Southgate Olympic 1st XI

For All Members of AFC (Clubs & Executive)
 
Southgate Olympic 1st XI                                                              6th March 2019
 
Dear Secretary
 
I write to advise all members of the AFC that Southgate Olympic 1st XI have submitted a request for the team to be withdrawn from the Premier Division and that decision has been agreed by the Fixtures Committee. This was a very difficult decision to take as once again, following on from a similar request from UCL earlier in the season, it brings into question the whole integrity of The Premier Division. The Fixtures Committee were extremely disappointed with Southgate Olympic who had been given every support, by the Fixtures Committee, since they originally indicated issues with playing numbers on 9th January 2019.
 
The decision we have reached is, we believe, pragmatic, but very far from ideal and ends up with us losing a team from our Premier Division which is unprecedented,  which we believe reflects poorly on our competition. However the facts remain that Southgate had fewer than 9 regular 1st xi players left available , although all 9 not every week, their next lowest team was 8 divisions below in 3 North (having lost their 2nd xi in the first week of the season).
 
The Fixtures Committee gave Southgate Olympic three free weeks in January 2019, to enable them to secure additional players from a local college, which ultimately did not materialise, but more of a concern was Southgate's lack of any sort of update to the Fixtures Committee on this matter, which ultimately caused their official withdrawal request at 6.45pm on Friday 1st March.
 
The Fixtures Committee have written to Southgate Olympic advising of their extreme disappointment in the way the club have handled this situation and the very difficult position it has placed on AFC Officers to resolve it . The results obtained by Southgate Olympic will be expunged , as per league rule 12b. All 1st xi players have been de-registered from playing in any of the remaining three lower Southgate teams for the remainder of this season.
 
 
 
Ian Andrews
AFC Secretary