team players and management, concerning the club's requirement for all staff, including playing staff, to pay a membership subscription fee. Following their refusal, and the dismissal of team manager Sammy Donnelly as a result, the first team players and management left en masse to establish a separate phoenix club, AFC Southwick, who subsequently took up the place in the top tier that had been won in the previous season. This team have arranged a ground share at Whitehawk F.C.'s stadium for two seasons from 2021 to 2022. Both phoenix clubs have stated that their long term intention is to return to the Old Barn Way ground once it is refurbished. Ground The club stadium was at Old Barn Way, Southwick, BN42 4NT. In addition to a standing capacity of 1,950, there was seating for a further 50 supporters in the John Shepherd Stand. The stadium was the first in the Sussex County Football League to install floodlights, in 1968. The ground used to feature a small wooden grandstand flanked either side by terracing, however the grandstand was destroyed in an arson attack in December 1999 and the adjacent terracing was removed in the early 2000s. There also used to be cover at the Old Barn End at the ground but this fell into disrepair in the early 2000s and was also removed. A £100,000 grant from the Football Stadia Improvement Trust in 2003 enabled the club to build a new changing room block. The new building also incorporated a directors' and officials' lounge, with windows fronting on to the pitch, and also a small brick-built press box which has since been demolished. In March 2020 the local authority terminated the lease to the ground from Southwick F.C.'s owner due to numerous significant mismanagement issues and public safety concerns, primarily the club's neglect of carrying out necessary structural maintenance work over a long period and various serious legal breaches of the terms of the lease, including the lack of any fire provision. The ground has remained closed to the public and unused since this time. In February 2021 a new 25-year lease to the ground was acquired by the Russell Martin Foundation, a Southwick-based youth charity organisation founded by locally born former professional footballer Russell Martin. The charity stated that they intended to work with the local authority to refurbish the entire site, transforming it into a community football hub to