Enfield Town’s play-off dream hangs on FA ruling over points deduction

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/06/enfield-town-fa-ryman-league

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Imagine the outcry if a Premier League club clinched a Champions League spot only to be denied its greatest achievement for no other reason than being a victim of its own integrity and honesty.

Or imagine the legal and financial ramifications of a Championship team getting into the play-offs and then being stripped of the chance to win promotion because of someone else’s inefficiency.

So spare a thought for Enfield Town down in the eighth tier of English football’s pyramid, where national headlines are rarely made but where the country’s first supporter-owned club believes it is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Non-league teams across the country have come out in droves in support of the north-London side, who reached the Ryman Premier League play-offs by finishing fifth on the last day of the season in front of a record league crowd, only for their big day to be wrecked when they learned days later that they had been docked three points after being found guilty of fielding an ineligible player. The incident had occurred several months earlier as a result of his two previous clubs not entering the correct data and spelling the player’s name incorrectly.

Shortly after the midfielder Aryan Tajbakhsh started playing for Enfield, the club contacted the Football Association as soon as it discovered there was an error with the FA’s record system in terms of how many bookings he had accumulated.

It was agreed, in January, that in order to clear the suspension Tajbakhsh should immediately sit out two games and Enfield were told verbally that would be the end of the matter. Three weeks later the FA sent an email to the Ryman League, seen by the Guardian, saying that “no further action” would be taken against the club.

Yet a month after that Enfield were charged by the FA. The club was told at the hearing that the official in question did not have the authority to issue such a statement. A guilty verdict led the Ryman League to dock the points. If the sanction stands, Enfield will drop out of the play-off places.

On Friday, supported by a QC, board members will meet FA representatives at Wembley in an attempt to overturn the deduction. The Ryman Premier League play-offs have been delayed pending the outcome.

Enfield, adamant that they have done nothing wrong and short of resources to go to arbitration and pay for legal fees, fear the worst and that neither the FA nor the Ryman League will back down.

“We feel that there has been an injustice and that an organisation which promotes fair play has shown no fair play at all in this instance,” said Enfield’s vice-chairman, Paul Millington.

“Why has it taken this long to resolve? We checked the FA’s list of suspended players and Aryan wasn’t on it. There were two other records for the player but his previous clubs had spelled his name wrong. We believe the stance of the FA on this matter has far-reaching consequences for football and may encourage others not to report discrepancies in the future. The only reason this came to the FA’s attention is because we highlighted the case – and they have admitted as much.

“We asked them what their procedure is for going through their records and checking for these things and they said there isn’t one. It sends a terrible message to other clubs that are we are being punished for doing the right thing. It’s the supporters who are hit most.”

In its judgment the Ryman League said Tajbakhsh played when he should not have done, end of story. Enfield, managed by the former Tottenham apprentice Bradley Quinton, were found guilty of breaching Ryman League rule 6.9 which states that “any club found to have played an ineligible player shall have any points gained from that match or matches deducted from its record … and have levied upon it a fine.”

Other non-league clubs, led by Ryman Premier members Lewes, have lined up behind Enfield. “It seems you are punished for crossing the white line whatever the circumstances even though we were relying on the FA’s own records system,” said Millington.

“It was impossible to know the incorrect records made by other clubs and we are utterly bewildered. The way things have gone so far, I’m not very optimistic. If this was a Premier League team, imagine the consequences. I think you’d find the authorities would be looking very nervously at their insurance policy.”