Chichester City United chairman John Hutter has played down talk of a proposed merger with Bognor.

Rocks general manager Jack Pearce raised the prospect of combining the two outfits as a way of creating a West Sussex super club capable of competing at a high level.

Bognor are currently in the middle of a financial crisis and were losing £2,000 a week last season as they struggled to compete in Blue Square south.

The Nyewood Lane outfit have announced they will not be paying their players next season unless new investment can be found meaning relegation back to the Ryman League looks a real possibility.

Pearce believes joining forces with Chichester at a new purpose-built stadium located between the two clubs is the way forward and claimed their County League neighbours were interested in pursuing the idea.

Hutter says he would be willing to discuss the issue but feels a merger would not be in the best interests of Chichester. He said: "Jack did have an informal conversation with Adie Girdler (Chichester's director of football) last season but nothing has been discussed formally.

"I can see some logic in what Jack is saying but until there are formal discussions nothing can happen. I think there would be lots of hurdles to overcome.

"If it did happen it would certainly be some way down the line and at the moment we are not going let anything detract us from our own plans for the future."

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