AGM Risca are trying get it postponed

[Sven]

As I said, I was there and there was none of that - I can guarantee it, so stop trying to make mischief Totally Bemused!

[Totally Bemused]

Direct Quote!

If you didn't hear it you didn't hear it.

Convenient I must say as it was everywhere around the place!

[budsboy]

I was at last Junes AGM and I also didnt vote for the carnage of relegating up to 9 clubs in one fair swoop if the ground criteria was met by all member clubs, but the proposal was passed and we all knew the score from day one. The EGM in Febuary stated that all clubs par Troedyrhiw had met the criteria and because of the inclement weather we had over the winter months, there was still more than a third of a season to go. So all teams had adequate information and time to fight to get out of the relegation zones of Div 1, 2 & more importantly the 3rd division. If action was to be taken, it should have been sorted at the start of the season, not now where it stinks of sour grapes.

[Huw Jones]

Sven, they are trying to get AGM postponed can even tell you the name of the Solicitors if you like rearrange these letters.

Hguh Jaems Solicitors.

Will agree it could have been handled better we as a second div club did not know if 9/10/11th pos would be a problem but we made damn sure we wernt anywhere near just in case.
Have been told that Ken Tucker was misquoted on the "We didnt have time to inpect all 54 clubs".
Know several Welsh Lge Commitee men did do Ground Inspections when their club was visiting in their respective divisions, but yes all 54 should have been Inspected and perhaps this sorry mess could have been avoided.
The crux of the matter is that the Clubs gave the M Committee the green light to reduce the leagues to 48 teams over one season, madness .Why didnt clubs gave it more thought as to the consequences of their actions.

[Barry Quinn]

I had a phone call last night, making me aware of the conversations going on this board, so I feel the need to intervene and set the record straight here.

I'm the Manager of Pontyclun, so I can tell you that 'Totally Bemused' is telling you a load of nonsense on here, so dont be led up the garden path by all the rubbish he has written on here. I was in the dug out for the last game of the season v Newport Civil Service, and I can guarantee that the comments he is trying to invent didnt not come from us, or anyone else for that matter!
To prove this further, my phone is always either switched off, or on silent during matches and always has been, just ask anyone who knows me. And as for my players making calls during the game, yeah I always let them take mobile phones on the pitch just in case they fancy a little chat during the game - laughable!

If 'Totally Bemused' had conviction in what he was saying, why isnt he putting his name on here?

I received a lot of calls after the game, asking what the situation was and without exception, I had to tell them that I didnt have a clue what was going to happen.

Reasons for this:
1- Absolutely no information had been communicated out from the Welsh League about how relegation would be decided at the end of the season and/or if the re-organisation was still going ahead, be it based on ground criteria or league position. Either way, the facts are NOTHING was sent to clubs after the meeting at the end of Jan to confirm what would be happening. That is just not acceptable in my eyes.
2. We didnt even know if the proposed re-structuring of the leagues was even still going to go ahead, as no teams had dropped down from the Welsh Premier (which was the supposed reason for all this in the 1st place).
3. The first knowledge that we had that the Welsh League were itending to relegate 7 teams from Div 3, was when a letter was sent out on Saturday 5th June (2 full weeks after the season finished).

Budsboy - Part of what you say is correct (the part about last Junes AGM stating that clubs would be relegated based on Ground Criteria first, once the inspections team had made their inspections).
The 2nd and incorrect part that I must pick up on, is where the Welsh League have massively let clubs down, by failing to carry out the ground inspections, as per the motion THEY proposed. So, to me, all they had to do was put their hands up and say 'Hey, we are sorry we didnt get around to inspecting the grounds this year' and keep it at 3 divisions of 18 teams until they actually get around to doing it. Because, after all what benefit is there to clubs in the Welsh League or the Welsh Structure by having 3 divisions of 16?? Simple Answer - There arent any!!! So, you have to ask yourself, why are they bothering going ahead with it?? All it is doing is putting huge pressure on the leagues below, trying to accomodate all the teams dropping out.
Even the Welsh Premier have backtracked and decided to phase in the reduction down to 10 teams eventually over a couple of seasons, rather than relegating virtually half a division in one swoop, so why dont the Welsh League take a leaf out of their book (seeing as all the changes are seemingly geared towards that division anyway).

