Grimsby Town appeal against relegation

Apparently we have appealed relegation which has been backed by Southend will be heard on 10th June.

I'm not very hopeful

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/sp.....-league-two/?ref=rss

That’s some serious straw clutching...

Nah, we were rubbish all season, we deserve to go down to be honest. And if by some miracle we stayed up we’d have no right to call the likes of Stevenage who fortuitously stayed up themselves.

We was crap and deserved to go down football wise,, But its the shambles of a league set up that is the problem

How come our new owners didn’t mention this or did they . did I miss it ?

Suspect this was submitted prior to them taking over. Fenty in his final interview mentioned how we’re in the conference ‘as things stand’, so they probably submitted it.

But do we really want to be that team who stayed up in that way? If we were on the other end of it and were Torquay or a Sutton, we’d feel cheated - it’s not their fault that there’s no relegation. Let’s just accept we’re in the conference and earn our way back the right way.

Not at all surprised about this, although not optimistic about success. There certainly have been some goings on at National League levels which need to be scrutinised

Grimbsy.....

It seems it was our idea. Something I saw yesterday was a comment along the lines of we are in the NL “as it stands”

🤔🤔🤔

This is desperate in the extreme. I am not a fan of it at all. We were awful and the league table doesn’t lie. We got what we deserved and we must take it on the chin and accept it, not look for a loop hole to escape it.

The integrity of football has been discussed at length over recent weeks and this is simply not right.

Agree on the pitch we deserve to be regelated, I know these are are difficult circumstances.

But to be relegated, to a league thats not really a competition this season, smaller clubs having to furloughed players, clubs being threaten to play, is wrong. The National League is penalising 16 clubs with fines and points deductions.
Without relegation from the National league, it breaks its own rules.

Below are just a few statements from clubs struggling, being forced to carry on or penalised, due to Covid-19.

Statement from Barnets Chairman

"In January, the government suddenly withdrew its very generous grant support which was the only thing propping up most Clubs. A vote was called by the NL whether to end the season and the government introduced a loan backed survival fund in return for Clubs to finish the season. The North and South Clubs decided to end the season anyway whilst the NL Clubs voted to continue subject to receiving these government loans to cover their losses.[/b] The proposed loans were against the NL rules so in order for these to be considered the League agreed to extinguish relegation as it would not be fair for a Club without a loan to be relegated playing against teams propped up by the government funding."

"Today our results are not important as the outcome will be the same whether we are 8th or 24th. What really matters is that we properly use this time to plan and put everything in place for a big push next season".

Statement from Dover

"Dover Athletic to appeal after National League expunges their season for failing to fulfil fixtures during pandemic

Dover say they have been "hung out to dry" by the National League after they were one of 16 teams across three divisions punished for failing to fulfil fixtures this season due to the financial impact of coronavirus

By Lyall Thomas

Friday 26 March 2021 22:49, UK

The National League received £10m from the DCMS to allow the season to start back in October, but that has now run out

Dover Athletic say they have been "hung out to dry" by the National League after their season was expunged for failing to fulfil their fixtures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The division's bottom side, who have only played 15 times this season compared to at least 25 by the rest, will play no further part in the current campaign and have seen their results wiped out.

They have also been handed a 12-point deduction to start with next season and a £40,000 fine for being in breach of league rules.

These are the findings of an independent panel commissioned by the League, who have also handed suspended points penalties to 16 clubs in tier two for not fulfilling fixtures, as well as punishing Kings Lynn and Southport for breaching coronavirus protocols.

Dover and the others were deemed to have not had "just cause" to miss fixtures since the turn of the year, after the cessation of grants led to a financial crisis at numerous clubs.

The Kent club have told Sky Sports News they will appeal to the Football Association, and have also confirmed they are seeking legal advice.

Dover's owner and chairman Jim Parmenter told SSN: "We believe we demonstrated just cause, backed up by lawyers and insolvency practitioners, but I don't think the league has taken that into account and they haven't explained why they have deemed us not to have just cause.

"We have been hung out to dry and made an example of to the rest of the league with this draconian punishment. They are trying to implement a rule book that is not designed to deal with issues like a pandemic.

"We've stuck our necks out while there are seven or eight other clubs in a similar situation scared stiff of the type of action the league has taken against us.

"We have demonstrated we cannot afford to continue, nor finance a loan, so how does issuing us with a £40,000 fine help football?"

The National League's statement said: "The panel had regard to financial information provided by Dover Athletic and fully respected the responsibility of the club's directors under company law. However, the panel also had to consider the integrity of the competition and the actions of Dover in relation to the other 22 Clubs that continue to incur much costs as they fulfill their fixtures.

"In view of the current financial situation and in order to reflect the approach taken in other cases of breaches of rule 8.39, the independent panel reduced the initial fine by 20 per cent to £40,000."

Dulwich Hamlet were one of the National League South clubs to have been given a suspended points deduction and a fine for failing to complete fixtures in a season that has already been declared null and void, and the club said on Twitter: "Well, we're not quite sure what to say about this one.

"DHFC have been fined £8,000 and given a suspended eight-point deduction for failure to fulfil fixtures when the funded stopped and we were awaiting the decision to null and void the season. Thanks, Vanarama National League."

