Please sign my petition to help save a junior football club

Sorry to be a pain but my junior football club is in serious danger of being ripped apart due to the meddling of the Gwent County FA and the South Wales FA, so I'd really appreciate it if you could take a couple of seconds to sign our petition. I'm really looking for a little boost in numbers to make the thing more impressive.

Please help a fellow City fan and about 150 kids who simply want to play football with their mates.

Cheers.

http://www.petitiononline.com/machen/petition.html

Details of the dispute:

When the club was formed in 2001, we applied to the Gwent FA (GFA) to take part in their competition, as Machen does fall within the GFA area generally. They advised us that we would be better off taking part in the neighbouring Caerphilly (SWFA) competition, not really sure of the reasons, but it would have been either convenience or that they didn’t have much of a mini football scene at the time. This was when Machen Devils had one team, probably about 10 players in total.

Over the years, because we were encouraged to enter into the SWFA competition, the club has grown and welcomed players from the Caerphilly area as we take part in that competition. However, as Machen is technically within the GFA area we have had to apply to the GFA for any Machen based players to take part in the SWFA competition. This is I believe to ensure that the SWFA public liability insurance is valid for those players outside the SWFA area.

At the beginning of the 2008/2009 season, we were told by the GFA that they would no longer be granting permission to the Machen (and Bedwas and Trethomas) based players to take part in the SWFA competition and that our club would have to take part in the GFA competition.

We appealed to their better nature, explaining how the club had grown over the years to encompass both the Machen area and the Caerphilly area, and that if we were forced to take part in the GFA competition that the club would effectively be ripped in half. The reason for this is that the permission issue would flipped. Instead of requesting permission for the Machen based players to take part in the SWFA competition, we would have to apply for the Caerphilly based players to take part in the GFA competition, and we were reliably informed that such permission was unlikely to be granted.

As a result, we took the GFA through the appeal process to the FAW who ruled in our favour after considering the evidence. The main piece of evidence was that the River Rhymney, which runs through the village forms the boundary between the associations. The FAW recognised the fact that it would be madness to expect children living on one side of the river to not be able to play for a team situated on the other side of the river, children who live in the same village and attend the same school. The FAW ruled at that time that the children of Machen would no longer need permission from the GFA to play for Machen Devils in the SWFA competition.

The GFA have come back this year with a further obstacle. The have announced that they are moving the boundary of their area, so it exists at the point where Bedwas meets Caerphilly. This will mean again that any children or clubs who reside to the East of Caerphilly will not be allowed to participate in the SWFA competition.

What this boils down to is that all the Caerphilly based players will need to find a Caerphilly based club. This will decimate the player numbers of the club. Also, the vast majority of the coaches at the club are also Caerphilly based, being the fathers of the Caerphilly based players, and will naturally go with their children to their new club.

I guess what makes it so hard to stomach is that after ten years of building a fantastic club, which gives well over 100 children the opportunity to play sport in a vibrant environment, all provided by very enthusiastic volunteers, we are threatened with the destruction of our club as we know it, due to the GFA reneging on the advice the gave us when we were a small non-entity, which they probably didn’t think would last ten minutes. Now that they can see that we have grown in to a successful club, they want a piece of the action so to speak.

One of the most pleasing things for me is how all these children, who attend different schools, and who would never had known each other, are now the best of friends, friendships which I hope will last for the rest of their lives.

All we are trying to do at our club is to provide an opportunity for kids to play football. We are not really too interested in being the best or obtaining the best players, we are just a bunch of volunteers doing our best to get the kids out of the house. We don’t appreciate being caught up in these political squabbles, as it has a major impact on our enthusiasm and our ability to do what we set out to do.

We have a meeting arranged for Thursday 24th at Bedwas Comprehensive School between our club, GFA and SWFA plus one or two other clubs who find themselves in a similar situation. What the outcome of that meeting will be we have no idea, but here’s hoping that whatever it is, it won’t result in our kids not being able to play football.

But make no mistake, if the GFA insist that Machen (and Bedwas and Trethomas) based kids play in a GFA competition, then they will not have a club that will enable them to do it, as the Caerphilly based coaches will be forced to follow their own children in the SWFA competition, and Machen Devils will be left with a handful of players and no coaches.

done...good luck

Good luck, though it seems to block my computer to just signing once and the missus was going to sign it as well.

Signed

Done ....best of luck

done

Done and good luck

My Son has played for this side since formation and is now at under 16 level.

Well run, different schools and no little cliques.

When the club was set up Gwent FA did't want to know.

A shame if the club folded due to politicss

Sign Away

Just posted it on my fb hopefully people will sign it

please would you all be so kind to sign this petition for my fellow bluebird who is having trouble keeping his kids footie team going...............THANK YOU ALL


http://www.petitiononline.com/machen/petition.html
Machen Devils JFC Petition
www.petitiononline.com
Machen Devils JFC Petition, hosted at PetitionOnline.com

signed.good luck

Just heard that this has been resolved in Machens Favour. Is this true Paul?

Just heard that this has been resolved in Machens Favour. Is this true Paul?

Yes mate, meant to post up.

The Gwent rang yesterday a couple of hours before the meeting and told us they weren't up for a fight and that we and BTM can remain in TERV indefinately.

Just waiting for confirmation in writing, but looks like we've won, again.

Thanks to everybody who signed the petition, I will keep it in storage in case they change their mind.

Just heard that this has been resolved in Machens Favour. Is this true Paul?

Yes mate, meant to post up.

The Gwent rang yesterday a couple of hours before the meeting and told us they weren't up for a fight and that we and BTM can remain in TERV indefinately.

Just waiting for confirmation in writing, but looks like we've won, again.

Thanks to everybody who signed the petition, I will keep it in storage in case they change their mind.

CONGRATULATIONS

Done! and Good Luck

Just heard that this has been resolved in Machens Favour. Is this true Paul?

Yes mate, meant to post up.

The Gwent rang yesterday a couple of hours before the meeting and told us they weren't up for a fight and that we and BTM can remain in TERV indefinately.

Just waiting for confirmation in writing, but looks like we've won, again.

Thanks to everybody who signed the petition, I will keep it in storage in case they change their mind.

CONGRATULATIONS

Thanks very much for your support in particular, very nice of you to go out of your way for a total stranger. Cheers.

THATS WHAT WE FELLOW BLUEBIRDS DO

Great news Paul,

Lets look forward to a great season for all the years including the CITY

Signed but just seen your post all has been resolved

Signed it a bit late but still, good work on not backing down from them!!! This whole boundary thing is bullshit in my opinion.

I played rugby as a kid and before the new boundaries which put Caerphilly under Cardiff, Cynon Valley with Brecon and so on. I played for the county/district team for 3 years on the trot and we were very successful too. Didn't lose any games in the 3 years and beat the Irish champions on a tour we did. When the U16'S season ended, we thought we would go to Youth level but the councils/organisations had other ideas.

Due to my club team folding due to no funding and no youth set up, I left and got asked to play for a team in the Afan Nedd area. Got in the district/county team but when we got to youth setup, I was forced to leave that district and actually play for the disctrict where my house boundary was in even though my club team were based in Afan Nedd!

Obviously I declined the distrcit/county and only played club rugby until I stopped playing and got back to following the city