Bacup Borough tackle FA with lawyers (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Bacup Borough tackle FA with lawyers

8:14am Friday 22nd June 2012 in Bacup Borough Football Club By Matt Donlan, Sports reporter

Bacup Borough have turned to the lawyers to fight a charge of failing to complete a fixture and a £300 fine after the North West Counties League demanded they played six games in seven days at the end of last season.

The West View club has instructed Blackburn commercial law firm Garricks to act on their behalf in the appeal to the Football Association and claim the deduction of three points and fine was “grossly unfair”.

Postponements caused by April’s bad weather left Brent Peters’ Bacup with a large fixture backlog and league bosses asked the team to play six games between Saturday April 28 and Saturday May 5 to complete all fixtures before the season-end date.

Bacup played five of the fixtures but were unable to play a home match against Colne on May 2. This came the night after another rearranged home game and just 24 hours before the League Challenge Cup Final.

The North West Counties League management committee ruled that the club had to forfeit the points from that fixture as well as being docked three points in the final league standings and receiving a £300 fine.

But Garricks have taken up the fight and associate solicitor Tom Smith said: “Bacup Borough thought it neither fair nor safe for the players involved to be obliged to play so many competitive games in such a short space of time.”

The North West Counties League has 21 days to respond to the appeal and say it will be considered at the next meeting of its appeals board.

A spokesman for the FA said he couldn’t comment on individual cases but admitted the Association was aware of the situation.