The club, which has faced financial difficulties in recent years, had called the city’s prime sporting fields at the Myimbarr complex home for training sessions since late 2010.

But director Martin Littler said the junior and senior teams would no longer train in Shellharbour following a disagreement about lighting costs and communication problems with the council.

‘‘Come the end of the year we thought we’d done everything right and paid all our charges,’’ he said.

‘‘In January we also got another invoice for April 2011 that we didn’t expect, we didn’t know, and that we dispute.’’

Mr Littler said the lighting bill, for ‘‘more than $1000’’, was on top of money already paid for field hire and lighting, and $11,000 that the club had already spent on goal posts.

‘‘We didn’t leave because it was too expensive,’’ he said.

‘‘We left because no-one knew what the real expense was, because their monitoring and true costing was too opaque.’’

Advantages of training at the university included certainty about costing, added security and the availability of a synthetic training area during wet weather.

A Shellharbour council spokeswoman said the club had been aware of the costs associated with using the sports fields and had agreed to the contract arrangement.

‘‘Since money became outstanding, the club has negotiated the terms and agreed to pay money owed for its use of the sports fields,’’ she said. ‘‘Council will continue to seek the money outstanding.’’

Football South Coast chair Eddy De Gabriele said the relocation was unfortunate.

‘‘The fact now that costs have driven out a state representative team, that facility has lost the revenue ... and also the opportunity for local kids to train with a state side in their local community,’’ he said.