"I am writing to you as one of your constituents to bring to your attention the current plight of football team AFC Wimbledon.
The FA and Ryman League have recently imposed extraordinarily harsh penalties (£12,000 fine, expulsion from the FA Trophy, Surrey FA Senior Cup and an 18 point deduction) on our club for an innocuous administrative oversight. No unfair advantage was either sought or gained when we failed to realise that an International Clearance Certificate (ICC) was needed when we recently signed an English player who had retired in June from a club playing in the English League and participating in the English FA Cup. The FA considered that the lack of an ICC meant the player was ‘ineligible’.
However, given these facts, you may yourself be wondering why an ICC was required at all. The club in question was Cardiff City and, despite their full participation in English football, their players are registered with the Welsh FA. When a player moves from the jurisdiction of one country’s FA to another, an ICC is needed to confirm that he has no outstanding bookings or suspension.
The player concerned is a very clean footballer so not only did he have no outstanding bookings or suspension but the lack of the required ICC only came to light when he received his first booking for us, in the match at Stonebribge Road where we beat Gravesend & Northfleet. By this time he had already played in 4 cup games and 11 league games. Frustratingly, when we were made aware of the need to get an ICC, this took a total of one hour and 3 e-mails. It was totally due to the fact that it took 15 games for him to be booked for the first time that the punishment is so severe.
Our club have appealed to The FA against the severity of the punishment handed out by The Ryman League. We accept that an administrative error was made, but that the severity of the punishment is in no way is proportionate to the minor administrative error, Altrincham FC were treated in a similarly harsh fashion last year, it is time for an urgent policy review to be executed by the FA. We feel compared to the Italian match-fixing punishments or the punishment Chelsea received for " tapping up" Ashley Cole that our punishment is grossly excessive.
I would ask you to help in whatever way you feel is likely to be most helpful. In particular I would urge you to sign the above EDM as many of your colleagues already have".