Bilston FC put up for sale by mistake in 'misleading' advert

Bilston Town FC's Queen Street ground - where the club has been since 1919 - has been listed on a website as being up for auction for £120,000.

However the club says it has a 38-year sub-lease on the ground and says it is 'going nowhere'.

The listing has caused confusion around the club with players phoning up to see if they needed to find a new club.

But no work can legally be done on the actual football ground, which is owned by Wolverhampton City Council.

The leaseholder of the site is Shiv Sharma, who has put it up for sale.

However the club's sub-lease means the ground is safe from being developed.

Freehold land adjacent to the ground can be developed but club vice-chairman Denise Frankham said that the land itself was dangerous to walk on as there were mine shafts underneath.

She does not expect anything to come of the possible sale, with the site going under the hammer during an auction at Villa Park later this month.

She said: "The advert is misleading and we're going nowhere.

"As far as the football club is concerned nothing will change.

"We have a 25-year sub lease on the ground until 2038.

"There are absolutely no plans to sell our ground."

A picture of the club's bar on the listing, which is on chartered surveyor firm CP Bigwood's website, was especially misleading, the vice-chairman said.

She added: "It's wrong. Nothing will change will Bilston Town Football Club - we're here for good."

The council has no plans to dispose of its ownership of the football ground.

Any potential sale of Mr Sharma's interests would be subject to a 25-year under-lease of the site to the football club, which began in 2013 and expires in 2038.

Whoever took on the leasehold would be required to honour it for that period of time.

And a clause in the lease states that the site can only be used for footballing purposes and if this does not happen the lease would be forfeited.

The freehold parcel of land adjacent to the ground can be used for non-footballing purposes.

The club was founded in the 1890s after Bilston Rovers and Bilston Wanderers merged to form Bilston United.

The club moved to Queen Street in around 1919.

It has a 4,000 capacity ground, 300 of which is seated.

Mr Sharma could not be contacted.