FOR the past six years, the Virginia United Football Club has had to fight off vandals, vagrants, thieves and, occasionally, the eThekwini Municipality. The football club said it has been trying to secure a long-term lease from the city in order to take charge of the grounds.

Board members from Virginia have now given the grounds a R70 000 makeover, which has seen a number of dilapidated areas upgraded. Chairman of the club, Mark Ridsdale, said the makeover was much-needed.

“Over the past few years we’ve had problems with graffiti taggers who have vandalised our advertising boards. We’ve had copper thieves steal cables from our floodlights, damage change rooms, steal pipes and break windows. We’ve also had an issue with the wire fence running along Danville Avenue, which is damaged, and the concrete slabs surrounding the field were falling apart. We basically took the decision to fix all of these with our own money instead of waiting on the municipality.

“We’ve now repainted the clubhouse, fitted the change rooms with proper locks, fixed the fencing and are in the process of fixing the collapsing concrete slabs. Unfortunately, a recent cable theft has meant we are down to one field, which has affected our junior teams. Our hope is to be given a lease by the municipality in order to fully take charge of the grounds,” he said.

Ridsdale added the municipality had, in the past, cited financial constraints as the reason preventing them from fixing broken floodlights or leaking pipes.

“We take pride in our grounds and of the area, and as a club that is more than 45 years old, we want grounds that reflect this pride. We’d happily agree to taking over the upkeep activities,” he said.