Bullsed Up
The end of a non-league football season wouldn’t be the end of a non-league football season without some sort of points-deduction related shenanigans.
So near, yet so far. A season-high crowd of 1,862 turned out at Springfield Stadium on Saturday for what should have been a promotion party following a 1-0 win for Jersey Bulls against Sandhurst Town in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South, the ninth tier of the English game. It was also a result which also relegated their opponents by a point.
This win should have been enough to see Jersey crowned as champions on goal difference ahead of Redhill, to whom they'd lost the week before 2-1 the previous Saturday in front of another similarly impressive attendance for this level of the game. But there was no promotion party, because of what might be best described as one of the most consequential administrative glitches of the season.
The Jersey defender/midfielder/occasional winger Toby Ritzema had passed the threshold for a suspension for yellow card accumulation, yet was still played by the club in a League match against Tooting & Mitcham United on the 29th March which Jersey won 4-0 when he should have been suspended. Ritzema played a full 90 minutes in a pretty thumping win and the rules on such matters are very clear. As the FA’s Standardised Rule 6.8 says:
Any Club found to have played an ineligible Player in a match shall have any points gained from that match deducted from its record and have levied upon it a fine. The Company may vary this decision in respect of the points gained only in circumstances where the ineligibility is due to the failure to obtain an International Transfer Certificate or where the ineligibility is related to the Player’s status only.
The Board may also order that such match [sp.?] be replayed on such terms as are decided by the Board which may also levy penalty points against the Club in default.
Uh-oh.
The club admitted the matter to the League when they realised their oversight. They have since also issued a statement on the matter:
Administrative staff at Jersey Bulls FC realised an error had been made and reported it to the League and Jersey FA immediately.
Despite efforts to set out the significant mitigation [of] the decision based on the lack of clarity on the number of yellow cards, the Combined Counties League have confirmed the three-point deduction.
As the club considers it's [sp.] options, we'd like to apologise to our amazing players and coaching staff, and ask that our fantastic supporters rally behind the team at this crucial stage of the season.
The club are, of course, perfectly entitled to consider their options, but it seems unlikely that an appeal would get them anywhere, with the most likely outcome to one being primarily to delay the start of the playoffs.
The £120 fine they also picked up can hardly be considered astronomical. But the matter of the oversight is slightly more open. The club claim a “lack of clarity” over the number of yellow cards issued and, knowing how byzantine the machinations of some Leagues can be, it’s not an argument which is likely to be completely without merit.
But it is ultimately the club’s responsibility to ensure that a player hasn’t triggered an automatic suspension. The rules are pretty clear, and mitigating circumstances would likely count for little, especially considering that other clubs have found themselves in this sort of position before. A further statement issued by manager Elliot Powell and captain James Queree seemed resigned to what was coming:
The players and the management team were informed of the unexpected oversight on 2nd April.
As a group, we agreed to keep this 'in-house,' given there were several factors beyond our control.
We maintained our focus and our 'controllable' was on the football pitch. This has not been easy.
We want to apologise to all those partners, family members, friends, colleagues and supporters we have not been completely transparent with whilst this matter has been pending.
As you can appreciate this was a sensitive situation and we felt any action or in this case inaction, was best guided and driven from the club's Board of Directors.
The past 16 days have been an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved.
While this all may be somewhat chucklesome to outsiders (the laughter from Guernsey was surely audible in St Helier), it’s not difficult to feel some degree of sympathy for Jersey Bulls, because this really has blown a hole in their season.
Without the deduction, a win against Sandhurst would have been enough to guarantee the title unless Redhill could run up an unlikely looking 19-goal win from their last match away to mid-table Guildford City, and this turned out to be as much of a tall order as it sounds. Redhill also won 1-0. Of course, had Redhill lost this match, Jersey would have been champions regardless of any points deductions. Had both of them lost, FA Vase finallists AFC Whyteleafe would have snatched it by a point.
So yes, as it goes, it does get worse, because this deduction doesn’t just drop Jersey to second, it drops them to third behind AFC Whyteleafe, as well. This guarantees them a home match in both the semi-final, but doesn’t it for the final unless Whyteleafe lose their home semi-final too. Considering the journey that others have to make to play against them, potentially having to travel for the playoff final (should they get there) only makes the punishment look all the more severe.
But the statement from the manager and the players says it all, really. What an enormous disappointment. It is embarrassing for the club, and will be all the more so should they fall short in the playoffs. But even in that worst case eventuality, a feeling of injustice may even fuel a fire that takes them to the title next season instead, although any of AFC Whyteleafe, Cobham, and Fleet Town, who finished third, fourth of fifth this season and make up their playoff opponents, may yet have something say about that.