The Clapton CFC Men’s First Team will be playing in the Southern Counties East Football League Division One next season after our appeal against lateral movement was rejected.
Earlier this summer, a Football Association panel decided to move the team southwards from the Eastern Counties League Division One South we played in last season. Their aim was to try to balance out the numbers of teams across divisions at our Step 6 level with the SCEFL having run at 16 teams last season.
The FA’s Appeal Board heard our appeal remotely on Monday (June 10) for around 90 minutes. It has today confirmed they have rejected our appeal.
With this matter now resolved, we are looking forward to pre-season and the SCEFL season starting on Saturday, August 3 and meeting 15 new teams. We have already attended the SCEFL AGM earlier this week while fixtures are due to be released around mid-July.
Our appeal – which included an 18-page spreadsheet of calculations – aimed to show that due diligence had not been followed in the way our club was chosen for a move. Mileage had only been calculated for the three clubs that the FA had already decided to move, while journey times had not been considered or calculated at all. Our calculations showed there were five clubs closer to the existing SCEFL footprint. There were also several minor factual errors identified.
However, the threshold to win such an appeal is extremely high. The decision needed to be judged not just as unreasonable, but so unreasonable that no reasonable body acting reasonably could have made it. As such it is very rare for such an appeal to succeed and so it proved. The Appeal Board ruled that the decision was not ‘perverse, irrational or wrong’.
Although it was not our preferred destination, there is nonetheless plenty to be excited about. Some highlights include a visit to the seaside at Margate, where Canterbury City play; games against two South London teams with growing fanbases in Croydon and Lewisham Borough; and an East London derby with old friends Tower Hamlets. Our mileage in the SCEFL is going up but not a huge amount. Plus with only 34 league games, rather than the 42 last season, there should be fewer midweek games too.
A big thanks to the CCFC members who gave up their time as well as local MP Lyn Brown who submitted a letter of support. Thanks also to the members of the FA Appeal Board who heard our case. For transparency, we should note we paid a £100 appeal fee.
Here is the list of teams in the SCEFL Division One…