Berks and Bucks Senior Cup 2018/19

[Royals and Racers]

The Berks &Bucks have told me that ticket details for the final should be announced by the end of this week.

[Royal Rother]

Wonder where it will be played now? (On the assumption that Slough will be in the final not Marlow.)

Hope to Christ it’s not the Godawful Larges Lane.

[Royals and Racers]

Wonder where it will be played now? (On the assumption that Slough will be in the final not Marlow.)

Hope to Christ it’s not the Godawful Larges Lane.

Not sure that it will change as they announced the venue before the Marlow/Slough semi was played.

[TBM]

It's crazy that if you get to the final of the senior cup in the sunday league you play it at the Madejski Stadium yet a semi-professional cup is played at Slough Town

[Royals and Racers]

Match confirmed at Slough on Bank Holiday Monday 6th May KO 3pm Royals opponents still to be decided by the Berks and Bucks FA

[Royals and Racers]

Match confirmed at Slough on Bank Holiday Monday 6th May KO 3pm Royals opponents still to be decided by the Berks and Bucks FA

Statement From Berks & Bucks FA:

“Following the Berks & Bucks FA Senior Cup Semi Final between Marlow FC v Slough Town FC on 26th March 2019 an appeal was lodged by Slough Town FC regarding the eligibility of two Marlow FC players.

“Upon investigation, a Football Operations Disciplinary Committee concluded that Marlow FC were found to be in breach of eligibility rules and, in accordance with competition rules, have been removed from the competition and the tie awarded to Slough Town FC.

"Under competition rules, protests must be submitted within three days of the match or the occurrence to which they refer. Berks & Bucks FA can confirm that no other formal protests in relation to alleged breaches of eligibility rules have been received in this season's competition.

“As a result, and pending an appeal, Slough Town FC have been reinstated into the competition and will face Reading FC in the Final.”

This hasn`t pleased everyone- Paul Godfrey on Twitter
How can the @BerksBucksFA allow this when in your own rules say that a EFL contracted player can not play in the competition. Slough have fielded a player that has a pro contract. You can not punish one team and not the others. Reading have also done this.

[Denver Royal]

Match confirmed at Slough on Bank Holiday Monday 6th May KO 3pm Royals opponents still to be decided by the Berks and Bucks FA

Statement From Berks & Bucks FA:

“Following the Berks & Bucks FA Senior Cup Semi Final between Marlow FC v Slough Town FC on 26th March 2019 an appeal was lodged by Slough Town FC regarding the eligibility of two Marlow FC players.

“Upon investigation, a Football Operations Disciplinary Committee concluded that Marlow FC were found to be in breach of eligibility rules and, in accordance with competition rules, have been removed from the competition and the tie awarded to Slough Town FC.

"Under competition rules, protests must be submitted within three days of the match or the occurrence to which they refer. Berks & Bucks FA can confirm that no other formal protests in relation to alleged breaches of eligibility rules have been received in this season's competition.

“As a result, and pending an appeal, Slough Town FC have been reinstated into the competition and will face Reading FC in the Final.”

This hasn`t pleased everyone- Paul Godfrey on Twitter
How can the @BerksBucksFA allow this when in your own rules say that a EFL contracted player can not play in the competition. Slough have fielded a player that has a pro contract. You can not punish one team and not the others. Reading have also done this.

Which player would that be?

[Royals and Racers]

Match confirmed at Slough on Bank Holiday Monday 6th May KO 3pm Royals opponents still to be decided by the Berks and Bucks FA

Statement From Berks & Bucks FA:

“Following the Berks & Bucks FA Senior Cup Semi Final between Marlow FC v Slough Town FC on 26th March 2019 an appeal was lodged by Slough Town FC regarding the eligibility of two Marlow FC players.

“Upon investigation, a Football Operations Disciplinary Committee concluded that Marlow FC were found to be in breach of eligibility rules and, in accordance with competition rules, have been removed from the competition and the tie awarded to Slough Town FC.

"Under competition rules, protests must be submitted within three days of the match or the occurrence to which they refer. Berks & Bucks FA can confirm that no other formal protests in relation to alleged breaches of eligibility rules have been received in this season's competition.

“As a result, and pending an appeal, Slough Town FC have been reinstated into the competition and will face Reading FC in the Final.”

This hasn`t pleased everyone- Paul Godfrey on Twitter
How can the @BerksBucksFA allow this when in your own rules say that a EFL contracted player can not play in the competition. Slough have fielded a player that has a pro contract. You can not punish one team and not the others. Reading have also done this.

Which player would that be?

Bracknell team
Roberts, Balogun (Pemberton), Green, Odimayo, Burley, Omolabi, Frost (East), Nolan, Wallace, Moore, Nevers (House).
Flackwell team
: Roberts, Balogun, Green, Odimayo, Burley, Omolabi, Pendlebury, Nolan, Olise, Simmo, Moore.
Subs: Driscoll, Holmes, Howe, East, Wallace.
Maidenhead team
: Roberts, Balogun, Green, Odimayo, Holmes (c), McIntyre (Medford-Smith 62), Pendlebury (Boyce-Clark 15), Omolabi, Coleman (Howe 62), Frost, Barrett.
Subs: Nditi, Nevers.
Goals: Howe 82

The Protest from Slough was that 2 Marlow players had played in another Counties senior cup competition this season which is against the rules.

