Dorking Wanderers ‘extremely disappointed’ by resolution outcome
Following tonight’s announcement that Step 2 has ceased playing and the season has been declared Null and Void Dorking Wanderers have announced that they are ‘extremely disappointed with the outcome of the resolutions put to National League member clubs’.
They have released this statement:
“We fully recognise the varying challenges and support those member clubs that had concerns about their clubs existence and survival, given the misleading information received surrounding grants, and we felt strongly from day one that these clubs should be protected.
As a club however, we did not feel that a vote was necessary. Instead we felt that a much more collaborative approach was required given the very difficult circumstances people found themselves in. We felt that during the recent suspension it would have been a perfect opportunity to work alongside clubs to understand how the competition could be completed. Nevertheless, we also thought on top of that that it wouldn’t require a vote to enable people to opt out of the league for the season. Then the vote (and resolutions) were brought forward, and we were extremely concerned to see that the league were attempting to change the constitutional voting. This was a clear sign that, given the only clubs that had requested for the season to finish were north and south clubs, it was a way in which the National League could deliver on this resolution to protect their own interests.
Indeed, it created a direct conflict of interest by the National League voting for the voting to change, which meant that in the event that Step 2 was null and void they would avoid relegation, so there was an incentive to vote for resolution 1 (the voting constitution to change).
To summarise, we are at an absolute loss to understand why a resolution would be brought forward that seeks to protect correctly the survival of member clubs, without any consideration being given to the impact on the clubs that need the competition to continue.
Like all football clubs we put a lot of time and money into what we do day-to-day. We also have a lot of commercial partners who will be very disappointed as essentially the product we sold them is now void.
At this stage we are in ongoing dialogue with our legal team and are taking high level legal advice to ascertain the validity of the resolution. We will revert back when we have more information.
To conclude, we know that our supporters will be fully behind us (as they always are) and we promise to keep them fully posted on further developments.”
Dorking Wanderers are the current leaders of the National League South.