Grimsby Town appeal against relegation

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Quite right too. The EFL should have stepped in the minute relegation was scrapped from the NL which has made a mockery of that league this year. Surely the EFL has a duty of care to its members?

They should find a clever way of promoting the NL teams whilst at the same time not relegating teams from the EFL till we get normality back.

Can't we have two extra teams in league 2 next season, then have 3 down in subsequent seasons till it rebalances?

In theory you could, although a 26 team league would equate to a 50 game season which I’m not sure has been done anywhere else in the world before. There’s the argument that an additional two home games would be advantageous for financially starved League Two clubs, but it is a relatively thin argument and would of course have an inverse effect on the National League.

As others have said, this is very much clutching at straws. However, surely we are duty bound to at least have a go? These are exceptional circumstances, the National League is a financial basket case and only last season Stevenage were reprieved from relegation, so precedents exist.

Personally, I think this has a <5% chance of succeeding, but on the assumption it’s not going to cost us tens of thousands to find out it seems only right that we give it a go.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Nobody is doubting we deserve to go down on the pitch, but this is about the league below changing their rules halfway through the season and making their season a mockery. Clubs should not be taking our place in the EFL that have achieved promotion by playing teams who did not give a hoot if they won or lost because they could not be relegated.

It will no doubt be rejected,  but a huge stink should have been made as soon as the NL stopped relegation.  

That's the big problem that I see. Why didn't the clubs complain about this straight away? I guess they didn't know clubs were going to furlough their players and carry on playing, but it seems like a desperate last attempt.

I don't understand why the EFL took such a passive stance on this at the start. Their job is to represent the league club's interests and they should have said in the build up to the vote that it wasn't a fair situation so promotion would have to be considered. I bet the vote would have turned out differently had NL clubs known the potential of no promotion was on the table.

Quoted from pen penfras

That's the big problem that I see. Why didn't the clubs complain about this straight away? I guess they didn't know clubs were going to furlough their players and carry on playing, but it seems like a desperate last attempt.

I don't understand why the EFL took such a passive stance on this at the start. Their job is to represent the league club's interests and they should have said in the build up to the vote that it wasn't a fair situation so promotion would have to be considered. I bet the vote would have turned out differently had NL clubs known the potential of no promotion was on the table.

It hardly inspires confidence in your Team and Manager and secondly that seems a bit proactive for Mr Fenty... to be fair "no win no fee" services are sometimes swamped with cases

The NL knew during the season what the rules were (no relegation).   It is difficult to argue successfully, I think, to change the rules retrospectively.   Of course Grimsby and Southend have a strong vested interest.

The appeal would have had more weight if the majority of EFL clubs had voted for "no relegation" earlier in the season.  (I know technically the season is not quite over).

Maybe on a lighter note, if Man United were so influential in setting up the EPL, they might also use their considerable influence to support this appeal.  After all, to have your ground record held by a NL club once is an embarrassment.   To have it happen twice is well........................

One (tenuous) argument could be that why should the EFL sent 2 of its clubs down to NL when the NL are not relegating clubs?  This is manifestly unfair and inconsistent.  Against nature justice and fair play.

The impact of Covid has been devastating and unforeseen. Why not just write-off the season for Div 2 and NL clubs are start afresh?   NL clubs have nearly all voted for this option.  

Legally maybe you could argue other points that address unfairness, even on a completely different tack:
That Grimsby and Southend have an unfair advantage for next season.  We have a longer summer break to rest players, more time to prepare for next season and able to recruit at an earlier stage, and knowing our budget and what division we will be in.  We will have more funding that the majority of clubs, who nearly bankrupted themselves just to keep playing.

I hope we all enjoyed our one and a bit days of not being a total joke club.

And why is our destiny based on a vote that we were not even involved in.

The NL is a complete shambles and has lost its integrity.

We were by some margin the worst team in the league and deserve to go down.

I don't know how you reconcile these two facts.

Quoted from Poojah

However, surely we are duty bound to at least have a go? These are exceptional circumstances, the National League is a financial basket case and only last season Stevenage were reprieved from relegation, so precedents exist.

Personally, I think this has a <5% chance of succeeding, but on the assumption it’s not going to cost us tens of thousands to find out it seems only right that we give it a go.

Completely agree with this. Whichever clubs finished as the bottom two in this weirdest of years were bound to question the legitimacy of relegation. I don't think anybody is really expecting anything to come of it but if you were in Stockwood/Petitt's shoes of course you'd at least ask the question.

While I can understand the reasoning for exploring the issue, I can't pretend to agree with it. We can have all the concerns we want about the governance of the National League. But they don't alter the fact we have not been good enough to preserve Football League status over the course of a season.

Ron Martin argues that it is "unfair" to relegate us and Southend on the basis that there is no relegation from the National League. That seems a reasonable argument at face value, but it overlooks two key issues. First, a majority of National League North and South clubs voted to void their seasons (a decision which has since been ratified by the FA). At the point that vote was taken, less than half of their fixtures had been completed. If it is unfair to relegate teams from League 2 to the National League, then surely it would be an absolute travesty to relegate teams from the National League to divisions below where so few fixtures were completed.

Second, this is a very different situation from the one a year ago. Leaving aside the points deductions which ultimately relegated Macclesfield, relegation from League 2 was only on hold for as long as it took to resolve the questions of whether the National League would be voided or adopt a PPG model and whether or not promotion and relegation issues could be decided. There is no such issue this time around and, therefore, I don't think an appeal would have a remote possibility of succeeding.

I see that Mr Stockwood has made a comment on the matter to the Telegraph this morning which suggests that he and Mr Pettit were aware the issue was being explored, but that they don't expect anything to come of it. I think that is the most sensible way to approach it.