06 February 2009 - Press statement

The Devils Trust believes that the Conference registration process is flawed, in conjunction with the Supporters Trusts of Mansfield Town and Oxford United, we have recently issued a joint statement to make that point and to ask the Conference to review and revise its procedures.

The Trust is pleased to see that the Conference have indeed now arranged just such a review of their practises "in the light of adverse publicity". The Devils Trust welcomes this action and hopes that the review is impartial and will result in practical and positive functional changes.

We thank our fellow Trusts for their enthusiasm and co-operation on this matter. We also thank football fans in general for their positive comments and support.

As supporters of Crawley Town Football Club, the Trust is naturally not happy with the point's deduction. Our stated view is that any appeal should concentrate on the inadequacies and unfairness of the process as we have highlighted in the joint statement issued by the three Trusts.

We fully understand why individual supporters and groups may wish to contribute towards an appeal fund out of a sense of loyalty & outrage, but the Trust board cannot sanction a financial contribution to the appeal costs simply on the basis of emotion. We note that Oxford United have declined to appeal and it is still fresh in our memory that the club spent circa £25k on an unsuccessful appeal last season. The Devils Trust is committed to financial accountability as we are part of the national Supporters Direct community, regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) and answerable to our membership for how funds are distributed.

The Trust Board is however sympathetic to the idea of offering financial support to the football club towards the appeal fees, particularly as the punishments applied to the clubs appear to have an arbitrary element. We positively encourage a friendly approach from the football club executive to instigate a meaningful dialogue.

Once we have established the key facts of the appeal we can subsequently recommend and publish an appropriate course of action.

We wish the club success with the appeal and look forward to hearing from them.

The Devils Trust

The joint statement can be viewed online here. There is also a link there to an online-petition where fans can state their personal views.