Northern Premier League controversy 2005

The 2005 Northern Premier League controversy sought to clear up the final standings of the 2005 Northern Premier League championship, following the non-contest of several scheduled games. The Northern Premier League is a semi-professional football (soccer) league in England. It is situated at the seventh level of football in England, along with the Southern Football League Premier Division and the Isthmian League Premier Division. In 2005, one team, Spennymoor United FC, failed to play several of its scheduled games in the league. This led to a controversial end to the season as the league officials had to decide how to deal with the situation of different teams playing differing numbers of fixtures.

NPL meeting

The 2004-2005 season saw Spennymoor United FC fail to fulfil nine of their league fixtures. The Northern Premier League's Board of Directors met on Sunday, 24 April 2005 to consider how these unplayed games will be treated in the fairest possible manner to all Premier Division member clubs. At this meeting it was decided to expunge the record of Spennymoor United from the table. Subsequent to this meeting the member clubs of Gateshead, Hyde United and Workington appealed to the Football Association (the F.A.) against the decision.

One of the grounds of appeal was that the meeting did not have a quorum and the F.A. recommended that the Northern Premier League withdraw their decision to expunge the record of Spennymoor United from the table to be considered by a meeting that had a quorum, arranged for Sunday, 1 May, 2005.

econd board meeting

At the emergency board meeting held on the 1 May, 2005, the Board of the Northern Premier Football League confirmed their decision to expunge Spennymoor United's playing record. This meeting came a day after the final day of the Northern Premier League Premier Division season where Workington had finished in first place, Hyde United in second (having played 41 games to Workington and Farsley's 42) and Farsley in third. The confirmation to expunge Spennymoor United's playing record then saw Farsley finish in first place, Hyde United finish in second and Workington finish in third.

Gateshead, Hyde United and Workington followed up their appeal to the F.A. and on Wednesday, 4 May, 2005 the F.A. overturned the Northern Premier League Board's decision to expunge the playing record of Spennymoor United. As a result Spennymoor United’s playing record was re-instated into the league records and, in addition, the FA awarded 3 points to the team for each game outstanding against Spennymoor United, although no goals for or against will be allocated. Hyde United were one of the teams awarded 3 points which awarded them the 2004-2005 Northern Premier League Premier Division Championship.

Farsley Celtic celebrated winning the Championship on the last day of the season, ignoring the fact that the original meeting on Sunday, 24 April, 2005 did not have a quorum and, as a result, finished third in the table. Burscough, who had slipped from fifth to sixth, and out of the final promotion playoff place, thanks to Prescot Cables being awarded 6 points due to their 2 unplayed games against Spennymoor United, were aggrieved by this decision and, on 11 May, 2005, attempted to get the F.A. to go to arbitration. This was rejected outright by the F.A., and so Farsley Celtic and Burscough attempted to get the FA Appeal Board decision on 4 May overturned by the High Court of Justice in London on the 12 May, 2005.

Conclusive finding

On 13 May, 2005 the F.A. and the Northern Premier League confirmed that Hyde United were the champions of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, and were presented with the trophy at their end of season party by Northern Premier League Chairman Duncan Bayley.

Workington, who had finished first on the last day of the season having played a game more than Hyde United, were promoted along with Hyde United having beaten Farsley Celtic on penalty shootout in the play-off final.

External links

*Pete Oliver, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_conf/4516821.stm Chaotic finale to Unibond season] , "BBC", May 5, 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/4536727.stm Unibond League play-offs go ahead] , "BBC", May 11, 2005