Fans outraged as FAW rejects Bangor 1876 protest after it was kicked out of Welsh Cup

Fans are outraged after a football club’s protest about being kicked out of the Welsh Cup was rejected.

Bangor 1876 have now received a letter from the Football Association of Wales saying that their National Club Board had “unanimously” agreed not to review their original decision to give them the boot.

The club was unable to play a second round qualifying game against Llanerch- y-Medd on Saturday, July 24, because a number of its players were self-isolating after they followed Covid-19 rules.

It had been informed by a member of the squad the day before that a lateral flow test had proved positive, as did a subsequent PCR test.

The club was then told by the Gwynedd Test, Trace and Protect team that relevant members of the squad would have to self-isolate until July 31.

The news about the refusal of the FAW to reinstate the club has infuriated fans who took to Twitter to voice their anger.

John Dexter Jones said: “To be honest, I’m baffled. It’s sets a strange precedent doesn’t it? It says that ease of administration is more important than players, clubs and fans. 18 months to take this stuff into account?”

Becky Williams chipped in: “Penalised for carrying out a duty of care. Unbelievable.”

It was a view echoed by Neil Pudney who said: “Shafted by other clubs not raising objections when it happened to them? If all FA’s are going to behave like that over the next few months it’s going to be chaos!”

Cheddar Fish added: There’s an incentive to break the law here @FAWales and that’s negligent.”

‘Disappointed’  

Club secretary Dafydd Hughes said they were disappointed by the decision confirming their expulsion from the Welsh Cup.

He said: “This expulsion was a consequence of the fact that we abided by the rules relating to the control of the COVID-19 virus by asking some of our players to self-isolate rather than break the law. This meant that we were consequently not able to play the cup tie against Llannerch-y-Medd on 24 July.

“The Club has no reasonable prospect of successfully challenging this decision, particularly as there have been other cases earlier in the season that have gone unchallenged, thus establishing precedent.

“We take some comfort that the fee accompanying our protest is to be refunded and are grateful for all the expressions of support that we have received. We accept the FAW’s decision and will not be commenting further.”