Hendon vice-chairman David Bedford was a famous athlete in the 1970's, setting one World Record (at 10,000m) and three British Records over three different distances. Nowadays he is London Marathon race director. 

David, there have been reports that Hendon could lose their famous old ground at Claremont Road. What is the latest news? 

 The Arbiter Group, who have owned Hendon for 12 years, have decided that they won't be able to support the club anymore as from the end of this season.

The ground is being sold and the fans have set up a supporters' trust to take over the running of the club from the start of 2006/7. 

Ivor Arbiter was chairman of Hendon FC and a great backer of the club. But his death in July has precipitated the current situation, hasn't it? 

Ivor gave the football club a lot of support over many years through the Arbiter Group. But even if Ivor was still with us, I fear we could still be in the same situation.

This is the reality of football at Non-League level. Many teams face similar problems. Unless they have a strong sugar daddy or a company that is prepared to invest heavily, clubs cannot survive because the attendances at local senior football nowadays are too low. 

You have the chance of moving to the Copthall Stadium in Mill Hill. Is that viable? 

The move to Copthall was Ivor Arbiter's preferred option and looked the most likely for some time. But with a far more critical look at the financial implications, we believe that it is too expensive.

There is also an inbuilt dislike of the stadium from football fans because it has an athletics track around the outside of the pitch.

So we felt that if we moved there, we might survive for a season but we would lose our existing support and we would be back in exactly the same financial situation.

Therefore at a recent supporters' trust meeting, 80 of the fans present confirmed that they didn't want the club to pursue the Copthall option. 

Where do you go from here? 

The next option is to groundshare and we are in discussions with a couple of local clubs at the moment. It would be cheaper than moving to Copthall or even staying where we are at Claremont Road.

Whether we are able to achieve a sharing arrangement will depend on how successful our supporters' trust will be in raising sufficient funds to run a team at this level.

There have even been suggestions that you may have to merge with a local team like Wingate & Finchley. Surely that would be the very last option?

From a purely financial point of view, merging would bring two football clubs together who probably have similar difficulties. So perhaps the old adage comes into play where a problem shared is a problem halved.

But I think a merger only happens when all other possibilities have been exhausted. It is impossible to say at this stage if that would become a Custer's Last Stand for Hendon.

It is not an option that we are working towards at the moment. We are hoping that we can raise sufficient finance to groundshare.

But if that wasn't possible, then a merger option would probably be better than Hendon Football Club folding and disappearing without trace. 

You personally are heavily involved in athletics, but you also have a real love affair with Hendon FC don‘t you? 

I was first taken to Hendon when I was eight years old. I didn't see the team in their FA Amateur Cup Final appearances at Wembley in the 1960's, but I can remember tens of thousands of people lining the streets to welcome the players back afterwards.

Those kind of images never leave you. I have always continued to watch Hendon and in recent years I have attended games quite a bit more frequently.

I enjoy the day out at our level of football much greater than I have ever done watching my professional team, who are Tottenham Hotspur.

When I agreed to become vice-chairman to Ivor, I clearly didn't have a full understanding of the challenges that Hendon are now facing.

We have a good group of supporters who are looking at the future and will hopefully come up with a plan to take the club forward.