Bedfont Sports have been forced to replay their FA Trophy tie against Grays Athletic by the Football Association.
The attended a FA hearing on earlier this week to defend themselves against a charge of playing an illegible player against Grays on the 12th October.

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The club added in their statement: “We were charged with playing a player without International Clearance after it was suggested to the FA that 2 of our players didn’t have international clearance. Bedfont Sports provided the FA with the full international clearance of both players, which was applied for and granted by the FA themselves, in accordance to the process set out by the FA. In the case of one of the players, the FA stated that although they had granted International clearance for him to play in England, his previous club in Romania had not applied to the Welsh FA back in 2014 for clearance for him to play in Romania, which meant despite the fact he had been playing in England for a number of years with International clearance from the FA from his last club in Romania as the chain was not complete prior to him signing for Bedfont Sports, through no fault of Bedfont Sports he was now illegible to play in England. As such it was stated that his international clearance from the FA to ourselves was cancelled when this was brought to light 4 days prior to our fixture vs Hitchin FC.
“The FA stated the below in relation to the charge.
“Having considered the mitigation presented by the Club, the Members noted FA Trophy Rule 16(c), below;
“‘However, where the Club satisfies the National Game Board that the Club (or any of its officers) did not know and could not have known, even had it made every reasonable enquiry (with the exercise of the utmost caution), that the player was ineligible, the Club shall not be removed from the Competition but may still be subject to any other penalty (e.g. fine, ordered to replay the match)’
“Therefore we have been ordered to replay the tie on Wednesday 6th November at Grays Athletic.
“The club would like to strongly advise fellow clubs that even if you have FA clearance for a player to play in England, that you make sure you have checked all previous clubs the player has played for outside of England, making sure that prior to you signing a player on he/she has international clearance from all the other counties they may have once played in. “

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