The AFC Wimbledon appeal was based on the fact the punishment did not fit the crime.
As stated we admited all along that the crime had been commited (not getting international clearence for signing someone who was not currently playing). We accepted all along that the Ryman League were in their right to deduct 18points. .Once it was realised that a crime had been commited it was rectified inside an hour.
The crime only came to light as after Darlington was booked in a cup game it was flagged up by the FA. Therefore, going by the Ryman League rules, if he had not been booked until an FA Trophy final at the end of the season they would have deducted all the points we had gained with him playing.
As Tony Blair said in the PM questions in Parliment a couple of weeks ago, daft rules that someone ought to change.
What exactly was the Altrincham offence?
Unfortunately, it is an FA rule that despite a player retiring from football his registration would continue to be held with that club. In this case Cardiff have kept the registration, and AFC didn’t apply for ITC when signing the player. Though it is a simple mistake to make, and not helped by Cardiff, despite playing in an English league, having all their paperwork processed by the Wales FA.
The Altrincham offence was signing a player from another conference club, who hadn’t bothered to get international clearance for him (he had played a couple games over in Iceland). Therefore, in error Altrincham didn’t apply for int clearance (as Accrington should have done it). This matter only came to light when the player transferred to play in Australia. The club knew a mistake had taken place, and the conference deducted 18 pts. It was also rumoured that other clubs further helped secure the deduction, as alty were in a relegation flight. Only the financial resources of the grays chairman enabled an appeal over the "excessive points deduction" (very similar to AFC's reason for appeal??, ours was dismissed with no reason for appeal).
Both cases were unfortunate to attract the punishments, as both were simple mistakes that could (and should) have been picked up by both club secretaries. The FA clearly had a chance to amend the rules for the ITC, after altirncham and other decisions, chose not to alter the rules, what Altrincham fans didn’t want was other clubs to be severely affected by this rule. What simply mystifies me is how the FA appeals panel can claim "unusual circumstances" despite the fact that they confirm that the Ryman league DID NOT apply the rules improperly. The decision by the football league, in relation to Accrington is again strange, without seeing a copy of the league rule book, it is hard to comment on what legal reason the league may have adopted to reduce the punishment. Though many alty fans were horrified with the punishment thrown at Altrincham, it WAS in accord with FA rules. So why should one rule apply for one club but another, especially when the crimes are extremely similar (if not basically the same)
Unfortunately, for some reason the FA have acted this way, despite our and other cases brought last season alone. As i have said earlier, the FA had a chance to edit/re-write/change the ITC rules. They haven’t, the punishment should be the same, it really makes the FA further look like the utter T**ts that they are. If i ran a company like the FA is run, i would be hounded out by shareholders, arrested, imprisoned and banned from running any company.
However the FA will not do anything about this, they will only point to "different circumstances" but won’t explain what these differences are. They will think that this will die down, after all were just a small part-time club – what can we do on our own? I have written to the FA with my observations, but haven’t had a reply (nor have i had a reply concerning last season's debacle). My sympathy is with AFC wimbledon, but as we repeatedly lectured last season “rules are rules”. So why the hell carnt the rule enforcer (the FA) enforce the rules correctly?
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Time to hit back at the FA ..
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Topic: Time to hit back at the FA .. (Read 8593 times)