The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Look at it objectively, not as supporters of R&DFC.

I haven't read the rulebook, but I would guess that decisions like this have to be made by the Conference AGM, so that the Conference only has this one occasion when decisions of this magnitude - ie the whole structure of the competition - are applied for the following season.

If the rules say - and have pretty much always said - that any Club in the Conference structure MUST have absolute, signed & sealed, financial guarantees in place by the AGM in order to qualify for the competition in the next season, and you are then presented with a club which is a financial basket-case, has a winding-up order soon to be heard, which at senior level has no players and (probably) no manager, and which does not own its own ground... you would quite rightly be regarded as negligent in the extreme if you allowed that situation to continue.

It doesn't matter if you are Rushden & Diamonds or Real Madrid. It doesn't matter how many trophies you have won, or what famous names have graced your turf. You know what the rules are, and by when they must be satisfied. If we haven't satisfied the criteria to which our club signed up when it joined, then sometime today we will cease to be a Conference club: and we have no-one to blame but those who took over the Club and ruined it.

Totally agree about looking at things objectively Alan, and I'm trying to do that and can see what you mean....... up to a point. However, that same Board, faced with a written guarantee that money will be invested and the basket case sorted out by mid-week (if this is true and I have no reason to doubt it) then surely that same Board has an obligation to help and assist a football club to get through its problems, or is it there just to dish out punishment and offer little in the way of support? They could agree a resolution that by 5pm on Wednesday, if the guarantee isn't met, that we are ejected from the Conference - then we just have the winding up orders to deal with, HMRC will be less likely to be sensible so we may still be dead anyway !!

I'm fairly sure our fate was sorted out last night over a good brandy after a lavish post-golf dinner and that the Chairman of Southport is looking forward to another season in the BSP !!

I too feel that it's the end today everyone knew the deadlines and what needed to be achieved.
I am sure KC has worked very hard over the last few weeks but the bottom line is he sold it to people who had no money so between the three of them they are responsible for killing this club, of course KC stepped in when we would have died a few years ago so we do appreciate that.

What amazes me is KC now owns a massive White elephant, unless K*ttering are going to play there this year no one is going to be buying it off him in 3 years for a big profit. Why oh why wasn't due diligence done on the beasants in the first place.

I have the best memories of the past but feel very bitter at the moment

That's spot on Bozzer! I also applaud everything that Keith has done for the club, but he's not blameless in this sorry tale. I'm led to believe that the Cloverdale debt, for example, isn't entirely down to the beesants, but now is not the time for blame, it's a time for reflection and to remember what has been great about RDFC and how we all 'lived the dream'!

Apparently that's it we are expelled according to twitter non league show

Sad news, where are our CEO and Chairman!