Thank you from fans of AFC Wimbledon

[womble]

Following our Appeal to the Football Association Yesterday Monday March 26, The FA appeal hearing has reduced our Ryman League punishment. We have been deducted only 3 points, and fined £400 as per the original punishment. Hopefully you would have seen the result of the hearing in the Media

The Fans of AFC Wimbledon would like to say a big Thank You to all football fans who supported our On Line Petition, the statistics are truly staggering.

Based on 10,126 signatories, it makes pretty impressive reading!!! 1101 fans identified themselves as supporters of 196 other clubs playing in 36 different leagues. The clubs were:

Aberdeen, Accrington Stanley, AFC Bournemouth, AFC Telford United, AFC Wallingford, Airdrie United, Albion Rovers, Aldershot Town, Altrincham, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Aylesbury United, Banbury United, Banstead Athletic, Barcelona, Barnet, Barnsley, Barrow AFC, Basingstoke Town, Bath City, Berwick Rangers, Bidulph Victoria, Birmingham City, Bishop's Stortford, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Boston United, Bradford City, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Bromley, Burnley, Bury, Cambridge United, Cardiff City, Carlisle United, Carshalton Athletic, Celtic, Charlton Athletic, Chasetown, Chelsea, Cheltenham Town, Chester City, Chesterfield, Chippenham Town, Cirencester Town, Clevedon Town, Clydebank, Colchester United, Coventry City, Crawley Town, Crewe Alexandria, Crystal Palace, CTFC, Dagenham & Redbridge, Darlington, Derby County, DFC, Doncaster Rovers, Dorchester Town, Dover Athletic, Dundee, Dundee United, Dynamo Kiev, East Fife, Eastbourne Borough, Eastbourne Town, Eastleigh, Eversley, Everton, Exeter City, Falkirk, FCUM, Forest Green Rovers, Forres Mechanics, Friar Lane & Epworth, Frome Town, Fulham, Gatwick Wolves, Gillingham, Glasgow Rangers, Gravesend & Northfleet, Grimsby Town, Halesowen Town, Halifax Town,Hastings United, Hamilton Academical, Harrow Borough, Hartlepool United, Heart of Midlothian, Hereford United, Hibernian, Hitchin Town, Hoddesdon Town, Hollywood, Hong Kong Rangers, Horsham, Huddersfield Town, Hull City, Hythe & Dibden, Ightham, Ipswich Town, Juventus, Kings Lynn, Kingstonian, Leeds United, Leicester City, Lewes, Leyton Orient, Lincoln City, Liverpool, Luton Town, Macclesfield Town, Maidstone United, Manchester City, Manchester United, Mansfield Town, Middlesbrough, Millwall, MK Dons, Montrose, Morecambe, Motherwell, Newcastle United, Newport County, Northampton Town, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Notts County, Oldham Athletic, Orlando Pirates, Oxford United, Partick Thistle, Peterborough United, Plymouth Argyle, Port Vale, Portsmouth, Preston North End, QPR, Queen of the South, Raynes Park Vale, Reading, Rochdale, Royal Antwerp, Rugby Town, Scarborough, Scunthorpe United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Shrewsbury Town, Sloane Rangers, SMFC, Southampton, Southend United, Spalding United, St Albans City, St Johnstone, St Mirren, Stafford Rangers, Stenhousemuir, Stevenage Borough, Stockport County, Stoke City, Sunderland Athletic, Swansea City, Swindon Town, Sydney, TFC, Thurrock, Tiverton Town, Tonbridge Angels, Top Bloke, Torquay United, Tottenham Hotspur, Tranmere Rovers, Vauxhall Motors, Walsall, Walton & Hersham, Watford, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Weston-Super-Mare AFC, Weymouth, Wigan Athletic, Woking, Wokingham & Emmbrook, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Worcester City, Wrexham, Wycombe Wanderers, Yeovil Town

The leagues were:
Premiership, Championship, 1st Division, 2nd Division, Conference, Conference North, Conference South, Southern Premier, Southern 1st Division Midlands, Northern Premier, Isthmian Premier, Isthmian 1st Division South, Combined Counties Premier, Hellenic Premier, Hellenic 1st Division East, Midland Alliance, South Midlands 1st Division, North West Counties 1st Division, Sussex County 1st Division, Wessex 2nd Division, Western Premier, NE Lancashire Floodlit Feeder League, Scottish Premier League, Scottish 1st Division, Scottish 3rd Division, Scottish Highland League, Scottish Central District 1st Division, N. Irish Amateur League Div 1A, Spanish Premier League, Italian Serie B, Ukrainian Premier League, Belgian 2nd Division, South African Premier League, Hong Kong 1st Division, Australian A-League

[fox]

foo off - sorry to anyone out there that still has some liking for this arrogant bunch of wankers but I can't stand them and this whole episode and confirmed why!

