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Lewes Football Club is celebrating ten years since it became wholly community-owned.

On July 8, 2010, Lewes FC was officially transferred out of private ownership into a mass-ownership community benefit society called Lewes Community Football Club, consisting of benefactors and members of the former management committee.

This transition happened because the club looked set to go into administration due to financial woes.

But thanks to a local group of fans, who called themselves Rooks125, they transformed the club into a community benefit society, allowing fans of the club to become owners themselves.

Lewes FC players Teddy Bloor and Katie Rood presenting the cake to nurse manager Nicky Axtell at Lewes Victoria Hospital

Charlie Dobres, one of Lewes FC’s directors, who was a member of Rooks125, said: “The financial crisis was hitting at that point and the club was having problems, as were a lot of clubs.

“It was important to do it – it stopped the club from going bust and if we didn’t do it there would be no Lewes FC.”

Charlie said it was thanks to the hard efforts of the community that the club was ‘reborn’.

“We did not want to let the club go into administration,” he commented.

Lewes Football Club celebrates 10 years being fan-owned