A football club has closed its team clubhouse so it can undergo repairs, saying that it will cause 'severe immediate and short-term financial consequences'.

Wymondham Town Football Club (WTFC) said it closed the clubhouse to members of the public as a 'precautionary measure'.

Charles Bush, the club's new operations manager, reassured those living nearby that it was not because the building was dangerous after making the decision following a meeting to evaluate the state of the clubhouse.

'There are all sorts of things we have to comply with when dealing with the public and it just doesn't do that for the 21st century,' Mr Bush said. 'Then we will re-launch the club in stages.'

He promised that the changes would be 'welcome in the future of the club'.

Mr Bush said the new team will take a 'robust' approach to getting the club house back on its feet, after certain areas of health and safety had been overlooked in previous years.

Chairman Andy Gardiner added that the priority moving forward was to ensure that the new committee is 'completely transparent' with fans.

In February, the chairman outlined proposals to improve the fortunes of the struggling club, including plans to recover from debts of nearly £3,000.

At the time of the meeting, the club had only £83 to its name.

Since then a new committee has started work and a fundraising drive has begun.

'We have our first rally call for the local community on Saturday to come out and help us accelerate and get things back to acceptable working order,' Mr Bush said. 'We continue to feel positive.'

Les King, life president of WTFC, added: 'Unfortunately the new committee had no idea of all the issues involved n the clubhouse and quite rightly for a whole lot of reasons it had to be closed to the public on April 22.

'Hopefully with everyone supporting the committee, we can reopen on May 9 in a safe, clean clubhouse for the community to use.'