Southern League Division One Central side Aylesbury FC have released a statement which states that they will be forced to be relegated as they can’t make changing rooms bigger to meet FA regulations.
Currently, the changing room size needs to be a minimum of 12 square metres at Step 7 and 8 clubs, but that is set to increase up to 18 square metres by the 31st of March.
If the clubs don’t do so by the end of July, then they will are to expect relegation.
Club Statement @Bucks_Herald @officialmix96 @sportsshotsnews @WeAreTheDynamos @Ollie_Bayliss @bbc3cr https://t.co/paGeT1nwUG
— Aylesbury FC (@AylesburyFC) January 17, 2019
(Featured photo for the article by groundhopper Laurence Reade on Instagram)
“The football club were contacted earlier this season regarding ground grading requirements for next season. One of the main stipulations was regarding the changing areas, specifically the total floor area in each of the three changing rooms, whilst the home and away changing rooms are very close to the minimums needed the officials room would be considerably undersized. After consultations with a local building contractor and his surveyor we were advised that a major reconstruction would be needed to achieve the minimum requirements. This project would need to be completed by March 31st, if not we would need to have planning/ finance/ and a guarantee from the contractor that these works would be carried out by an agreed date. We were informed that failure to achieve the ground grading would result in relegation.
“The club began the process of putting together a plan regarding the funding and management of the project to achieve the ground grading, but unfortunately very soon realised that the deadline was simply not achievable.
“Earlier this week we were contacted by the league to discuss this situation and were assured that there would be no exceptions, the FA have made this very clear to them.
“The decision was taken to make this announcement as relegation is now unavoidable despite all of the hard work undertaken by the management, players and all the staff at the football club.
“Although all the people involved with the club are obviously devastated by this situation we are even more committed now to ensuring the future of Aylesbury FC, taking a step backwards to once again move forward. Twenty years ago the club were playing local football and went on to spend a sustained period at Southern League level – and will do so again!”
Football fans and a few clubs expressed their sympathy at Aylesbury’s struggles with many agreeing that the FA is damaging lower league football – take a look at what they had to say on the next page.
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