PLANS for a statue celebrating the centenary of a North-East football club winning the first World Cup are being recommended for approval, three years after the anniversary it will commemorate.
Durham County Council’s planning officers are recommending that plans for a statue on the green in the County Durham village of West Auckland are approved when the authority’s planning committee meets on Thursday.
Work on the plans started in 2009, which was the centenary of the year a team of miners from West Auckland went to Italy to compete for the Sir Thomas Lipton trophy.
The competition featured four teams and was arranged by the tea magnate and philanthropist to celebrate “the beautiful game”.
The competition, which attracted teams from Germany and Switzerland as well as the host nation and England, has since been dubbed the first World Cup and was repeated in Turin two years later.
Not only did West Auckland surprise everyone by winning it in 1909, they also retained the trophy in 1911 beating Juventus 6-1 in the final.
In 2009, West Auckland football club sent a team to Italy to play against a team of Juventus reserves in celebration of the anniversary.
The story of West Auckland’s win and the lengths the miners and their families went to to pay for the two trips has been turned into a film and play.
A committee of local councillors and officials from West Auckland Town FC have been working on plans for a statue in the middle of the village to celebrate the achievement.
The £184,000 statue would be 2.2m high and stand on a fourmetre high plinth with a seat around it.
The statue, designed by London- based artist Nigel Boonham, will feature the figure of a miner and a footballer and would be placed where the village’s Christmas tree is presently sited.
The county councillors for West Auckland, Andy Turner and Rob Yorke, have led the project.
Councillor Yorke said: “It has taken a long time, but this bronze sculpture will immortalise West Auckland Football Club’s achievements for generations to come.”
If approved, the statue is expected to be built by April.
The planning committee meeting will start at 2pm, in the council offices in Green Lane, Spennymoor .
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