Guiseley’s long-serving chairman Phil Rogerson has announced that he is to step down.

He will remain on the board of the Blue Square Bet North Division club and will continue as finance director until the end of the current season.

The role of chairman will pass to the club’s major backer Steve Parkin, with Neil Shackleton acting as his deputy.

Club secretary Adrian Towers will take over the day-to-day running of the club as chief executive officer.

Rogerson, who has been an official of the Nethermoor club for 30 years, said: “The time is right for a new management structure.

“I have been giving consideration to this since the end of last season.

“I spoke again with Steve Parkin at the weekend and we agreed that it was important to make the changes now.

“Our ambition is to win promotion to the Blue Square Premier and we need to have an organisation which can meet the demands of that.”

Rogerson, whose role as chairman has been wide-ranging, is to focus his attention on the club’s embryonic community initiatives, which include the new academy side and the newly resurface all-weather pitch.

Rogerson said: “We have been through ups and downs at the club but now we have what is our best playing squad ever, we are reaping the rewards of this on the pitch.

“We now need to ensure that the club organisation is able to deal with the demands that promotion will bring.

“It is time for younger people with fresh ideas to step in while giving me an opportunity to progress our community initiatives and academy team, which I passionately believe will have a major impact onthe future of the club.”

His announcement comes as Guiseley prepare for a busy period on the field.

They are in league action at Histon on Saturday, face Halifax at home in the West Riding Cup on Tuesday and then visit Cambridge United in the third round of the Carlsberg FA Trophy on February 4.

Rogerson, who runs an IT consultancy, has been at the helm – except for one brief period – for the past ten years.

He is looking forward to taking more of a back seat while the new management team make the strategic decisions.

He said: “It is easy to forget that football is essentially a hobby for people like me, and you want to continue to enjoy what you are doing in what is essentially our spare time.”

He added: “I have seen this club climb from the West Yorkshire League to the Northern Counties East League, to the UniBond League and now to the Blue Square Bet North.

“At every stage the demands and pressures have increased for those people running the club.

“If we achieve our goal of reaching the Blue Square Premier, there are even more challenges - not least finding the appropriate funding to compete in what is essentially a league with full-time professional teams.

“It is for that reason that the club needs to build a management team now with the drive and vision that will enable it to achieve that goal.”

Rogerson is looking forward to the challenge of establishing the club’s community initiatives.

“All Premier League, Football League and Blue Square Premier clubs have them running as a key part of their work,” he said.

“This is all quite new to us, so a lot of work needs to be done to establish our scheme.

“The partnership with Carr Manor High School for the Academy side is already moving forward well. We had our second trials today and they created a lot of interest.

“We are working with Positive Futures and Leeds City Council Youth Services to deliver free coaching for youngsters in the half-term holidays and we have other plans which we hope to finalise in the coming months once we have re-opened our all-weather pitch.”

It is understood these could include corporate matches and a local six-a-side league, which will help connect the club with the community.

Guiseley are staging a charity six-a-side tournament to mark the re-opening of the 3G pitch at Nethermoor.

The tournament is being staged in partnership with Guiseley Lions.

There are still places available for teams to compete in the event on Sunday, February 5.

The cost is just £5 per team member, with a £10 deposit required per team Teams must be at the ground to sign in at 9.30am, with matches beginning at 10am.

The day’s proceeds will be shared between a local cause supported by Guiseley Lions and Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Campaign for Hope, who need to raise £5,000 to pay for the training of a dog that will be given to a local person.

Entry forms and tournament rules can be downloaded from guiseleyafc.co.uk.