| Bucks' anger at funding rejection |
| Monday 18 January 2010 |
 BUCKLEY Town's desire to gain the new FAW domestic licence has been dealt a major blow after two grant applications were apparently turned down by Welsh Grounds Improvement last week.Although the fourth-placed Cymru Alliance club has received no official confirmation, they have been "reliably informed" that they have been unsuccessful, meaning they are now solely reliant on local and national business to help them upgrade their ground to Welsh Premier standards. Buckley say they had already secured a potentially huge investment from private business to upgrade the floodlights at Globe Way should they reach the top two in the Alliance. Chairman Stewart Roberts today expressed deep concern over the grant funding decision making process and questioned the involvement of FAW domestic licensing officer Andrew Howard. "I thought this panel was supposed to make decisions based on merit for each club, but to have the FAW's head of competitions giving them an update on each domestic licence application prior to decisions being made tells me that clubs unlikely to meet licensing criteria have been sifted out of the process in order to assist clubs lower down the pyramid to improve," he said. "I suppose it sounds like sour grapes having been unsuccessful this time around but, when you see FAW councillors looking after their own clubs for future votes, it appears that grants are being awarded for the wrong reasons and certainly not for the good of Welsh football. You would have thought that WGI would have requested information from all leagues due to the uniqueness of the current season, so they could advise on where best the grants would be utilised with all the impending changes. "I doubt very much that has happened, other than the information the panel received from Mr Howard, which has obviously influenced certain of its members." Roberts says that, despite the massive disappointment, the work already done towards the licence application will not be wasted. "We will continue to apply for grants, we will be happy to take our place in the newly-competitive Cymru Alliance next year if we can secure a top six or seven position, and we will hope that next time we are in a position to be challenging for promotion, there will be a FAW Councillor close by to assist our application for grant aid," Roberts added. "We have to forget this now and move on. However, when people say to me now that the Super 12 is to be a closed shop and the FAW have their 12 already ear-marked for licence approval, I do tend to agree that could indeed be the case." Photo: Buckley's Globe Way ground. |