The League statement continued: "Given the extremely unusual circumstances that have affected football at all levels and the financial pressures the absence of spectators has brought to bear on clubs, the panel expressed its sympathy with the clubs' predicament.

"However, the panel believes it must also take regard of the fact that the majority of clubs continued to fulfil fixtures and incur much costs until the League ended on February 19."

Bath City were another club fined and issued a suspended points penalty and they said they are "disappointed to learn of the verdict handed out by the National League... and the fact that it has seen fit to hand out fines at a time when we and other clubs are fighting for survival in the face of the financial impacts of Covid-19."

King's Lynn  take on the National League

King's Lynn boss on National League crisis: “Why are we playing for the sake of Notts County or Torquay to go up?
By Greg Plummer -
greg.plummer@iliffepublishing.co.uk
Published: 06:00, 24 February 2021

Ian Culverhouse has slammed the National League and accused them of 'holding a gun to the heads' of clubs by forcing unfair financial pressure on them.

The King's Lynn Town boss believes the governing body is wrong to threaten club's who can't continue their campaigns with demotion.

Lynn could be the next club to shut up shop because of the severe financial implications of playing matches behind closed doors.

Dover Athletic called time on their season a week ago and are already facing FA charges for failing to fulfil fixtures – a retribution which could lead to heavy fines, a points deduction or demotion.

The Linnets could be the next ones in the dock if they follow suit after Saturday’s home game against Weymouth and Culverhouse feels the punishments are unjust as the club fights for its very survival.

“I think it would be an absolute disgrace if they punish teams in that way,” he said following the 5-1 home thrashing of Barnet on Tuesday night.

“They are holding a gun to the heads of clubs – it is not fair. If clubs can’t continue then why are you doing that? You’re threatening them with demotion? That’s poor, very poor.”

“At the moment it seems like they are trying to make us play for the promotion and that’s not fair on the people that can’t.

“Why are we playing for the sake of Notts County or Torquay to go up? I don’t get it. I think the communication between the league and the clubs is poor.”[b]

Step one clubs voted to continue the campaign last week and club owner Stephen Cleeve admitted that he might be forced to shut the club with no fans – and very little income – coming through the turnstiles.

Relegation from and promotion to non-league's top flight is set to be scrapped – leaving the door open for sides towards the top to battle it out for a place in the English Football League.

Culverhouse used Lynn's blank Saturday to discuss the critical situation with his players before watching them turn on the style with their best performance of the season against the Bees.

“We had a chat when we were in on Saturday and we just said, ‘let’s control what we can control’," he revealed.

"We can control things out on the pitch, that is what we are in charge of. We can’t control all the other stuff. We’ll let them get on with it and what will be, will be.

"But like I have said before, it is very hard for a single owner to keep putting his hand in his pocket when he has no income coming in and the thing we have to bear in mind is this football club has to survive.

“We have been down this road before and it took us a long time to come back and now we have got to make sure we secure the future of this football club.

“We need to be thinking along those lines rather than can we carry it on. It is important we look after this football club."

Wealdstone -  Update from chairman - 22/2/21

"I wanted to provide an update to fans on the current playing and financial situation given the continued uncertainty and the decision for the National League to continue.

As recently communicated, the club has now gone almost 2 months without any meaningful revenue whilst continuing to incur a full level of operating costs and we have applied to the DCMS for funding however unless this is in the form of a grant the club is facing some extremely difficult decisions to protect our financial viability.

We firmly believe that companies should only take loans either to fund working capital or because the loan is part of a pathway to future profitability. Taking a loan to cover operating costs without the reasonable expectation of future profits to make repayments is not considered an appropriate course of action by the Board, and is arguably reckless.

The club appears to have 3 main options regarding the remainder of the season.

1. Continue the season with the current playing squad, funded by incurring substantial loans which will have a highly damaging impact on the financial position of the club.

2. Explore furloughing the entire first team squad and field a team made up of players available at little or no cost to the club. Under this scenario, we will continue to incur costs relating to training, pitch maintenance, away travel, hosting matches etc. however our overall cost base will be reduced

3. Seek permission from the National League not to fulfil our remaining fixtures on the basis of protecting the future of one of its member clubs. To even consider this we would require clear guidance from the National League as to any consequences of this approach.

We understand that a number of other clubs are contemplating options 2 & 3 however as a proud club and founder member of the National League in its original guise of the Alliance Premier League, options 2 and 3 are hugely unpalatable to us, however unlike option 1, they do not risk the future of the club in its current form. Options 2 and 3 also clearly impact the sporting integrity of non-league footballs top tier, especially if this approach is taken by a number of clubs.

Regrettably we have already had to furloughed a small number of players simply because we cannot continue to maintain a full playing squad with little or no income. The consequence of operating without what we consider to be an appropriate squad size means that the use of rotation to protect our players becomes much harder and puts our players at risk of injury and fatigue.

Decision making in the current environment is incredibly difficult, and at times, feels almost impossible given the lack of clarity and the changing landscape. Having returned to the National League for the first time in 32 years this season, one of our principal aims was to ensure we maintained our status for next season. We are awaiting clarification as to what impact the decision to null and void the National League North and South divisions will have in relation to relegation from the top division.