A HAMPSHIRE council has stepped in to save its football club from expulsion from its league over a seating wrangle. 

Alresford Football Club, near Winchester, faces dropping out of the Sydenhams Football League after the town council installed a new smoking balcony, which left the club needing 100 seats to meet competition regulations.

Alresford Town Council pledged £13,780 to install 50 covered seats and standing room for 50 people - but could not agree on how to pay for it.

A commitment had to be made at Thursday's meeting to ensure the seats were in place for next season, with Cllr Barbara Jeffs telling members they were "honour bound" to save the club's status.

Cllr Lisa Griffiths, chairman, said: "What we need to do is reassure the football club. 

"Basically, the decision we make is either 'you're staying in the league you're in' or 'you're not.'

"If we don't make the decision, they will not remain in the league they're in."

But fears were raised over how to foot the bill, with the pledge forcing the council to borrow money.

Parish clerk Stevie Kavanagh said: "There are other things that we need to do on this site. There's the cricket strip, there's storage. I may be able to get some funding for the storage but if you go for this £21,000 public works loan fund, I will have to put together a project. 

"It will need a sporting project."

Cllr Margot Power said: "If we're going to go for a bigger loan we're going to have a firmer idea of how it's going to be spent. 

"I'm not happy to sign off a loan for £21,000, with £8,000 for 'stuff'."

She called for profits from the balcony bar to contribute to the fund. 

Councillors pledged the cash and agreed to set out at its meeting on June 11 how it would pay and exactly what extra works would be done to justify a loan.

A spokesman from Alresford Football Club said: “The issues was raised by the installation of the new smoking balcony. The council has taken some seats out and installed the balcony.

“It needed to be resolved and all we wanted was the facilities we had put back or placed somewhere else. We need those seats because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to play at the level we were playing at.”

Read more on Alresford Town in this weekend's Sports Pink.