Throstle Nest – the home of Farsley Celtic
By Matthew Brady
Who would have thought that a substitute for Gibraltar in their 7-0 hammering against Poland at the Estadio Algarve would have huge ramifications in West Yorkshire.
To Farsley Celtic, the introduction of Adam Priestley into a game in which Bayern Munich marksman Robert Lewandowski helped himself to four goals. was a financial coup.
At the time Priestley, when he wasn’t representing his country against Europe’s finest, was plying his trade at the Throstle Nest stadium, and this was significant.
When Uefa released the list of pay-outs granted to clubs for providing their players to the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign and finals, many were surprised to see the Celts receiving a £20,000 windfall.
#RANGERS earned less from Euro 2016 than Celtic – English minnows Farsley Celtic that is.
— PredictTheScore (@PTS_Updates) February 3, 2017
Clearly Priestley’s exploits had been forgotten, possibly due to the fact that Priestley now plays for Alfreton Town, and even Joshua Greaves, club chief executive, admits it came as a surprise.
Speaking to Yorkshire Voice, Greaves said “It’s a massive, unforeseen boost that wasn’t on the books before the season. It will allow us to plan more ahead for the future now.”
“Football at our level is run by volunteers, normally we have very tight pockets – this allows us to loosen those pockets and we can- and will – reinvest this money.”
However Greaves, whose employers are currently unbeaten in 2017, and were just named the club of the month in their division, doesn’t foresee a big money transfer coming from this cash.
“We will be spending it on general club maintenance, making improvements around the ground, as well as making improvements to the dressing room”
Before these changes can be implemented, a buoyant Farsley have a trip to Lancaster City to contend with, bringing back to reality the club who made just a little piece of Euro 2016 history.