Today we played our first and last game in the Clubs United League. Whilst others seem to want to bend the truth here are the facts of the day…..
First up we put our hands up that we were late and this was our own fault. The paperwork said 10 till 11 and we just read the 11 as a kick off time…Our fault no excuses. With our players heading to the ground in East London from as far afield as Hatfield and Surrey the league chair rang our chair at 1017 to ask where we were. We realised we have made a mistake and said we were ten minutes away. We were told if we get there in time to play one half we could play the game otherwise we would forfeit. Phone calls were made to tell everyone to rush and at just gone 1030 we had 5 players ready to go. Our chair apologised to the opponents Star and all was fine. We recognised 2 of the opponents players as we had issues with them previously but the rest were all new faces to us. The league chair popped over the say hello and all was good…the match kicked off.
Our team for the day consisted of a 61 year old and our Chair who is 51 and only played to make up the numbers and had driven an hour and half just to drop off kits for the players. The other 4 players saw 2 players who had not played football before, one whose only appearance had been when he played in our 8-1 defeat at Dulwich and one player who we met minutes before and was making their debut. We classified this as a beginners team.
The match went without any issues and we won 5-1….some players said that the opposition player/manager (PM) had moaned a few times when our players had fouled her accidently but this was more to the fact that she was a good player who in fact turned down Bournemouth earlier this season so she has previously told us. Our interaction with the referee during the game had been to ask if it was a penalty when an opponent walked across the D and to ask how long was left…oh and to point out that one of our players had made a foul. For the opposition to claim we were aggressive to the referee is pure fantasy. We played well above our expectations and were delighted with the 5-1 victory. We just expected handshakes all round and to go find a pub for a well deserved drink…sadly that was not the case…..
When the Player/Manager (PM) of our opponents shock hands with our chair the PM started berating that we should not have brought this team to this league as it was an advanced team (Baring in mid she had turned down Bournemouth)….Our chair stated that it clearly was not and this continued for some time when the League Chair appeared and the accusations continued. It was stated that we were only allowed 2 advanced players which our Chair stated the 2 experienced players were 61 and 51. The PM and League Chair continued with their onslaught and the League Chair stated that the match was void and the points would go to Star…to which our Chair said that “we would be resigning from the league as we are clearly not wanted.” The League chair then said “Well you will have to pay all your league fees for the season” “not happening” was the reply. The League Chair then walked away and the PM continued to follow our Chair who went to the side of the pitch to get changed. The PM continued with their onslaught and was told to go away at which point another Star player moved aggressively towards our Chair and the PM had to pull them away. Another Star player then joined in whom previously had shown anger issues when playing for another club against us….We packed our things and went to leave. As we had to walk down to the open gate the League Chair then approached our Chair again in an aggressive manor and said that they are not welcome again down here to which our chair replied “That’s ok we have resigned from the league”
We were then stunned when later on in the day the league put out an Instagram post stating that we had been removed from the league because of our behaviour. This was not true as we had resigned from the league 2 hours earlier because of the way the League Chair had acted. We were then further shocked when Star decided to post that we had been aggressive to the League Chair, the referee and them. This is a total and utter Lie. The match was played in good spirits and the only anger and aggression came from the players from Star and the League Chair.
We were clearly not wanted in the league, Star were clearly upset that they had lost. We are also stunned that the league and league chair have posted on Star’s Instagram post showing them support. If they want aggressive teams in their league and they support them then we are glad we are no longer a part of the league. For a league to have rules for one and then rules for another shows hypocrisy
We can hold our heads up high as we as a team kept our calm amongst provocation.
We will be contacting the FA but we do believe this league is not affiliated nor are our opponents so not sure where we stand on this….we may just have to wash our hands and continue to do what we have done for the last 2 years.
For the record Star does have some Trans players on there team how many we do not know but there team did contain Trans players.