Statement: Warrington Town Juniors

Warrington Town Juniors is currently operated independently of the club by its own committee, and is simply affiliated to the FA through Warrington Town FC.

Two years ago, when the club learned of upcoming changes to personnel within the committee, a proposal was put to the Juniors to be run and operated within the club.

There would be no impact to existing teams, but instead the Juniors would have the benefit of working closer with the club and the strategic opportunities that would present. This proposal was ultimately rejected. It was agreed that the Juniors would continue as a ‘community junior’ offering, and that the club would itself create ‘development’ squads to act as a pathway towards potential first-team football in the future. We have, as a result, had Under 14s and Under 16s teams running over the past two seasons, underneath the Under 18s and Under 21s youth sides.

Earlier this year, the club became aware of further changes to personnel within the Juniors committee, namely the planned departure of both chairman and secretary, who were two of the people present in the prior meeting. Clearly, with the Juniors using the Warrington Town name and brand, the club wants to ensure that the best interests of Warrington Town FC are served.

To an outsider, there is no real distinction between someone from Warrington Town Juniors and someone representing the club. As such, it again felt like an appropriate opportunity to remove the gap between the club and the Juniors section.

Therefore, a meeting was held on 19th March where the club outlined its vision for the Juniors section; namely to bring it under the Warrington Town in the Community charitable arm (charity number 1156068), alongside the existing Youth, Junior Development and Women's/Girls sections.

The Juniors section would still retain a committee for its operations, but would benefit from being within the wider infrastructure of the charitable arm, as well as from the experience of those involved. It would enable us to put greater focus on improvement of facilities, increase utilisation of club assets and create benefits for junior players, as well as explore any other opportunities that could be born out of a closer relationship with coaches, players and parents alike. Existing teams would remain in place as part of the strategy for moving forward.

Our suggestion was that the Juniors section called an EGM to enable their members to decide - with the alternative being that the Juniors section remained as it is, but that they would have to cease using the Warrington Town name and brand.

There are significant challenges and costs to operating in grassroots football, particularly surrounding facilities and the lack of, and we felt our proposal provided the best solution to ensuring community football, while also supporting a tangible pathway for the best junior players in Warrington to potentially one day play for Warrington Town’s first team in the National League System.

The club has this week been informed by the Juniors committee that they will be breaking away and forming a new club, FC Warrington. Therefore, as of May 31 2026, they will detached from Warrington Town FC and affiliation withdrawn.