Matt

Zero chance this was without any warning, there is whole process to go through over several months, and any club in non-league will know what is needed to go up (or to stay where they are) before the opening day. This only seems sudden because none of the discussion appears to have been in public until now. If the risk of being barred from the playoffs was kept from players and management then that is really poor form IMO.

It's not unreasonable to ensure clubs in a fully professional league have somewhere to play for the foreseeable future. Clubs getting locked out of short-term leases and having to groundshare / drop out was a pretty common event within the Step 2 and below leagues. I don't know when the FL implemented this but I suspect it will go back to Brighton / Gillingham fiasco. It's also helped protect clubs from owners looking to buy a club and sell the ground from underneath them, which happens far less now than in the 90s/2000s. To me it's a more reasonable request than blocking a team's promotion because the referee's changing room is 30cm too narrow. It's obviously disappointing for the supporters, but the rules here are not new. You need something similar for entry into the National League also as I remember Blyth ended up buying the leasehold on their ground last time we were in the NPL and looking to go back up to the NLN. The Gateshead fans who have been around a while will know all this but for relative newcomers it seems unfair to have been kept in the dark.

Gino’s chippy just outside the ground is cracking.

Club was sold for £1- someone said Tony Platten wrote off £700k notionally owed to him also. Lots of red flags with this new guy IMO but the outgoing owners can be critisized for a lot of things but a lack of caution isn’t one of them.

There'll not be that many there for Cavalry vs Orlando City next week, that's for sure. Bizarre choice of venue for that one. It's not even been that cold here.

The problem there is that the grading is not about general condition of the ground and more about being technically in line with the requirements. Like Alfreton’s ‘stadium of seats’ where they just bolted second hand seats wherever there was space to hit the required number.

Italian football has survived far greater corruption than cases of one player on the take.

Stourbridge is a class away day, used to love it with Blyth. Three-sided ground backed on by a cricket pitch and to get into the town from the main station you have to get on this tiny shuttle train.

That’s not the issue. If he’s acted deliberately to trigger a bet (for whoever’s benefit) that’s not just a sporting infringement- it’s a crime. Asif and Amir (England v Pakistan cricket) did time in jail for their no-balls.

I think you have to regionalise after CPL, which L1 will probably do in due course. L1 Prairies is looking like it might happen in 2024, then you have BC to Quebec under that banner. The CPL season as it stands is just too short and restricts revenue and the cup is over in a heartbeat. We need at least 32 league games a season. Curious to know who the other CPLers on the forum follow?

Biggest issue for the CPL is just keeping enough viable teams in the league. Lots of empty spaces on some games now (not counting games at CFL stadiums). Talk that there may be another team joining CPL from BC L1 for next season (TSS Rovers maybe?).

Such BS that comment from Masters. There will be some sort of trust or partnership stricture where a third party nominally directs investment oversight but everyone knows who is really pulling the strings.

Why should he go to Bayern, with Levy choosing his options for him, when he can wait a year, make a massive signing on fee, and have his pick of destinations? If anything he’s being more ambitious staying put.

Doesn’t limit modes of transport. To the the youth team choppers!

I am shocked to my very core at this revelation.