The popular English professional Football manager Steven George Gerrard has gotten himself into a controversy recently. The Rangers manager owns Steven Gerrard Football Academy and has separated itself from any media outrage as a Singapore based investment company has purchased the non-league grounds which has resulted in the football clubs going homeless. These clubs were reportedly forced to leave their home ground after the property company bought the ground. The clubs that have no longer any ground include Whyteleafe FC. Irama Sports have purchased plenty of stadiums and that has gotten much attention from the media.
Due to the purchase, Whyteleafe FC has announced that they will be withdrawing from Isthamaian League as they cannot agree on the terms and condition of Irama. However, Whyteleafe FC is not alone in withdrawing its name as Abingdon Town had also taken its name from Hellenic League after Irama Sports unacceptable demands. While Gerrard name is coming in the matter as his academy will shift to Whyteleafe’s Church Road in September. Due to this, the manager is trying to keep his distance from the controversy.
Another side, Irama Sports are using Rush’s name to further promotion of the controversy. Even their company’s logo reads ‘Powered by Ian Rush”. However, it seems like that they are only using his name to publicise the controversy furthermore. Whyteleafe FC on Monday issued a statement where they announced that they are eventually withdrawing their name from the league as they couldn’t follow the demands of the new owners and the new lease altogether.
Though after the massive outrage by the fans of the Liverpool player, the Irama sports cleared that he is not responsible for their actions as he had no connections with it whatsoever. However, Steven Gerrard Football Academy which is based in Liverpool will get active this September in Whyteleafe ground. Talking about the controversial purchase by the investment company, they bought Church Road Ground which is located in Surrey along with Culham Road Stadium based in Abingdon.
The whole purchase was of a half-million pound. Irama has bought at least three non -league grounds where two of them are mentioned above. The auction happened last year where they purchased the grounds. Now, the Football clubs have gone homeless while the director of the Gerrard academy also issued a statement where they desired not to be mentioned in any articles regarding this purchase of grounds controversy.