[jw]

T**TS!!!! - agree with fox aswell!!!

[markf]

Why include us in this? We are absent from the list of supporters.

[nick]

lol

Good point....

[Gareth]

Just noticed that the list includes "Sthinythorpe United"....must get to work on that swear filter!! ;D



EDIT - sorted now

[Amber]

fox said:

foo off - sorry to anyone out there that still has some liking for this arrogant bunch of wankers but I can't stand them and this whole episode and confirmed why!

Love it Fox. My sentiments entirely! ;D And I thought we'd got rid of those darn spammers....

[taz]

Guys, if you're going to respond to even the most obvious trolling, can we at least be a bit more imaginative than "f*ck off"?

Blatantly posted to get a bite and he's got a nice keep net full of hungry little fishes now.

[taz]

And here's the Isthmian's statement re: the reduction of the penalty.......

AFC WIMBLEDON - statement
The Ryman League acknowledges with surprise the decision of The Football Association in allowing the appeal of AFC Wimbledon and substituting a deduction of 3 points in place of the deduction of 18 points ordered by the League.

The League has deliberately withheld comment on this matter until the outcome of the appeal was known, and now believes that it is appropriate to make a formal statement.

Any decision of the League Board is made in what is believed to be the best interests of all 66 member clubs. This issue is not anything personal against a particular Club but was a decision honestly made by the Board of Appeal of the League.

In this case, the original charge of playing an ineligible player was admitted by AFC Wimbledon which submitted a plea in mitigation to the League Board.

Observers have commented that the action which caused the problem was an honest mistake by a volunteer. While the League does not deny the mistake was honestly made, it does not accept that it was by a volunteer. The Club Secretary is a full time employee of the Club and the League is entitled to expect a comparable level of expertise. The Club through its QC has admitted that the mistake was a "crass error" by the Secretary.

Supporters of the Club have expressed various views, including criticism of the League for not discovering the problem sooner. The League cannot be blamed for this because in completing the registration form for Jermaine Darlington the Club stated "AFC Wimbledon" in response to the enquiry as to the last club the player played for.

The League does not, in any event, have access to the Football Association database and it is therefore only the FA which can discover whether or not a player requires, and has, International Clearance. If, however, the name of Cardiff City FC had been put on the form the League would have been able to enquire of the Club as to why they had answered "n/a" on the form to the question "if last club outside England, has International Transfer Certificate been obtained?".

This demonstrates a weakness in a system over which the League has no control and it is to be hoped that the FA will now implement changes to their own system.

The decision of the FA confirms that the League acted correctly and that it did not misinterpret its own League Rule and that the deduction of 18 points was wholly in accordance with the Rules; The FA also confirmed that the League correctly interpreted the meaning of "shall" in Rule 6.8, which provides that "Any club found to have played an ineligible player in a match shall have any points gained from that match deducted from its record ?"

It is therefore difficult to understand how the Appeal Board can make such a finding and then vary the decision of the League. The League will now wait to receive the written reasons of the Board before it can comment further on the decision.

Prior to the introduction of Standardised Rules in 2005 the Ryman League did not require a club to have International Clearance to make a player eligible to play in the League. It is understood that the Premier League and The Football League do not currently include this requirement. It is therefore hoped that the FA will now amend Standardised Rules so that this matter cannot occur again.

The League very much regrets that this whole matter has arisen. The Appeal Board of the League could find no reason to deduct anything other than 18 points and notes that the Appeal Board of the FA has been able to find a reason. It was appropriate that the League Board that it should follow its own Rules and leave any variation to the Football Association. In this way the League can be said to have acted correctly and in the best interests of all member clubs and it is to be hoped that this will now be an end to the matter.

Bruce Badcock

[fox]

sorry Taz but I feel that my post was to the point and reasonable conversation / arguement was wasted on these "people"

Love the fact they put last club played for as themselves!! So does this mean they played him before even registering him???

[The Editor]

Fox, if that is the case, the worst they'd get is a little tickle from the FA, not even a slapped wrist.

The FA have made a mockery of the system - regardless as to whether anyone personally feels that the original punishment was harsh or excessive. Just look at the events since they overtuned the Isthmian League - points deductions have been avoided left, right and centre probably because any club can turn up to their hearing and just say "but you let AFC Wimbledon off".

[Andy K]

Although I've never been a great fan of how the Ryman League run things, they played the whole thing by the book, and reading their statement says to me "Why do we actually bother when the FA stab us in the back"

Another classic from the wonderful people who gave us Steve McClaren as England boss...its not going very well is it???