Despite sitting eleven points clear of the drop zone, the Lilywhites will be kicked out of the league because they cannot afford to meet league regulations.

Following promotion into the Premier Division last season, the club needed to double the amount of seating at the Triangle Ground by March this year.

It has been unable to find the £13,000 needed to install two new stands for spectators.

Butler says he will step down at the end of the season and has been holding talks with AFC chairman Dieter Hinke.

He said: “We have had a meeting to discuss whether we can amalgamate the two clubs but the only way I think we can do that is to let the club go bankrupt so it can start a fresh with no debt. It would probably be the best thing for the club.

“Henley doesn’t warrant a men’s football team, it doesn’t warrant a good football team. One of our highest gates was about forty-eight people and for what it costs for referees, we were losing £100 a week. Had we had gates of 100 a week, which every other club in the league gets, it would have been fine.”

A charity match between an ex-Henley Town side against a Spurs Legends XI was called off last week because the club could not afford the £2,000 fee required by the White Hart Lane outfit.

Butler had received two emails asking about tickets. He said: “The town doesn’t want to get involved, that’s the bottom line.

“Without the support of the town, what is the point? Would anyone really be disappointed if the club wasn’t here next year? We would be disappointed but the town doesn’t want a football club.”

Butler became chairman last October and says the role has been like a “poisoned chalice”, adding: “I have had enough of drinking from that cup.”

The club owes Henley Town Council rent for the ground, former club chairman Barrie Baxter for the barriers that surround the pitch and club members for individual loans.

Butler said that the club’s problems had “escalated” over the last six years which has included theft, repairs needed to the club house and cancelled games due to bad weather. He said the clubs merging would be a “great thing” for the town, adding: “It will enable the kids, when they reach sixteen, rather than them saying “thanks very much” they have then got something else to step into.”

Hinke, who is also a town councillor, says the Football Association already look on Henley Town and AFC Henley as one club and that it “makes sense” to combine.

He said: “We formed the Henley Partnership four to five years ago, which included Henley Town, AFC and also the YMCA as an associated member.

“We are looked upon as one club which represent football in Henley which also offers football to girls and those who are disabled.

“When the partnership was set up, one of the aims was that the boys and adult club should merge at some stage and it makes sense to have one football club for Henley which offers football to all ages.”

AFC Henley currently has sixteen teams while Henley Town have four.

Hinke said: “Over the last few years they have found it difficult because of the low crowds to continue on a sound financial footing. I think it would be a good time to seriously consider a merger proposal and we have been holding talks and I think it would be good for everyone.”

He was unsure whether Henley Town would have to change its name and said the tradition of the club was important. It is in its 141st year and is the oldest club in Oxfordshire.

Hinke said: “Henley Town is an important part of Henley life and we haven’t got to the stage yet where we can see how we can merge the finances. We are aware they have debts but I haven’t seen the full extent of it.

“The first meeting was an around the table discussion. There may be a way that we can have an annual repayment of the debts but that’s if creditors are willing, but that’s a bit further down the line.”

He said that he personally would like to see the merger happen and before the start of next season.

Hinke said: “We want to put the club on a firm financial footing — we ought to be like the Henley rugby, cricket and hockey clubs.

“At the moment a lot of players at Henley are not from the town so after they play, they go home and so they have no spectators because they live a long way away.

“If players come from the boys then their parents come down and watch them and we can improve the club’s social aspect.”

First-team manager David Tuttle has already announced he will be leaving at the end of the season because the Lilywhites are failing to match his ambitions.

The former Tottenham Hotspur defender says that he and his players are committed to the team for the remaining six fixtures this season. Tuttle says he has not received an offer to join another club but confirmed his assistant Chris Way and the rest of the backroom staff would also be leaving.