Football club fined and punished - for calling off a match over Covid-19 fears

A Sussex football club have been fined and been forced to forefeit a match they called off - even though they postponed it because of Covid-19 worries.
Storrington FC in action last month against Selsey / Picture: Chris HattonStorrington FC in action last month against Selsey / Picture: Chris Hatton
Storrington FC in action last month against Selsey / Picture: Chris Hatton

Southern Combination division one side Storrington postponed their home match against AFC Varndeanians in early September when they discovered there had been a positive Covid test at Arundel FC - who Varndeanians had played a couple of days earlier.

But despite Storrington officials firmly believing they did the right thing, the SCFL took action and they have been handed a £250 fine and the three points have been awarded to Varndeanians.

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A statement issued by Storrington said: "Further to the club’s statement outlining the reasons we postponed our league game with AFC Varndeanians on Tuesday 8th September 2020, disappointedly the club was charged with failing to fulfil a fixture by the SCFL.

"Although we accept in principle we did fail to fulfil the fixture we requested a personal hearing as in our view there were significant mitigating factors which is why we made the decision, not least we are in the middle of a global pandemic where nothing is ‘normal’.

"The hearing took place recently and as a club we are extremely disappointed with the outcome which is the game will not be rescheduled, therefore the three points are awarded to AFC Varndeanians, and the club has been fined £250.

"In the club’s view, as we made clear at the time, the risk to our club was significant enough for us to take this decision given no other guidance was forthcoming on the day before the match.

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"The punishment the club has received is for others to justify but we can feel comfortable that we only tried to do what we thought was the right thing given the exceedingly difficult situation we found ourselves in. The lockdown measures announced by the Government over the weekend show how prevalent this virus still is and we are comfortable with the decision we took.

"The primary aim is and always will be to keep our management, players, staff and the wider community safe and well from this killer disease."

We have asked the SCFL for a comment.

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