Newcastle Blue Star have opted to close down, after the Football Association decided the club must return £61,000 to the Football Stadia Improvement Fund.

Blue Star were awarded funds to renovate their former Wheatsheaf Ground home, and work was completed within the agreement with all parties.

However a switch to Kingston Park, home of Newcastle Falcons, prompted the FSIF to demand the funds were returned.

Unable to afford the repayments, Blue Star have now withdrawn from football.

The Unibond Premier Division will now comprise 21 clubs, rather than 22, for the 2009/10 season.

A press release from Blue Star club secretary Jim Anderson admitted sadness and disappointment that the club would be unable to sustain itself following the verdict.

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"Newcastle Blue Star would like to confirm that they are officially withdrawing from all competitive football, having announced at the end of the 2008-09 season their concerns over their future," the statement read.

"Both Bob Morton and Jim Anderson have worked vigorously in an attempt to prevent the closure of such a great club attempting to attract investors in what is an unstable economic climate."

The news comes at the end of a season of triumph for the club, following their promotion to the Unibond Premier Division with a defeat of Curzon Ashton in the Division One North play-off final.

Blue Star were founded in 1930, with their moment of fame coming with victory in the 1978 FA Vase final against Barton United at Wembley.

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