Sunday 12 June 2011

Rushdens Diamonds All Out


Rushden and Diamonds football club have been banished from the conference due to financial reasons. They have a winding up order set for monday which could be a day where Rushden and Diamonds FC finish forever.

"The primary reason why we've been expelled is because of the financial issues with the winding-up petition," said chief executive Steve Beasant.

Because of the decision to punish Rushden in this way, the leagues needed a bit of jolting at the AGM of the football conference. Due to there now being less teams in the Conference Premier, Southport stay up rather than being relegated to the conference North, this would usually mean that a conference North club would also get a reprive but as they only had 21 clubs with two going down last year anyway, it was only fair that Thurrock of the conference South stay up instead.

However, this has meant that to even out the teams, the furthest north club, Bishops Stortford will have to move to the conference North. However, this decision has not been met gratefully by Stortford, who's travel expenses will be sky high next season on the North, so they have lodged an appeal against the decision which could see Lewes staying up and Chelmsford moving across to the North.

Rushden had hoped to be saved as it looked like there may have been a take over from the Glenn Hoddle acadamy but these hopes were dashed on friday. The club did make a presentation at the AGM showing what they were going to do about their financial problems but the conference decided to come down hard, something thbey have been criticised a lot for not doing.

Rushden will feel hard done by as in the past teams have got away with 1 point penalty for the same thing, a mere slap on the wrist.
"We've had two investment consortiums show interest in taking over the club and injecting money," Beasant told BBC Radio Northampton.
"We needed more time to get that interest confirmed.
"We've got a business model and we had investors but the conditions put on us by the Conference made the deal impossible."

Rushden will now look to find a place in next seasons Zameroto league a drop down of at least 2 divisions, but fans would just be grateful to still have a club.

"We'd have to make representation to them to be included, so we'll deal with that on Monday," he said. "But the priority is to make sure that the club isn't wound up on Monday.
"We've got to deal with the winding-up petition. We're looking for an adjournment."

For their financial position, just last month they were fined £2000 and docked 5 points by the conference meaning that they dropped down one place to 13th.

Rushden were created in 1992 when club founder Max Griggs merged Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds.

He was then at the helm for 11 years, building a new home at Nene Park, during which time he took the club into the Football League in 2001.

But Griggs stepped down at the age of 65 in October 2003, deciding that he has done all he could do for them.

He gave the stadium and 22 acres of land to the club's Supporters Trust in 2005.
But the former owner resigned as life president in January 2007, following an argument over land.

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