SHAW LANE are set to hear the outcome of their appeal against being thrown out of the FA Trophy – and say the FA’s system is ‘flawed’.
The Ducks were set to host National League side Lincoln City on Sunday but that game was postponed when it was revealed Shaw Lane were being investigated for fielding an ineligible player in their 3-1 win over Nantwich in the last round.
Shaw Lane were notified on Friday that they had been found guilty of playing the ineligible Alexander Byrne and had been removed from the competition.
The Evo-Stik NPL South side, however, have decided to appeal and their hearing is set to be heard today (Tuesday).
The Ducks say that Byrne, signed from Northwich Victoria earlier this season, was correctly registered by them but because he was listed as Alex and not Alexander by his former club, and given the wrong date of birth, his previous cautions didn’t appear during their checks.
It turned out Byrne had picked up two cautions with his former club and should have been suspended for the Nantwich tie.
A club statement read: “The hearing will be on Tuesday 13th, this gives us no time whatsoever to try and get any professional representation to support us at the hearing.
“Having said this, we will be appealing the decision and will represent ourselves at the hearing, as a club we are devastated that the mitigating circumstances that we have already put forward have been ignored.
“The player in question was registered with his previous club with an incorrect date of birth and as Alex. When Shaw Lane registered him we used all details, full name and with the correct date of birth.
“This created in effect two players Alex Byrne and Alexander with two different dates of birth on the FA members services portal that is used by all clubs to monitor their discipline.
“Alex advised that he believed he had a booking at the start of the season whilst playing for his previous club. It was at this point that we raised our concern with the FA who investigated this and found that there was another Alex Byrne with a different DOB who had actually received two cautions.
“This was us bringing an issue to the FA that they were completely unaware of, no blame can be proportioned to us for this as we have followed all the correct procedures when registering the player and in monitoring his discipline on the system.
“If we as a club had not raised this concern with the FA then this would never have come to light as there were two separate players in the system and the FA Trophy tie v Lincoln City would have been played as planned.
“The whole point of this system is to check discipline, if it can’t be relied upon to find out a players disciplinary history from his previous clubs then the system is flawed.”
