Croydon Athletic are asking footballers to come and play for them for free as they begin a new era at the KT Stadium.

The Rams came within hours of closure following newspaper allegations about owner Mazhar Majeed but were saved on Tuesday night when Majeed paid a large sum of money to the Ryman League guaranteeing the club could fulfil their fixtures.

Those fixtures begin tomorrow night away at Aveley but with the playing squad having departed and no money available to fund new signings, the club are calling on footballers fed up of being on the bench elsewhere to come and show what they can do.

"We started with nothing and have gone back to nothing and now we start again," said club stalwart Ken Fisher, who is to take a prominent role behind the scenes having been involved with the Rams for 26 years.

"We will be going back to grassroots football and there will be no money paid to play football for any players.

"We will be offering players who are not getting regular games elsewhere the chance to put their services in the shop window.

"We are basically saying if you want a game of football at a decent standard rather than warm someone's bench then come to us, put yourself on show, and see where it takes you.

"No money at all will be paid but we will try and get three or four people in a car together to go places and hopefully we can pay the driver's petrol costs.

"It's that or shut the club.

"We went right to the wire of a couple of hours of folding up but we proved what went on at the club and the FA are happy.

"After investigations from the Ryman League and the FA, Mazhar has fulfilled all the criteria they require and the FA have cleared us to start fulfilling fixtures again."

Dave Garland and Bob Langford have been named caretaker managers and will also not be paid, with Fisher full of praise for the pair who managed the Rams two years ago.

"We have had such a great response and already have two caretaker managers who are willing to work for free and are not people we approached," he said.

"Dave and Bob were on the phone to say we love Croydon Athletic and will offer our services for nothing almost straight away.

"It's outstanding of them and we have had numerous players from the past say they are willing to come back and play for nothing.

"Whether we will be able to sustain ourselves in the league is another question as we will be the only team in the Ryman League Premier Division where no one gets paid."