Darlo Uncovered

I'd like to thank the Board (and all of the volunteers) for their fantastic enthusiasm and efforts.
You still have my full support.

Ditto

Same. Passions running high is normal in this situation I think. Being fucked off at this mistake doesn't mean they have less of my support.

You can say what you wish but, without the money,there's only so much you can do.

I support the Board(s) and thank them, each and every member, for all that they have done.

I support Darlington Football Club.

Yarblockos wrote:I support Darlington Football Club.

I also support Darlington Football Club.

The board represent the club, the club I support. However, this mistake has to some extent damaged it's reputation and integrity. If I made a mistake I would apologise and take responsibility for it, as yet this has not been made by the board so as yet, no, the board is held responsible and is not forgiven for the oversight.

real_darlo_85 wrote:The board represent the club, the club I support. However, this mistake has to some extent damaged it's reputation and integrity. If I made a mistake I would apologise and take responsibility for it, as yet this has not been made by the board so as yet, no, the board is held responsible and is not forgiven for the oversight.

They should also make sure they get the 'mistake story' right first. So don't make a statement saying that the ground grading rules changed in 2016 when they actually changed in 2008. Might make us look less than professional.

To be fair, we don't know exactly when they changed. The old document they went on was from 2008 and the first document after that which can be found with the rule change is 2014. So it's sometime between 2009 and 2013. Just in case anyone throws this accusation at the board we need to get our facts correct too.

I hope none of the board resign. An apology and a plan to move forwards would be fine with me. They've done an awful lot of good for this club too, which is easy to forget with the anger over this mistake.

There was apparently a board meeting last night.

What did Wayne raper say on twitter last night.

al_quaker wrote:I hope none of the board resign. An apology and a plan to move forwards would be fine with me. They've done an awful lot of good for this club too, which is easy to forget with the anger over this mistake.

There was apparently a board meeting last night.

No doubt one or two on here would be over the moon if the board resigned en mass because they could do a better job.
Oh no,sorry.They live too far away.

Just hope a people don't try and turn the forum into a blood bath. There are a few who shout the loudest but won't accept anyone is right except them. The board need to shut them up before they start with an apology and a full explanation of what went wrong then move on to more important matters ie raising the money for those extra eats.

Well that's a 3rd team not aloud hungerford town can't compete in the playoffs and are appealing, FA are going to be busy and this could make the case stronger if all 3 clubs work together.

real_darlo_85 wrote:The board represent the club, the club I support. However, this mistake has to some extent damaged it's reputation and integrity. If I made a mistake I would apologise and take responsibility for it, as yet this has not been made by the board so as yet, no, the board is held responsible and is not forgiven for the oversight.

Are we sure that there has been a mistake made? Surely if the money raised on the last round of fund raising was insufficient to complete the ground to class A that in itself is not the boards fault. If anything, what has been poorly communicated is the fact that we had not achieved the target to reach class A.

I for one stand firmly behind the board who have done a magnificent job in testing circumstances. Maybe people will understand a little better how much these people have done and continue to do not only in unpaid time and effort but in cold hard cash.

If you are prepared to criticise I would suggest that the fans forum is the place to do so, but only after you hear what has been said by the people who put the effort in.

Darlo1235 wrote:Well that's a 3rd team not aloud hungerford town can't compete in the playoffs and are appealing, FA are going to be busy and this could make the case stronger if all 3 clubs work together.

Here we go -- Statement " A Formal appeal has been launched

It has been publicly announced in the Non League newspaper that HTFC has not got the necessary facilities to compete in the Play Offs. The official letter arrived with myself last night by forward email although it was shared over the phone on Good Friday by the General Secretary.

This information was shared and discussed with the Executive Committee and Bobby Wilkinson before and after the game on Friday.

The decision is not mandatory as we have opted to make an Official Appeal because our only short fall is the addition of 100 seats which could effectively be placed within existing stand infrastructure by the play off finals. We were not in a position to complete the additional seating by the 31st March, effectively 6 months after joining the new league as our small team were flat out getting Grade B status for the National Vanarama League South.

We have 7 days to make an Official Appeal and it will be sent today having conferred with the Executive Committee.

The BUCK stops with me and as you can imagine, i am getting all sorts of bad press but i will not give up fighting and i can put hand on heart that i have done everything in MY power to keep improving the club both on and off of the pitch."

That's three appeals now.

The system is a disgrace. It penalises smaller clubs who want to progress and who do not have a benefactor, especially as it is not eligible for the FSIF grants.
This is looking like a real mess now. 3 clubs? Well done National League.

The National Southern will look silly if two clubs are denied, it could mean 7th place getting into the playoffs, on a much lower points tally then required.

But getting back to Hungerford, it sounds like they are 100 seats short and have somewhere where than can be placed! There seems to be no common sense here!

If clubs had made no attempt at all to meet the standards then you could understand the league making a point of banning them but when teams have spent hundreds of thousands you would think there should be some leeway.

I must say with 3 clubs now involved the situation is looking even sillier.

I've just emailed the league (in a polite way) to share my thoughts with them. It only takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

I dont want heads to roll - i do want the board to take collective responsibility, apologie (meaningfully) for the oversite, explain what happened and, most importantly, explain how we learn from this and prevent it happening again

I am very angry about this mistake but dont think we could find people with similar skills and experience just waiting to step in

And yes i would volunteer but i sadly do live too far away to make a meaningful contribution which is sadly the problem for many of us who have moved away

It's a stupid rule, albeit one we should have known about.

I hope we can challenge and overturn it. 3 teams missing out because of something minor that could be fixed over the summer is stupid, and doesn't exactly do any favours for the leagues image, or wider ideas of sporting integrity.

A lack of cash is always going to be a restriction on our club (Euro millions winner apart) to allow the team to progress the leagues.


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theoriginalfatcat wrote:The National Southern will look silly if two clubs are denied, it could mean 7th place getting into the playoffs, on a much lower points tally then required.

But getting back to Hungerford, it sounds like they are 100 seats short and have somewhere where than can be placed! There seems to be no common sense here!

Likely to be either Poole Town or Hungerford will make the playoffs and most unlikely both will, Poole (5th position) are 4pts behind 4th place and Hungerford (6th position) are 6 points behind 4th place with just 3 games to go.

Both teams came up the year before from Southern Premier League, which does seem to indicate an issue for clubs coming up and being ready for another promotion. However the rules are there and all 3 clubs haven't achieved them.

It still feels like a stupid rule to me. Asking teams to spend five to six figure sums - at our level - on the possibility they could be promoted is just asking for those clubs to be in financial trouble if they don't win the league and / or fail in the playoffs.

mikkyx wrote:It still feels like a stupid rule to me. Asking teams to spend five to six figure sums - at our level - on the possibility they could be promoted is just asking for those clubs to be in financial trouble if they don't win the league and / or fail in the playoffs.

Absolutely. Have a watch of the link for a decent opinion, especially regarding the amount of fans each team has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8w5AFT ... ture=share

D_F_C wrote:

mikkyx wrote:It still feels like a stupid rule to me. Asking teams to spend five to six figure sums - at our level - on the possibility they could be promoted is just asking for those clubs to be in financial trouble if they don't win the league and / or fail in the playoffs.

Absolutely. Have a watch of the link for a decent opinion, especially regarding the amount of fans each team has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8w5AFT ... ture=share

there is a fundamental flaw with the video. he assumes that a playoff game at darlo would take place with a crowd below capacity. Judged by the last play off campaign this is highly unlikely. Hence, the seat problem becomes a relevant issue. The rest of the video is fine by me.