Late venue switch isn’t fair on fans

AS a supporter of Romford FC since the 1960’s, I was somewhat irked by the late change and venue for their FA Vase fifth round match at Hilltop this weekend.

As Hilltop ground share with Hillingdon Borough, the match, in accordance to FA competition rules, was rescheduled to be played on the Sunday instead.

My understanding is that Romford were happy with this arrangement but, for reasons unknown, Hilltop then pushed to switch the venue to Uxbridge FC’s Honeycroft ground instead.

Indeed, the Combined Counties League announced the change of venue and date and Romford took that as read, even though they didn’t agree with it.

However, imagine our surprise when the FA announced as late as Monday that the game would in fact be played at Cobham FC’s ground – and back to the original Saturday date!

Romford had even booked a coach to take the team to Uxbridge on Sunday but had to rearrange everything at the last minute. Cobham is some considerable distance from Hillingdon or Uxbridge.

Surely, changing venues like this when it suits you is not in the spirit of the game? The FA appear to have broken their own competition rules.

I, personally, had booked a hotel in London, obtained a ticket for another game in London for the Saturday, as well as booking a table reservation, in order to catch the game at Uxbridge on Sunday. This has all had to be suddenly changed and cancelled.

The least we should have expected was a statement setting out the facts and rationale behind this late and surprising change of venue to uphold the fairness and integrity of the competition.