A non-league football club, part-owned by Stormzy and Wilfried Zaha, have been forced to cover costs totalling approximately £10,000 after travellers dumped rubbish at their stadium.
AFC Croydon Athletic, who play in the eighth tier of English football, saw their Mayfield Stadium broken into by travellers at the end of June.
Members of the group had allegedly broken through a locked gate to enter the site, with an initial six campervans setting up.
The number grew to eight as Croydon Athletic appealed to the council to swiftly intervene.
In July, the club stated the fly tipping was caused a threat to public safety, wildlife, and community sport. The concerns led to the club being forced to cancel a junior football event.
Fly-tippers had taken advantage leading to a ‘massive’ build-up of rubbish.
A non-league football club have been forced to cover costs to remove rubbish left by travellers
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Rubbish was dumped over two weeks with the Croydon Athletic needing to pay up to £10,000 to cover costs
The club were reportedly unable to lock the gates again due to ambulance access concerns, while the land is owned by the council.
Croydon Athletic had also raised concerns about security at the site, while admitting thousands of pounds worth of work which would of been carried out on the pitch had needed to be paused.
When contacted by Daily Mail Sport, Croydon Athletic confirmed that the travellers were eventually evicted in July, having spent around two weeks.
The clean up operation, however, has proved costly for the non-league side due to the huge amount of rubbish left, despite not owning the land.
Despite being informed by the council that arrangements would be made to clean up the waste once the travellers were evicted, rubbish remained on the site for a further three weeks.
Croydon Athletic requested an update from the council but were informed its removal fell outside the remit of their environmental enforcement team.’
‘The Club is paying to remove the rubbish which is not an insignificant cost,’ Croydon Athletic secretary Paul Smith told Daily Mail Sport.
‘It has contributed to us having to play a couple of games away from our home ground although not directly due to the rubbish but there were delays caused by the encampment in getting the pitch ready.’
Croydon Athletic said covering the costs would have been ‘beyond them’ without the investment of Stormzy and Wilfried Zaha
Stormzy – pictured following Croydon Athletic’s promotion from the Combined Counties Premier League South back in 2024
It is estimated the costs to the club could reach as much as £10,000, after several flatbed lorry loads of waste were removed from the site.
Mr Smith added that the five-figure sum would have been ‘beyond’ the club’s means had it not been for the investment of their high-profile owners.
‘But obviously those are funds that could have been invested into the team instead,’ he said.
The club have also been impacted by a small fire at their clubhouse this summer, which was unconnected to the travellers.
The disruption has led to Croydon Athletic having had to find new locations for home matches at the start of the season, with the nearby Carshalton Athletic and Cobham FC having hosted fixtures to date.
Croydon Athletic, who are managed by Danny Kedwell, have produced impressive results despite the impact.
The Rams are currently second in the Isthmian League South East Division with 10 points from their opening four matches, only missing out on top spot due to goal difference.
On Saturday, the club will travel to Hampton & Richmond Borough, who are two tiers above, to play in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup.
It is the furthest the club have been in the FA Cup in their history having already won three matches in the competition this season.
Former Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha became a co-owner of the club back in 2023
Zaha and British rapper Stormzy, who both grew up in Croydon, are part of a three-man ownership group
Since 2023, the club has been owned by a consortium consisting of Zaha, Stormzy and former Crystal Palace head of care Danny Young.
Zaha and Stormzy are close friends partly due to their connections with Croydon, where the pair grew up.
Zaha had joined nearby Crystal Palace and came through the clubs academy, before starring for the Eagles initially between 2010 and 2013, before a second spell from 2015 to 2023.
He scored 72 goals in 315 games for the club, before moving to Turkish side Galatasaray on a free transfer in 2023. The Ivory Coast international now plays for MLS side Charlotte FC.
