I spoke to Dave this morning, JGFC, and he told me that the first Worcester heard of the Sunday suggestion was at 10.00pm last night. After the replay.
Even if what you are saying is true the FA Trophy rules state
"(c) Ground Sharing
Clubs with ground sharing agreements must arrange for ties to be played on Friday,Saturday or Sunday if a clash of fixtures occurs with the sharing Club. If for any reason a tie is unable to be played on the ground of the first drawn Club on a Saturday, the tie must be played on either the day before, i.e. on Friday, or the day after, i.e. on Sunday on the ground of the first drawn Club. If Clubs are unable to agree on the date, then it will be played on the Sunday, unless the Council decides otherwise. The decision of the Council shall be final and binding."
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
Which bit am I meant to read? The bit that you've put in bold about "unless the Council decides otherwise?"
Or the bit abouts the process "to agree a date on the day before ie the Friday", or the bit about "if Clubs were unable to agree a date, then".
You've got me confused, Bruno. Despite Welling apparently knowing about the potential situation for weeks, there was no prior process. Hence the Council decision.
The sentence in bold says that if the Clubs cannot agree the fixture is to be played on a Sunday. There is the subsequent rider which is relevant and, had I not put it in bold too, you would no doubt have drawn attention to that fact is that as with all things the FA can step in and make a decision outside of that rule should it feel the need to.
I see from our Official site and the Worcester City site that the fixture is now confirmed as Saturday at 2pm so whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation the FA have exercised their right to step in. However, I can't for the life of me see any matter of principle involved so I don't understand why Worcester felt the need to go to the FA and why the FA, when they have a rule which says in cases of failure to reach agreement the match will be played on the Sunday, the FA saw fit to make a different decision on the matter.
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
I imagine that Worcester would argue that the process whereby the home team contacts the away team to agree on details for the game including when the replay should take place either a) hadn't been adhered to or b) was now being changed. Welling (and Tamworth) would have made contact with Worcester once the draw had taken place to schedule the fixture. They'd have also confirmed it with the FA. All clubs concerned would have been notified of the fixture by the FA soon after the draw taking place, with the time and date as agreed. I'm sure Welling must have made this call, as Worcester were fully aware of a kick off time of 2.00 (as opposed to either 3.00 or 1.30 as had been the case in another Trophy game) so some contact regarding fixture details must have been made. I am only guessing here, but maybe the Welling fixture secretary had forgotten about the Erith game and only realised the problem after the Tamworth game, as this appears to be the first time that anyone from either Worcester or the FA was aware of this problem. I suppose we'll never realy know, either way, the FA have deemed that the original fixture should take place. null
