Williams Landing Soccer Club could be forced to cancel matches from this weekend

A booming soccer club in Melbourne’s west was hit in a $200,000 crime spree. Now they’ll have to call off matches if an eleventh-hour appeal isn’t answered.

With night lights currently not working, Williams Landing Soccer Club will be forced to call off matches form this weekend.

A booming soccer club in Melbourne’s west will be forced to cancel matches if lights aren’t switched on at the ground by Friday night.

Williams Landing Soccer Club committee member Chris Spiridonos told the Wyndham Leader teams had been made to train in the dark after thieves stole copper cables from the ground, sparking an electricity outage.

Nine other ground were targeted in the stealing spree, leaving ratepayers with a $200,000 repair bill, the Leader revealed last month.

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Mr Spiridonos said the first matches of the season were scheduled for Friday night but without lights they couldn’t go ahead.

“We won’t know until later in the week if the lights will be fixed or not,” he said.

“It’s incredibly frustrating — and obviously it’s now getting darker earlier we’ve had to alter some training sessions.

Mr Spiridonos said junior matches would be played on Sunday morning and wouldn’t be affected.

And the lighting dramas were only part of the problem, Mr Spiridonos said, with the club also plagued by delays to the $3.8 million pavilion upgrade at the site.

To make matters worse, the club pavilion is still not finished.

The pavilion — which will be used by a variety of sports, including the soccer club — will include change rooms, toilets, a kitchen, a first aid room, a community meeting space and umpires’ rooms.

Work was due to be finished in February but when the Leader visited the site this week, it was still incomplete and no workers were at site.

But Mr Spiridonos said teams were using shipping containers as change rooms and boys and girls were sharing toilets.

The club had been offered use of another ground at Werribee, he said, but travelling further wasn’t feasible for many members.

“We’ve already got families who live in St Kilda and Heidelberg battling through traffic to bring their kids to our club because of what our coaches offer so an extra 20 minutes to Werribee just won’t work,” he said.

“We’ve built a great club here but it’s a bit embarrassing that our facilities aren’t up to scratch.

“(The committee are) all volunteers, mums and dads with our own jobs and families to worry about without having to worry about this sort of thing.

Wyndham Council’s director of city life Jenny McMahon said contracts to reinstall lighting would be awarded soon.

“We share the community’s frustration with the theft of copper wiring from this reserve but unfortunately this is beyond our control,” she said.

“We are working with the soccer club and Football Victoria to reschedule upcoming Friday night games to another sportsground.”

Ms McMahon said the club had in February been told the pavilion project would be delayed after the builders went into voluntary administration, temporarily halting construction at the site.

“Works for the Williams Landing Sports Precinct are going well and we anticipate the building will be complete for the 2019/20 summer sports season,” she said.