The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Seem to remember that some people were concerned over traffic, not that it would be a problem now, given plops current attendance levels :lol:

The poppies also have an option to have another season at Steel park and if you read the full article it seems that KC will not accept an offer they have made to finish with the lease on Nene Park, trying to finish another football club?

AndyKirkup wrote:

Sara Pascoe wrote:

bozzer wrote:I don't understand how that is possible unless they are spending a fair bit bringing the ground up to the correct grading for the southern league Or unless they are dropping into the ucl!

On their forum a couple are saying the UCL is likely. I doubt the FA would bend the March deadline to allow them to stay in the Southern League.

Funny thing about rules, they are often repeated in some abbreviated form and sometimes mis-interpreted.

It might be an interesting exercise to try and find the exact clauses in the FA's ground grading regs (which are searchable on the internet) that specify the 31st March deadline and to what exactly the deadline applies.

It might also be interesting to think about the procedure/set of actions which would precipitate K*ttering ending up in the UCL starting from their current position.

The deadline of 1st April is certainly plastered over the UCL regs

"The Competition and the FA shall determine a time scale whereby all Clubs in membership
must attain the grade provided for in the Criteria Document. The grade applicable for each
Club for the commencement of a Playing Season shall be that existing at the previous 1st
April, such grading to be ascertained by an inspection carried out on or before 1st April or
as soon as practicable thereafter. Any Club not maintaining the grade set for the
Competition may be relegated at the end of the Playing Season to a step determined by
The FA.
Any delay in inspection shall in no way release a Club from its obligation to have its ground
ready for inspection. If for any reason a Club's existing ground, or any new ground in which
it proposes to play its home matches in the season following inspection, is not available for
grading by 1st April prior to commencement of the relevant season then the Club must, by
the 1st April, submit to the Board in writing its proposals for a venue for its home matches in
the following season ("alternative proposal"), such alternative proposal to be considered
(and if appropriate) approved at the next Board Meeting after 1st April. The alternative
proposal must, inter alia, contain documentary evidence in support of any ground sharing
arrangements and evidence that the proposed ground is demonstrably suitable at a level
which the relevant club will be competing. The alternative proposal may not be for a
continuation of any ground share arrangement if the Club has had a ground sharing
arrangement for the previous 2 seasons, or any part thereof, even if those arrangements
have related to more than one ground.
Any approval of the alternative proposal will be subject to the issue of a grading certificate.
The Board will use all reasonable endeavours to inspect the ground after receiving the
alternative proposal and prior to the Board meeting, but if it is unable to do so then any
approval of the alternative proposal will be subject to the issue of a satisfactory grading
certificate. In the event of a Club not having received a grading certificate by 1st April and
not having had its alternative proposal approved at the relevant Board Meeting, it shall be
relegated forthwith at the end of the playing season to a level determined by The Football
Association.
Clubs in membership of the Competition on 1st April in any season will have until 31st May
in that season to meet in full the criteria of membership of the Competition."

Can't really believe this is a serious proposal, it's been left too late for that. I'm sure they could get lights up in days, but the thousand and one other things needed to satisfy Southern League grading would take ages. IMO it's another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of their long suffering fans,
the club will eventually say something like "we tried to move back to the borough, but those nasty people at the FA/SL put impossible hurdles in our way, so we're stuck in Corby for at least the next 5 years"

I think the agreement with BPW is only if they will be given extra time to do the ground improvements, if not they have a back up deal to stay at Corby, they will not drop to the UCL unless forced out at the AGM.

Its all very strange, as there seems almost no mention of who will be paying the bills that KTFC currently have - both in terms of the CVA payments and the ongoing costs of Nene Park - including all the rates etc that must still be paid even if they aren't playing games there.

There also seems little effort being made to raise funds going forwards, they just seem to be collecting for day-to-day expenses of playing this season's games. Surely they don't want another season running an unpaid team at Steel Park. I also can't see Corby (or Corby Council) allowing them to enter into the same sort of arrangement we have at the Dog & Duck.

Long Buckby saw last season that the Southern League / FA are very strict on their ground grading requirements (being refused promotion when their ground was inspected), but I guess the Poppies will be given a bit more leeway given they are an existing member of the Southern League.

When we visited Long Buckby in pre-season I wasn't very impressed with their ground at all and wasn't surprised they were refused promotion. The whole place had a run-down feel to it - parking was dire - and i'd even go so far as to say it's probably one of the worst i've visited following Diamonds this season and i'm yet to miss an away game in any competition.

There's an article on-line from Jon Dunham - http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/spo ... -1-4787401 - that's caused a bit of a Twitter storm (and it's not about his comments regarding Mr Cousins).

Another offering from Jon Dunham.

http://m.northantstelegraph.co.uk/sport ... -1-4788494

Well you've got to admire Jeune for his vision and optimism for the club, clearly giving them some hope, but its surely going to be bloody difficult to not only persuade the SL to allow them to get BPW's ground to scratch, but to break that NP lease, it would be a hell of an achievement for them to remain in the SL next season.