Guiseley Football Club could face relegation unless vandals and arsonists stop causing damage to its grounds, its chairman claimed this week.

Phil Rogerson fears that if the attacks continue the club may not be able to meet new Football Association ground guidelines.

In the latest incident on Friday night, vandals broke in and torched and smashed plastic seats which had only been installed last week.

The club could have lost it all if the fire had spread throughout the wooden stand. Some of the seats melted with the heat.

Volunteers have spent the past few weeks fitting the seats into the stand to comply with FA rules, which could see the club relegated from the UniBond league if they are not met.

Mr Rogerson has defiantly challenged those responsible to make better use of their time and join the club's academy sides.

"The fans came on Saturday and they were heartbroken when they saw the damage," he said.

"It must be very disappointing, even heartbreaking for those involved in the refurbishment of the stand to see this mindless vandalism ruin what they have worked so hard to achieve.

"We are community club, it costs us money to run and we cannot really afford this extra expense.

"We provide entertainment for the people of Aireborough and these people are making life so much more difficult for us. We could find them something to do which is more constructive than that.

"We run teams at lots of levels and if they are at all interested I would be more than happy for them to come to training. That would fill their time and would be more productive."

The club will not be able to replace the seats if they are damaged again because they were only given a free limited number from Headingley Stadium.

"The league insisted wooden seats were not adequate so we had to replace them," added Mr Rogerson.

"Prior to this we have found quite a lot of glass broken on the area where we train and we have had seats broken before but not trying to set fire to them.

"This is a major concern having replaced all the seats with these plastic ones we cannot replace them again.

"If the worst comes to the worst our league position will be under threat.

"They melted the seats but luckily they hadn't caught fire or set fire to the stand itself which is a wooden construction. It would have been a great concern if that had gone."

A resident living next to the club reported flames coming from the stand at 7pm and called the chairman.

It is believed there were six youths in the stand who had broken a panel in the fence to gain entry to the stadium.

The club is now reviewing its security.

Mr Rogerson added: "We are going to look at how they got in and will try to make it more secure.

"We will be looking at providing security firms and we have spoken to the police and they are going to keep a close eye on it.

"I visited the club on Friday night having reporting the matter to the police.

"I disturbed the culprits, some six youths who subsequently ran off.

"I would like to thank our neighbour for letting me know and would ask anyone seeing anything untoward happening around the ground, or have any knowledge of the events of Friday night, to report it to me or the police."

l Anyone with information can contact Weetwood Police on (0113) 241 3459.