THE consortium hoping to save stricken Salisbury City claim they have been “monumentally stitched up by the FA and Conference” after they were told they could not appeal against being thrown out of Non-League‘s top competition.
The Whites were due to go before an independent appeals panel at 12pm today (Monday) to challenge the decision but yesterday were told they were not legal owners of the club and had no right to appeal.
Mark Winter, Jackie Goddard, David Phillips, Graeme Mundy and Jeremy Harwood formed a consortium to take back the club from Moroccan businessman Outail Touzar, who owns 98 per cent of the shares.
The group were set to be in court 24 hours after their appeal hearing to claim ownership of the club after a long running battle with Touzar, who failed to put any of his promised funds into the ailing club.
Steve Claridge had been in charge of the Whites for their 8-1 pre-season win over Shrewton at the weekend but it now looks as it Salisbury will not be kicking off the season in the Conference South.
The club released a statement on the situation, heavily criticising the independent panel, FA and Football Conference.
It read: “Salisbury City are being monumentally stitched up by the FA and Conference which will ultimately lead to the demise of the football club.
“We were due to go before an independent appeals panel at 12pm today to challenge the Conference board’s decision to throw us out of the league.
“Yet barely 24 hours before our case was due to be heard the independent chairman objected to our appeal on the grounds we were not the legal owners and therefore had no right to appeal even though we were due to appear in the High Court 24hrs later and claim ownership of the club unchallenged.
“This whole process is a complete farce. There is nothing independent about this process. This is about football closing ranks and conspiring because they feel they are not accountable to anyone else accept themselves.
“The Conference board are a total disgrace governed by individuals with clear agendas against this club.”
