By Fatima Halloum
West Point Soccer Club members have been left devastated after their soccer goals were left damaged beyond repair by vandals.
The club believes the incident occurred between 6pm on Sunday, July 24 and 11am, Monday July 25.
Secretary Guillaume Nollet said he was “very disappointed, sad and angry” that someone had damaged their property.
“Those goals cost $5000 dollars, having another pair of goals like this cost $10,000 which we don’t have the money for,” he said.
“Why would you do something like this?”
Mr Nollet said the club actively tries to “keep the fees as cheap as possible” to make participation in the club more accessible for residents.
“If we have money to spend, we prefer to spend it on our members and their enjoyment, [rather] than replacing goals that get broken,” he said.
“During the lockdown we actually unlocked a few goals to let the community play.”
Mr Nollet said the club was then forced to spend $500 on padlocks and chains a few months ago, to shackle the goal to a nearby fence when people began mis-using the equipment.
The club also couldn’t afford to purchase insurance or have CCTV set up around the grounds, but are appealing for people with information to come forward to police.
“I’m a positive person so I’m hoping they didn’t do it on purpose, they were just trying to turn it around to play with it … why would you want to break something like this?,” he said.
The club is run by volunteers, and Mr Nollet said West Point was hoping to secure a grant that could be used to fix the damaged property.
