Chairman Tim Clark insists “this is not the end” for Canterbury City, despite them facing demotion to the haart of Kent County League if they cannot find a new ground to share by the end of March.

The FA have rejected a proposal from the club to groundshare with a Southern Counties East League Premier Division rival next season and with no alternative which meets SCEFL ground regulations, they are facing automatic relegation back to Step 7 of the non-league ladder.

City are currently playing at Herne Bay, however in October were told their groundshare agreement would not be extended and negotiations with clubs further afield proved fruitless, with the exception of one.

Mr Clark said: “Last month a club at our level, currently in another groundshare agreement, said they’d consider sharing with us. The SECFL approved the proposal in principle, they were keen to help us but on Monday the proposal was rejected by the FA, with no reason given for the rejection. The league are looking into the appeals process to see if there is anything we can do and on Monday they circulated an SOS from us to clubs, basically letting them know just how dire the situation is.”

Mr Clark added: “We are not giving up, we’ll keep looking and talking to people. It is disappointing but this is not the end, even if we do have to step back down to the County League.

“It’s been nine years since the club got going and we have a proposal for a viable new stadium, in conjunction with a developer, which Canterbury City Council are currently evaluating.

“With goodwill on all sides, the proposal has a realistic prospect of seeing the club back in our own ground within two years or so, irrespective of what level we are playing at.”