:unsure: The following is a postfrom the Non League Zone web forum. Not sure how this might affect Witton ahead of the upcoming UniBond League AGM…
[quote] Post by WeWillFollow3 on 15JUN2009
I’m the Star website administrator and everyone at the meeting knew it was a wake. I was told 3 weeks ago a statement from the solicitors was imminent and it was to be posted on the site. I was also told the two owners of the club were retiring. I’ve heard nothing since and i’m about as close to being in the ‘know’ as can be expected without being on the management of the club. I’m now helping out at North Shields.
Some people may ask why the Star supporters (yes, we are few in number but we have some very loyal supporters) arn’t fighting to keep the name of the club going. The following were the obsacles.
No ground (no decision was imminent on if we could play at KP next season)
No financial input, David Thompson had withdrawn his financial support with immediate effect.
Two owners (one is also club secretary) & director of football have retired. Financial Director/Treasurer no longer interested. This leaves no club officials at all…unless you count me in as website administrator\editor!
Player\manager Steve Bowey has gone to Bedlington, top scorer Brayson to Durham and all others released.
No league to play in…not enough notice given.
The club was offered to anyone at the meeting for £1…but you would be liable to a £65k debt owed to the FSIF and the overheads of the club were running at 60k pa. No answer could be given on if the club still had the existing sponsorship agreement which was rumoured to be 30k.
Anyone else think this was a feasible proposition? The possibility of a groundshare at Prudhoe and Team Northumbria was muted but if you can’t attract crowd averages of over 160 at Unibond level and at a 10,000 capacity stadium on the metro with top notch facilities why would anyone travel to the two mentioned and potentiall 2/3 divisions lower? It was a losing battle that has been lost.
I believe a “liquidation” of the club is in process…there is no need to go into administration as other than the potential 65k to be paid back the club has bno debts.
RIP Newcastle Blue Star, one of the most iconic names in non league football, lost but never forgotten.[/quote]
Have we any idea what league Witton are in next season? And are Vics definitely still in the Conference North? The whole thing seems to be a shambles, it was better with no relegation nad no promotion in the old Cheshire League, at least you knew who you were playing the next season!!!
WHS.
We will know what league we are in on Sunday following the Unibond AGM.
At the moment it’s looking like Unibond League 1 (S) although this could change if the above posting on the state of Newcastle Blue Star is correct. If they do indeed cease to exist I would imagine we would take their place in the Unibond Premier.
Northwich will be in the Blue Square North if they have a ground and can sign any players. Neither of those things can be taken for granted.
Unfortnately, I have a feeling that even if NBS have folded and therefore cannot take up their place in the Unibond Premier League, we will still be in the Unibond Division 1 South in the coming season.
The reason for this is the case of Scarborough a couple of years ago. Scarborough were supposed to be in the Unibond Premier with us, but after they were wound up by the courts they were removed from the league, but no team took their place, and we had an odd number of teams in the league. This did though happen after the publishing of the league fixtures, and it would therefore have been impossible to fit a new club in as it would have affected the fixtures of so many teams in so many leagues.
Of course, the league fixtures have not yet been published, however it is so close to it happening that it would be too complicated to redo them with us being in the Premier League, instead of Division 1 South. The reason for this is the following article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/06/secrets_of_the_fixture_compute.html#097608 (This is the same article as posted by Grazzer under “Fixtures” in “General”.)
This article explains just how difficult it is to come up with the fixture list each season. This close to the publishing of our fixture list, if we were put back into the Premier League it would affect so many other leagues fixtures lists that it just will not happen. I therefore think that we will still be in the Unibond Division 1 South after the league AGM.
A second point. WHS, I cannot understand how you can say that no promotion and no relegation is a good thing. If there was no promotion and no relegation then clubs would have no chance of getting to play in better leagues. We also would have less to talk about in the world of football. The relegation zone is one of the most talked about things in football, especially when clubs such as Spurs and Newcastle are in the Premiership relegation zone.
Promotion rewards those clubs in leagues below the Premiership that have had good seasons, whilst relegation punishes those that have had seasons. The ‘shambles’ that is occuring at the moment has nothing to do with the traditional promotion and relegation system, and everything to do with clubs not having grounds up to standard and not living within their means. Promotion and relegation is a system that has worked for years, and without it would make football boring.
I have to disagree Thomas. The main point of an AGM is to decide on next year’s constitution so it is certainly not too late to promote someone to replace a club that has folded.
The alternative-running one club short and robbing clubs of gate money is far worse. Someone has to do without an opening day fixture, someone has to do without a boxing day fixture etc.
The article you quote is mainly to do with top level football where policing is a big consideration and is not so relevant to our level.
Sob stories from the fixture secretary should not be used as an excuse for the league to do nothing if NBS have folded.
I agree that it is mainly about higher level teams, however, at the end of the article it does say “Thompson will start dealing with reserve fixtures, academy games and feeder leagues to the Blue Square Premier.” These would surely include our league.
I understand your point, yet by promoting one team could still impact on a lot of other leagues, and may still lead to one league, somewhere in the pyramid, running one team short. This is a different situation to the Whitby repreive in that Cammell were relegated for not meeting the required ground grading, thereby keeping the number of teams the same up and down the league, with no further repercussions. I do not of course know the workings of the league but in this case my feelings are that we will not get a repreive, and will be in Unibond 1 South in the coming season. If however we are repreived then I will be very happy, and happy to admit that I was wrong.
Yeah, Neither of us knows and we’ll just have to see.
My gut feeling is that IF Newcastle Blue Star have folded (and it’s not been officially confirmed as far as I know) then the league will seek to plug the gap rather than have the embarrassment of operating one team short and we should be prime candidates to fill that gap.
But then, despite a lifetime of supporting Witton, I’ve always been an optimist!
According to Unibond website Newcastle BS have now ceased to exist and have resigned from all football. Further message to follow re the ramifications for the league