HAWKS chief executive Tommy Cunningham says the future is bright for Harlow Town after securing a five-figure sponsorship deal with City of London foreign exchange company OPTFX.

The Harlow Town FC players will carry the name of the company on their shirts next season.

“It’s fantastic. Things are going in the right direction,” enthused Cunningham.

The club are also re-branding Barrows Farm as The Harlow Arena, and will unveil this scheme officially in November.

Harlow have also signed up a lucrative deal with six-a-side football league company Leisure Leagues. They will be based at the Elizabeth Way venue on Monday evenings.

“We are re-branding the stadium as The Harlow Arena,” beamed Cunningham, who also unveiled plans for between 10 and 20 youth teams filtering through to the academy team. “We are putting a youth structure together. We are looking at the long term, not the short term,” he said.

“That is why we want to get promoted, we want to launch a full-time academy next season. We will educate them.”

The club have already spent more than £300,000 on a plush artificial pitch.

Cunningham says the footballclub will build a minimum of 10 teams from the age groups U-7 to U-16, and these players will filter through to the academy and then onto the first team.

“Back in my time as manager at Harlow you had youth players heading to the reserve team. When we were struggling with Danny Green or Kenny Davis, we had others. We had Shaun and Michael Gliddon to come in and help the side. At the moment we have not got that base.”

However, with the acquisition of goalkeeper Darren Bechet for the rest of the season, plus other imminent signings to strengthen the defence, Cunningham believes results are ready to turn around on the pitch. “We want to get people here now for next year,” he said.

Thanks to The Harlow Star for the report