| Nomads hit-out at restructuring process |
| Thursday 13 May 2010 |
 CONNAH'S Quay Nomads have broken their silence to criticise the league restructure and licensing process as "ill-conceived, badly planned and unfairly implemented". "We believe the restructuring was ill-conceived because the justification was based on other leagues around Europe, especially Scotland, running with a smaller number of clubs," says a statement from Deeside. "Every league and country has its own set of circumstances and has to be organised in a way that uses those circumstances as an opportunity for growth. "We live in a country where football is not the national sport and we live next door to perhaps the best league in the world - circumstances not many other countries would experience. "To address these circumstances needs a creative approach rather than an 'Us too' approach - even the much quoted role model of the SPL is considering expanding back to 18 clubs - surely there is a signal there." Nomads says that, in terms of planning the way forward, it would have been good management practice to provide the clubs going into the new structure with the confidence that it was going to work and that they would be supported through problems experienced with the changes. "But here we are a month from when the clubs should be planning their playing squads and the necessary administration for their fixtures and we don’t know who will be in the league and what format they will be playing if they do remain in the league," the statement continues. Thirdly we also believe that, regardless of statements to the contrary, the domestic licensing process has not been carried out in a fair manner. Despite the accusation that 'clubs have had the manual for two years and should have been prepared', the lemming-like drive for the March 31st and May 17th deadlines has lead to dogmatism and not realism. "Clubs that needed Football Trust financial support were left high and dry when decisions were delayed beyond the point of the work being able to be completed on time. "We were told in December our floodlights were certified and then we were told they weren’t but the FAW would arrange an inspection. "The inspection carried out at the end of February showed a failure which to correct would require equipment to be manufactured with an expected delivery date of late May. "A request for an extension - even though the lights won’t be needed until September at the earliest - was No! "But worse in our view was the saga of the stadia safety certificates. This manual that has been around for two years required that a third party - Local Authorities – would sign off the safety certificate. "It appears that nobody actually asked then if they were willing to do this and, as it turns out, some of them were not. This has meant that some clubs could have the luxury of working with their Local Authorities to get their stadia to the required standard, whereas others who had warned of this last year, are subjected to a last minute inspection with less than one week to carry out any corrective action. "We are aware that other clubs have had similar problems with the domestic licensing process, and some have had other problems of their own, but the majority of clubs must have been left with a sour taste in their mouths after their experiences. "We are resigned to the coming season in the Cymru Alliance but even here we see the effect of the current indecision caused by the above. "There are clubs in this league not knowing where they will be playing in 2010/11 and worse there are players who themselves feeling left in limbo, and they won’t know what’s hit then when the signing hiatus occurs when decisions are finally made. "And all this we are told is the price we have to pay for progress!" the statement concludes. |