[Royals and Racers]

This whole episode of throwing Marlow out has caused several people to be most unhappy- and i can see why.

Mark Bartley
‏

@markusbartley
18h18 hours ago
More
Reading FC, and MK Dons, have also inadvertently broken the same rule, because they have played players with EFL contracts.

In addition @RFCAcademy's Ramarni Medford-Smith played for Wealdstone in the Middx Cup and then Reading in B&B v @MUFCYorkRoad, THE EXACT CHARGE WE FACED!

[AthleticoSpizz]

What a c0ck up, keep us informed of anything further R&R

[Old Man Andrews]

Now I don't want to speculate (I do) but it would seem to me someone at Slough has gone through it with a fine tooth combe and found anything they could on Marlow in order to get them expelled knowing they'd take their place and get a home cup final at the end of the season.

[Royals and Racers]

What a c0ck up, keep us informed of anything further R&R

The Berks and Bucks FA (i think) agree that the rules for the senior cup are a mess and they will make changes for 2019/20.
however that doesn`t placate the "punters" who think it`s a conspiracy to get the lowest level club thrown out.

Rules - top one page 8 http://www.berks-bucksfa.com/cups-and-c ... -documents

[Stranded]

The rule on EFL contracted players makes little sense if you want EFL clubs to be in the cup. Surely most of our u23 squad have pro contracts now?

[Royals and Racers]

The rule on EFL contracted players makes little sense if you want EFL clubs to be in the cup. Surely most of our u23 squad have pro contracts now?

Indeed, wonder what sort of discussions will take place before the final as to what sort of team we can put out.Surely EFL teams should be able to play the U23 team that can play in Premier league 2 but not allow the over age players. I think that would be fair.

[From Despair To Where?]

The rules clearly need cleaning up. Evidently no one has a real issue with EFL teams fielding academy sides despite them having pro contracts. It is ridiculous to bar the 3 biggest clubs in the Association from entering. Maybe they need to refine it so that anyone who gets playing time in the EFL that season is ineligible from that point onwards?

Do other Associations have this sort of problem or do the EFL clubs not bother entering?

[Nameless]

Would be farcical if they end up expelling us and Slough as well and playing a final between a losing semi finalist and a losing quarter finalist !
We’ve obviously used players with pro contracts and even first team appearances but if they want the tournament to have any kind of credibility they need to allow clubs to field decent teams. You wonder if we’ll bother entering again.....

[Royals and Racers]

Would be farcical if they end up expelling us and Slough as well and playing a final between a losing semi finalist and a losing quarter finalist !
We’ve obviously used players with pro contracts and even first team appearances but if they want the tournament to have any kind of credibility they need to allow clubs to field decent teams. You wonder if we’ll bother entering again.....

They will not expell us- they made that clear in their statement that no other protests were received during the competition within the timescale for protests to be lodged.

[Nameless]

NOte that the B&B statement is only provisional and ‘pending an appeal’.
The obvious grounds for appeal would be that the punishment is unfair given other teams appear to have breached the same rule and not been punished. The B&B are then faced with treating Marlow unfairly and ignoring identical breaches, punishing everyone or scrapping the rule and reinstating Marlow.
Don’t think their 3 day rule holds much water, if a rule is breached and they know about it then they shouldn’t be waiting around for someone to complain. When we were thrown out of the FA Youth cup last year I don’t recall that being as a result of a complaint, it was the governing body policing it’s rules.

[Stranded]

NOte that the B&B statement is only provisional and ‘pending an appeal’.
The obvious grounds for appeal would be that the punishment is unfair given other teams appear to have breached the same rule and not been punished. The B&B are then faced with treating Marlow unfairly and ignoring identical breaches, punishing everyone or scrapping the rule and reinstating Marlow.
Don’t think their 3 day rule holds much water, if a rule is breached and they know about it then they shouldn’t be waiting around for someone to complain. When we were thrown out of the FA Youth cup last year I don’t recall that being as a result of a complaint, it was the governing body policing it’s rules.

Is the 3 day rule written down in the competition or B&B Association Rules? If it is then it will hold water. I assume the B&B does not have much in the way of full time staff so imagine a lot is done on trust when it comes to eligibility rules esp. ones as random as a player playing in the Surrey County Cup being ineligible from the B&B.

[Royals and Racers]

NOte that the B&B statement is only provisional and ‘pending an appeal’.
The obvious grounds for appeal would be that the punishment is unfair given other teams appear to have breached the same rule and not been punished. The B&B are then faced with treating Marlow unfairly and ignoring identical breaches, punishing everyone or scrapping the rule and reinstating Marlow.
Don’t think their 3 day rule holds much water, if a rule is breached and they know about it then they shouldn’t be waiting around for someone to complain. When we were thrown out of the FA Youth cup last year I don’t recall that being as a result of a complaint, it was the governing body policing it’s rules.

Is the 3 day rule written down in the competition or B&B Association Rules? If it is then it will hold water. I assume the B&B does not have much in the way of full time staff so imagine a lot is done on trust when it comes to eligibility rules esp. ones as random as a player playing in the Surrey County Cup being ineligible from the B&B.

I linked to the rules PDF earlier today- have a look, i am pretty sure it is in there. The Berks and Bucks could have ordered a replay as an alternative, so that might just happen although not much time to organise it.