THE FUTURE of a football club for those with physical disabilities remains uncertain after the club's trailer was allegedly stolen.
Paul Yates, chairman of Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club, woke up on Wednesday morning to devastating news after the clubs trailer, used to transport powerchairs to matches, went missing from the coach's house in Marton, Middlesbrough.
Mr Yates said the trailer is vital to the club's ability to compete in league matches and without it the players may not be able to take part when the season begins again in September.
He said: “Our club competes a quite a high level. It’s an international sport and we take part in regional and national leagues.
“What we do is we travel to various clubs for games, such as Newcastle, Leeds, but we also travel as far as Nottingham.
“We use that trailer to travel to Nottingham and we use it to transport the specialised mobility vehicles which cost between £4,000 and £9,000 each.
“There’s no competitive games at the moment but we still train and do the smaller games. We’re going to be struggling to get to games if we can’t transport the chairs.
“If we don’t get it back before the season starts again in September, then we don’t know if we’re going to be able to compete.
“I just don’t know how we’re going to get down there without it."
The club has contacted Cleveland Police and are appealing for any information about the whereabouts of the trailer.
Mr Yates added: “As a club we take anyone from eight to 80-year-olds who have a physical disability. At the moment we have 20 to 30 registered players and some of them are children as young as eight, nine and ten.
"While its devastating for me as chairman and coach its going to be heartbreaking for the younger ones if they can't take part.
“We had even rounded up three different sponsors who wanted to put their logos on the trailer and we were about to add them to the sides of the trailer.
“We’re not interested in catching or bringing anyone to justice. We just want the trailer back.”
Middlesbrough PFC is asking anyone with information about the trailer's whereabouts to get in touch.
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