squad payments and costs are properly recorded and lodged on their playing contracts with applicable taxes and liabilities paid to HMRC – as we should and as sound, fairly run businesses should.

Doing things in the correct way means we sustain costs of c.35% over and above our wage bill. It goes without saying that should any clubs in the system not declare their cash income, and/or  come to agreements with players or staff that sees them paid in cash off the books or via supposed “expenses”, that they would be 35% better off financially than any club doing it the correct way.

I have had this discussion with a number of like-minded clubs in our division who share our view and feel our pain on this. I’ve also had some frank and honest conversations with clubs who the grapevine suggest may be doing things another way. I’ve been assured and corrected by some and absolutely take their word for it; others don’t see an issue with doing whatever it takes to minimise their liabilities. All we can do is transparently highlight the issue and hopefully explain that while doing things the right way is the correct thing to do, it does cause immense financial pressure. Clubs that do it the right way are more prone to missing League or HMRC monthly deadlines if they are late in paying their monthly liabilities because everything is on the books and our HMRC bills are far higher than any club who does use cash. It is a difficult situation and the pressures and burdens of remaining compliant and up-to-date are constant.

We are attempting to secure our future and destiny by planning around increasing non-core revenues in order to remain sustainable within this crazy system in which we operate – and we implemented that plan some four years ago when we conceived and drove the Northfleet Harbourside project. With foresight and our own experience then, we could see this illogical wage model was going to bite the lower leagues eventually – and that time has arrived.

Stadium development / Ownership
You are understandably eager for more information in regards to the new ownership and the stadium development. Updates are regularly available in our matchday programme, also published online via the forum, for everyone to read. But to clarify where both issues currently stand…

Progressing our future plans in the short-term remains out of our hands as they continue to be held up by the respective administrative bodies. 

Our exciting Northfleet Harbourside project – which we achieved approval for alongside our supportive local borough council in July 2024 – is yet to be reported on and presented to the secretary of state for a decision. The club have been advised on various dates over the past year and more – and we have passed all these dates on to supporters. At numerous stages since approval was granted, we have been provided deadlines throughout 2025 and 2026 – November, December, January, mid-March and now potentially May. As each one slips, it is of course as frustrating for you as it is for us and we can only repeat that information as it becomes available to us. 

It is as simple as that. There are no reasons other than bureaucracy and an over-worked planning system presented to us to explain the delays. So much work and substantial investment has been put into the planning process over five years. The project has always been designed to provide you and our club with a sustainable future in facilities that will serve the community and provide non-football-related revenues to ultimately reduce the reliance on private funders to keep the club alive.

We must be completely honest in saying that the delay has been extremely challenging  for all concerned. Such hard work has gone into this for the past four years and in order for the club to secure its future and progress further, a decision in favour of the project is extremely important.

Meanwhile, the process for the transfer of ownership is ongoing and has not been helped by these long delays, with a raft of financial agreements and commitments needing to be formalised at significant cost. The proposed new investors – and we have welcomed representatives of that consortium this season at matches (including as recently as our final home fixture) – seek certainty that their upfront commitment and investment will be secured by successful approval of their ownership. As always, when there is more news, I will ensure it is communicated to you all immediately.

Player recruitment
Preparations began even before this season drew to a close to secure certain players for 2026/27.  Those who have already committed their future to the club and extended their contracts are Finlay Barnes, Gene Kennedy and Ronny Nelson, all young players who have impressed in their first season with us and who have exciting careers ahead. 

As you will have seen from the recent retained/release list, six players have been offered new deals in addition to the 11 now under contract and we will of course update supporters as and when these are tied down. New faces will also, of course, be heading into the building throughout the summer as we identify and secure our squad targets. Alongside news of new and retained players, there is always the difficult process of bidding farewell to players who have been diligent in their service to the club. That is part of football, however, and we wish nothing but success and the very best for the future to all those who have departed. 

Pre-season planning
Behind the scenes, we are in the process of recruiting a new club secretary/football operations manager following the departure of Katie Knowles. She has been with us since 2020 and grown into her various roles along the way and we wish her nothing but success in the EFL in the future. It is a crucial position at the football club and it is important we do our due diligence in order to ensure we recruit someone who is the right fit for EUFC. 

On the subject of personnel, we have been aware of some comments about staff levels in our matchday team during warmups and at training. Like all clubs in this division, we have a number of vital roles carried out by coaching and performance staff members but these are supplemented by several young and talented members of our successful internship programme. These initiatives provide a great opportunity for university students to receive hands-on experience in a professional sporting environment before embarking on their chosen careers; we offer these in a variety of disciplines including medical, performance, analysis, sports science and media. We’d like to thank those during 2025/26 for their hard work this season and we look forward to welcoming new faces come July and August. We operate on a lean football staff structure of Manager, Assistant Manager, Goalkeeping Coach, Medical Lead, Strength and Conditioning Lead, Analyst and Matchday Videographer. We certainly operate with an efficient and unbloated support staff compared to various other clubs in the division.

Our usual pre-season planning also involves pencilling summer friendly fixtures into diaries. Those are in the process of being confirmed but we must ensure that everything is agreed by both parties before making formal announcements of opposition and dates. Like everything else, we announce those once appropriate to do so.

Supporters may recall being asked to provide opinions about stadium naming rights recently. Every season we link up with new business partners but stadium and other major sponsorship deals are a more rare occurrence and we hope to be able to bring you more news on that front during this close season.

Our season tickets for our 80th anniversary season were launched just before the end of the campaign. All our season-ticket offers since 2020 have always been made with our supporters’ loyalty in mind and we have always kept prices at – or more often below – our division’s averages. Where we have had to raise prices, we have done so only where absolutely necessary and by as agreeable a percentage as we can, while acknowledging the need to run the club as sustainably as possible in all areas. The most influential need for pricing increases is the massive rise in operational fixed costs we are subjected to. Energy and utilities alone to operate the club have skyrocketed in price, along with travel and delivery costs and general stock price increases on all consumables. Coupled with insurances, banking fees and a raft of other essential costs, we have attempted to freeze season-ticket costs for many years and have honoured that. However, we finally have to acknowledge the inflation of costs around us and apply a conservative increase going forward.

We recorded our highest number of season-ticket sales for a National League South campaign last summer and our average crowd in 2025/26, while of course always going to be lower than in the National League, was as mentioned above our second highest in this division in our history. We are working hard to build on this figure into the new campaign with schemes like our Schools programme and continued work with community and youth groups on matchdays providing plenty of local links and interest. Heading into our 80th season, there are more exciting events and features to announce throughout the campaign including our new kit launches.

In and around the community The Rose pub enjoyed its first 12 months of operation since we re-opened it, and continues to be a hub for the local community.

Our women’s programme has had a difficult season, with the lack of registration security in the women’s game at our level allowing an exodus of the playing squad close to the season start. A team of very committed and talented young players have done the club proud this season and will form the nucleus of our squad next year, all the stronger for the experience this season, and all very passionate and committed to our badge and shirt.

As much as this update provides, we know there are always other issues important to you all and we remain available to answer any questions or address your needs where we are able during the close season as we prepare for 2026/27.

Thank you wholeheartedly for your continued support.