Huw - I have been present at the meetings with the Solicitors and I can inform you categorically that no attempts have been made to get the AGM postponed mate, I have the letter sent to Welsh FA and Welsh League in front of me, so Im afraid to say you have been misinformed somewhere down the line.

If you want to give me a bell, I will run through what it does actually say, as I dont think it is appropriate to discuss it on here.

Also, Ken Tucker hasnt been misquoted, that is the actual response received when asked about the matter - says it all really doesnt it Im afraid!

I dont want this to result in more discussion, as I think it should now be left to those involved to resolve and let everyone else get on with running their own clubs. I certainly wouldnt come on to a message board like this, running fellow clubs down, so I dont think other people should either.

[Gareth Morgan]

I read all of this stuff for the 1st time yesterday when a colleague of mine who seems to be a regular visitor to the board told me of the debate.

Personally, I felt that I knew very early on that my team needed to be top half to be sure of survival in Division 2. It is in the minutes of my club's meeting in February what the score was regarding relegation etc...

However, in Barry's strong defence, this information was never formally written down, it was all done verbally at the EGM. Therefore, it was left wide open to misunderstanding, misinterpretation and in a couple of cases, selective hearing (none of which were Division 3 clubs I may add).

It is my belief that the matter must be resolved at the AGM. If The League do not have the most water tight legal case then they should back down. If they do have such a case then we shuld all be left alone to get on with our own preperations.

On a personal level, apart from the reduction of games (our April and May was a complete farce last season playing three games a week on six different weeks) I would be happy enough to see a U-Turn and let us all get on with preparing for the season ahead. There are some cracking clubs looking like dropping out of the league so if they get saved then that cannot be a bad thing.

What the league, and every club, doesn't need now is for the whole thing to drag on and on all Summer and delay or affect the 2010/11 season. We are all days away from pre-season and the last thing clubs need is to not know which division they are in next season because it will dramatically affect their ability to retain / sign players and we have seen it all too often in the past that clubs who have to leave recruitment late due to appeals or changes in managers tend to struggle.

Let's hope for a quick resolution either way - and I have no preference personally.

[Guest]

is there any indication at all as to when this appeal is going to be heard?

I am not looking for any information other than is it likely to happen soon and let us get on with our seasons or is it likely to go as far as delaying the start of the entire southern section of the Welsh Pyramid?

Until we know the outcome from Division 1 Welsh league downwards into the Gwent and South Wales Leagues and Swansea too we cannot start!

[robbdee]

Hi Everyone,

I am Rob the Chairman of Risca United AFC and am appalled at some of the accusations going on here. Firstly We as a club have never asked for the AGM to be postponed, and secondly it is not about sour grapes it is all about fairness to each and every club in the Welsh Football League. We know it was voted in but if we are all honest with ourselves we all also know that it is massive cock-up.
I respect the work, which is voluntary that the WFL committee undoubtedly do for the clubs but this is just about making mistakes. When we make mistakes and we all do at some time in our lives we have to be big enough to accept it, put it right and move on. Thats all our club and I am sure that the other clubs involved want.
If we didnt fight our corner, 1 - Would we really be serving our clubs correctly and 2 - This could happen, or many other things could be brushed under the carpet in future seasons which could involve any other number of WFL clubs. It's the clubs league lets ensure that we manage it correctly!

