Barnet FC’s chairman has called for unity following the sale of the Underhill stadium.

In an open letter to Gary Cooper, a Back 2 Barnet supporter, Anthony Kleanthous said campaigners needed to be “realistic” about their aims to bring the club back to the borough.

Underhill, where the Bees played for 106 years before leaving in 2013, has been sold to the Education Funding Agency, with plans underway for a new school on the site.

The team now play at The Hive, in Camrose Avenue, Edgware, where they moved in 2013.

Mr Kleanthous thanked Mr Cooper, who walked from Underhill to The Hive to watch the Bees’ every game last season to raise money for the campaign, for his “hard work and enthusiasm”.

The chairman said “regardless” of whether the goal is worthy, “very little progress” has been made in over two years of campaigning.

Mr Kleanthous said: “I have become increasingly concerned that the actions of a few of our supporters, although well meaning, had become slightly misguided and was starting to cause damage to the club’s reputation.

“This has become more acute over the last few months and I felt it best to draw a line under the current campaign as I believe we need to regroup, join together, grow support and then move forward again as one. This will take time but I know that it is best for our club right now.

“We have a strong brand, a strong sense of comradeship and are viewed as a small committed band who stand our corner. I have heard us described as ‘The club that wouldn’t die,’ but to me we are ‘The club that will never die.’”

Mr Kleanthous added: “Let me be absolutely clear, I am not closing the door or ruling out any return to Barnet. This will always remain an ambition and aspiration but at the moment we need to be realistic and recognise that it is no more than just that.

“Time will need to pass, wounds will need to heal and circumstances will need to change but the door will always be wide open.”

He said the club had recently made “fantastic strides”, and felt it was “on the cusp of an exciting new era”.

Mr Kleanthous said: “I am certain that if we all support the team, the manager, the club and the staff, who all work so hard behind the scene, then we can go a lot further so let’s make this happen…TOGETHER.”

Members of the Back 2 Barnet campaign, set up in 2013, have said they will continue to work to get the club “back where it belongs.”

Campaigner Oliver Deed said last week: “While we recognise that there remain major challenges in balancing the needs of a professional football club with those of the wider community and the local political agenda, we do not see this as a reason for giving up giving up our ambition to see the eventual return of our club to the community it belongs in.

“The supporters of the Back 2 Barnet campaign don't regard the relationship between the club and the town of its creation as something that can or will be abandoned. The campaign will go on to get Barnet FC back where it belongs.”

Leader of Barnet council Councillor Richard Cornelius previously said: “The sale of the Underhill site is a deal between the owners of Barnet Football Club stadium and the Education Funding Agency, who are proposing to use the site to provide a new Free School, subject to planning consent.

"I hope that the money realised from the sale will go back into Barnet FC to enhance the club's future.”