Chester's clash with local rivals Wrexham on Sunday is off after it emerged the police have yet to be paid for policing previous matches.
"Policing is funded by public monies," a Chester Police statement read.
"Chester City previously went into administration. As a result money owed for previous games was not recovered.
"It would be wrong to incur additional costs by bringing in extra officers unless the Football Club is willing and in a position to meet those costs."
It is the second fixture in a row Chester have not fulfilled following Tuesday's abandoned Forest Green match.
The statement continued: "Chester Police have met with the management team of Chester City Football Club on several occasions, and specifically with the aim of resolving the planning of the Wrexham match.
"The club has had considerable notice of the policing requirements for this match. "
It is considered in these circumstances that spectator safety cannot be guaranteed and that there is a serious risk of injury or harm
As a result, and due to the fierce nature of the rivalry between the two sides, Trading Standards officers have served a prohibition notice on the club, prohibiting the opening of the Deva Stadium to spectators.
"Quite obviously, with all the history attached to past meetings of such great rivals, playing the match without policing inside the ground would present an unacceptable risk,"said Andrew Rees from Trading Standards told the Football Conference website.
"It is considered in these circumstances that spectator safety cannot be guaranteed and that there is a serious risk of injury or harm to spectators."
This latest development follows on from a series of incidents to hit cash-strapped Chester this season, culminating in Tuesday's late abandonment.
The trip to Forest Green was called off less than three hours before kick-off after the club's players refused to get on the team bus in protest at their lack of payments over the last three months.
Supporters Direct, a group who work with supporters trusts, has called on the Football Association to help shut Chester, in its current form, down.
The statement read: "The news that Chester City FC will fail for the second time in two days to fulfil a fixture surely signals the end for the club.
"Whilst the end of Chester City FC in its current guise may seem like a tragedy, it is not.
"We call on the FA to do what it can to pull the plug and enable a new supporter-owned club to rise from the ashes so the story has a happy ending.
"We have also written to the FA chairman Lord Triesman today to express this view.
"Indeed fans of Chester have known for months that it is only a matter of time, and have already en-masse made the decision to boycott matches, and back a reformed club.
"The winding up of Chester City will provide Chester City fans and City Fans United (CFU), the supporters trust, with the chance to reform their football club as a democratically owned, community football club."
0
Comments
If they start again they'll be 3 divisions below the conference, sometimes you have to take a step back before you can take a step forward.
More effort should be made to protect, save and maintain our existing club structures.
Don't think that is what they are saying.
Rather than having a series of crooks running and destroying the club bit by bit better to have a democratically run club that can start moving forward.
This isn't a case of "oh, it's not going well, let's jack it in" but a last resort.
Franchise Dons had to give it back I seem to remember?
Tip of the iceberg and all that.
Think we lost there 4-0 in about 1973.
We did, I was there ..... the old Sealand Road ground, I believe.
Didn't we play them again in 1980-81 ....?
Yeah, I know what you mean ...... Chester or Chesterfield, same thing.
;o)
No 7-0 was Luton away :-)
Didn't Brighton and Burnley stick seven past us too?
Everyone did.
Ah, good old days, eh ....?
;o)
The move has resulted in Oxford United overtaking Stevenage Borough at the top of the table by a point, although they lose one of their two games in hand.
Gone
The sadder thing is that this won't even register on the radar of most fans of Premiership clubs and the media who fail to realise that most clubs are on borrowed time unless the authourities can get hold of the game again. More and more of this to come unfortunately.
How old is The Deva Stadium? When we played them in 1980/81 season, it was Sealand. I remember it well as down one side they had an impressive stand, built from the proceeds of an FA Cup tie against Man city.
Article to follow on a separate but related topic. Don't want to take this one off-topic
That's almost literally one days wages for Terry, Lampard etc.
Shocking.