[Huw Jones]

Rob, I started the thread ,if I have caused you or your club any embaressment I unresevedly apologise.
I was told that your club and Pontyclun had employed a solicitor and part of that was to get Sat AGM deferred ,postponed, in order to bring the relegation matters to a head.
I have attended all the meetings and quite honestly cant beleive that clubs are saying that they didnt know demotion, relegation would b on anything but ground criteria.
Yes the WLM Commitee could have handled the situation better but Clubs voted for it and with the amount of clubs relegated it was always going to be difficult.I knew that bottom 7/8 in the 3rd would be in trouble and facing demotion, why didnt the clubs work it out themselves ....
This i hope will be solved one way or another quickly for the sake of all concerned.

[Totally Bemused]

Huw,

I couldn't agree more with your last posting!

[guest]

Jun 28, 2010 18:13:47 GMT 1 robbdee said:

Hi Everyone,

I am Rob the Chairman of Risca United AFC and am appalled at some of the accusations going on here. Firstly We as a club have never asked for the AGM to be postponed, and secondly it is not about sour grapes it is all about fairness to each and every club in the Welsh Football League. We know it was voted in but if we are all honest with ourselves we all also know that it is massive cock-up.
I respect the work, which is voluntary that the WFL committee undoubtedly do for the clubs but this is just about making mistakes. When we make mistakes and we all do at some time in our lives we have to be big enough to accept it, put it right and move on. Thats all our club and I am sure that the other clubs involved want.
If we didnt fight our corner, 1 - Would we really be serving our clubs correctly and 2 - This could happen, or many other things could be brushed under the carpet in future seasons which could involve any other number of WFL clubs. It's the clubs league lets ensure that we manage it correctly!

So what exactly are you appealing on. You admit it was voted for and you knew what was going to happen. If this carries on for much longer and delays the start of next season are you going to be happy. We all knew what we voted for and I am sure you would not have taken it this far if you were good enough to stay up. Take it like men like Ton Pentre and come back next season wanting to get promoted back. You didn't have many clubs backing you at the AGM apart from your little gang of clubs. So for the sake of every club that stayed in the League on merit, drop your case and get on with it.

[Guest]

Risca would have been relegated in any normal season so surely that adds even less grounds for their appeal?

I played in div 3 last year and we, as players, were told that it seemed we would have to finish 10th to avoid relegation - it was far from set in stone but that was the general consensous after the meeting that the committee attended!

[Totally Bemused]

I cannot believe there is still no news on this whatsoever. I even phoned one of the fated five clubs today to find out.

Has it escaped the people who SUPPOSEDLY run the game that the season is due to start in 44 days. That is a lot of work and a lot of organising for the clubs, but at present they are holding up the whole thing - including player signings, friendlies in some cases, club diaries and lots of other things.

They knew a good while back an appeal was going to happen, so why the hell have they not got off their backsides and at least set a date? It is absolutely ridiculous!

I spoke to a Manager of one club yesterday and what he said I completely agree with - "What could possibly be more important for the FAW to deal with right now than this? Half of the Welsh Football Playing member clubs are being affected and thrown into chaos...."

[resigned]

I'd be amazed if clubs secretaries and/or managers didn't know what the score was following the decsion in June 2009. . However I got the distinct impression at the EGM and AGM of June 2009 that the clubs and the league were bounced into the decision = it was based on fear of what might happen rather than any postive support for the FAW stratgeic plan.

Again Alun Evans made some good points at this years AGM but the management committee's response was to try to humiliate him, accuse him of hypocricy and then to frighten clubs with no refs, no grants and ooh ...maybe some locusts. No positve attempt to try and 'sell' the bigger picture. This is possibly because the strategic plan is seriously flawed but also because the management commitee are essentially adminstrators not strategists.

What is clear is that we seem to be left with the decision of 2009 for better or for worse. The lesson is that we do need to be more assertive as a league and as clubs and look to collaborate more off the pitch for postive outcomes not just to fight individyual battles.As the main body representing the senior clubs in South Wales it would also be nice to see some imagination and purpose from the Welsh League managemetn committee.

[Guest]

I for one am personally delighted that nobody listened to the strategist that sacked Terry Yorath from the Welsh manager's Job!!