Gateshead: National League club players and staff threaten to strike

Gateshead's players and coaching staff say they will go on strike unless owner Dr Ranjan Varghese sells up.

Varghese put the National League club up for sale last month and has agreed a deal in principle with former Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy.

Staff say they have not received their wages for March having also had delays to their monthly payments for January and February.

The BBC has contacted the club and is awaiting a response.

Gateshead are ninth in the table and just outside the play-off places.

But on Friday they were kicked out of their ground because of money owed to the local council, although they have been allowed to play this season's remaining home games at the International Stadium.

The statement, which was approved by "all players and coaching staff", said "financial mismanagement" by Varghese and advisor Joseph Cala was affecting the team.

The statement said: "Having agreed to sell the club to Chris, we simply ask you to honour this promise and leave the club with at least some dignity by allowing Chris to take over alongside Bill Goodwin.

"These are men with a proven track record at running a football club and we wholeheartedly endorse their takeover bid.

"Should you fail to go through with your promise to allow Chris to be in a position to take over at the club, we will be left with no choice but to take immediate action.

"It is up to you to ensure that it does not come to that."

Varghese only took over the Tynesiders in July, but financial issues have seen the club operate under a transfer embargo for a large part of his tenure.

Although the team can play at the stadium for the rest of the season, the players cannot train there and staff have had to vacate their offices.

The statement said players and staff had been "consistently undermined" and that cost-cutting had meant travelling to away games on the morning of matches and no pre-match meals, among "numerous other hurdles".

"This serious financial mismanagement at the club has to stop," the statement added. "We are a squad of 16 senior players with one of if not the smallest wage bill in the National League yet debts and wages are still left unpaid.

"In spite of all of this, all players and staff have remained professional and continued to perform above and beyond all expectations to the point where we are serious contenders for a play-off position going into the final month of the season."

Gateshead's next scheduled game is against Ebbsfleet at home on Saturday.