A petition

[AFCWdon]

Hello, I understand that we not be best popular in these parts, which is a shame after the great game against you a while back but I'm asking you to consider adding your support in our attempts to correct what we feel is wrong after a small error. Yes, it was wrong, but not as wrong as the punishment appears to make out, compared to going into administration or match fixing, given the Italian example.

 

Here's the more elaborated version of our petition basis:

"The FA and the Ryman league have recently imposed extraordinarily harsh penalties (£12,000 fine, expulsion from the FA Trophy and an 18 point deduction) on our club for an innocuous administrative oversight. No unfair advantage was either sought or gained when we failed to realise that an International Clearance Certificate (ICC) was needed when we recently signed an English player from a club playing in the English League and participating in the English FA Cup. The FA considered that the lack of an ICC meant the player was ‘ineligible’.

However, given these facts, you may yourself be wondering why an ICC was required at all. The club in question was Cardiff City and, despite their full participation in English football, their players are registered with the Welsh FA. When a player moves from the jurisdiction of one country’s FA to another, an ICC is needed to confirm that he has no outstanding bookings or suspension.

The player concerned is a very clean footballer so not only did he have no outstanding bookings or suspension but the lack of the required ICC only came to light when he received his first booking for us, by which time he had already played in 3 cup games and 11 league games. Frustratingly, when we were made aware of the need to get an ICC, this took a total of one hour and 3 e-mails.

I hope that you too recognise the enormity of the injustice and the complete lack of any proportionality between ‘crime’ and punishment and feel able to support us in this matter."

 

The petition

 

Please consider signing up to this, in order to prevent other clubs being punished to a degree far greater than for fixing matches or being financially unstable when a purely administrative oversight occurs. I'll admit that we did wrong, the FA have already stated that no benefit from the error was gained or intended and yet they see fit decimate our season. There is no common sense in this level of punishment and small clubs may be threatened if they fall foul of this edict. They do not have to capability to wriggle free of these rules unlike the Premiership clubs who have used changes of ownership to hide behind, or just get the rules changed for their benefit.

 

I thank you for your time, regardless of your intention to sign or not.