When we sign so many players.

[piearce9]

Aaron Farell versus Shaw Lane re: Sutton Coldfield first match of this season. Banned sine die.......allegedly.

Is that for crimes against finishing?

[piearce9]

Shaw Lane are the other one by most accounts.

[KBrookes1]

Hi All

Things are not always what they seem. A detailed article will be in this Saturday’s programme explaining things.

We did everything correctly, according to what we were told by Solihull Moors Manager at the time of the signing. The required paperwork was submitted to the NPL. Unbeknown to us, the manager had not advised their Club Secretary of the dual signing (able to play for both sides) and had got a fundamental fact wrong, that the player was in fact a contract player, not a non-contract player as we were informed.

Therefore, the wrong paperwork was completed - as we were paying the full wages of the player it made no difference to Halesowen Town if we dual signed or signed on a one month loan deal. The benefit to Solihull Moors of the dual-signing being that they retained control of the player and could recall if they required. This only came to light after the Solihull Moors Manager was sacked (two days later) and the new manager went through the list of their contract players.

I am currently considering our position regarding an appeal. Anyone who wants to talk to me about this matter feel free to come and see me at the match on Saturday and I will answer any questions you have. As I assure you I am not a coward and I am happy to explain what happened. We published the notice on the official website following being informed of the NPL decision to the Club on Saturday as I am seeking to be as transparent as possible.

Thank you, Karen

[KBrookes1]

Sorry I should have stated the timing of Solihull Moors new manager requesting a list of contract players - which was approximately three weeks after he signed, hence the three matches he played before it all came to light.

Thanks, Karen

[andy]

As always thank you for the information. The transparency is refreshing.

[lutleyyeltz]

Yes, thank you, Karen.
Always a knee jerk reaction when this sort of situation arises. Let's allow the process to take its due course ans await the outcome.

[Johnny Bud]

Having registered many hundreds of players on a Sunday I knew there had to be more to it. It’s shocking that Solihull’s manager didn’t know who was contracted and who wasn’t!

[The Reasonable Man]

Having registered many hundreds of players on a Sunday I knew there had to be more to it. It’s shocking that Solihull’s manager didn’t know who was contracted and who wasn’t!

Is it? In my experience managers and players frequently haven't got a clue about these things. Ditto with "cup-tied" players - some have no idea who they've played for, where, who against, or in what competition.

I'm afraid Rule 1 is you always check with the secretary, never take a manager's or player's word for ANYTHING.

Rule 2 is buyer beware. It's the "acquiring" club's responsibility to make sure all the Is are dotted and Ts crossed.

I have sympathy because although (as far as I can recall) Stour have never fallen foul of this sort of thing, it's bound to happen one day. Human error is human error.

I honestly can't see an appeal succeeding.

[Noggin]

Thanks to Karen and TRM for their input and insight. It looks like there was a mess-up and we have to take the punishment. The punishment seems to be fair in respect of the points and reflects similar cases.

[KBrookes1]

Thanks all.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and yes double checking these things directly with their Club Secretary would have alerted us to an issue and we could have signed on loan. We now have a process in place to ensure that this happens in every case and we cannot fall foul of these types of breaches.

The backdrop is that this was all actioned on a Friday within a few hours, when we had eight players out with injuries and needed to sign this player - speed was of the essence and unfortunately this caused us to slip up, for which I take personal responsibility. The buck as Chairman stops with me and I apologise to all our fans. We can’t change what’s happened we have to look forward and try and get ourselves off the bottom and ultimately to survive.

Karen