FANS of Clapton FC have started a fan-owned club called Clapton Community Football Club which will play in the Middlesex Counties Football League for the 2018-19 season.

Days after Clapton’s entire youth structure left to merge with a rival club, the announcement is the latest in the battle over the Old Spotted Dog ground.

With the help of Clapton’s Life Members, whose connection to the club traces back to the early 1990s, this new club is “open to all, with transparency and inclusivity as its key values.”