Canterbury City have put their bid to join the Molten East Kent Youth League "on hold" until the end of next season.

City had mounted a determined campaign, including the threat of legal action, to overturn what they considered to be the club’s unfair treatment at the League annual meeting in June, when their application to join the MEKYL was voted out by the member clubs amid accusations of "poaching" of other teams’ players and coaches.

And Les Barleycorn, chairman of the MEKYL, confirmed that the league’s clubs had recently voted against calling a Special General Meeting at which City would have been given another opportunity to put their case.

But City, who have already had several sides accepted into the Ashford & District Junior League, say they have decided not to jeopardise the MEKYL’s future by taking legal action.

City chairman Tim Clark (pictured) said: "We had a constructive meeting with members of the MEKYL committee, at which we learnt that the league did not have any insurance that would cover their legal fees if we decided to take legal action.

"So the individual clubs would have had to contribute toward the legal costs and we have taken the view that it would be totally counter-productive to create that situation, as our ambition through all of this has been to try to encourage the growth of local youth football, not damage it.

"Therefore, although we still consider we had a genuine grievance and reject the accusations that were made against us, we have decided we are not going to take any legal action.

"Instead, we are going to spend the coming season pro-actively building bridges with clubs in the MEKYL, inviting them to come along and find out what we are really all about and hopefully by the time we re-apply for election at next year’s AGM, we will have proved that their concerns were unfounded."