Not been granted a licence for next season, fined and deducted 9 points

No licence = no beer. Crowds will drop. They should have been fined 9 pints instead! (I'll get me coat)

kicked out of league according to local news

What I admire about Gateshead, is despite all the shi5 they’ve had hurled at them, the team spirit was undiminished in a club where the fans and players were as one. I’d kill for that sort of commitment here. What a shame.

We’re up to 16th. Sorry for Gateshead and will be wondering who we get for Boxing Day now. The league will decide in June who will replace them. Aldershot to stay up? Spennymoor promoted? Playoff between losing playoff finalists?

Sorry for Pinkerton and Soul.

What an unholy mess - and who, with any sense, would take this basket case over - sorry Heed fans, but I can't even see the Council being able to support what is now little more than a name, with some history.

Well if they are removed as is virtually certain, then Aldershot will remain in the Division. This is a regular occurrence at this level and Forest Green were specialists at gaining a reprieval.

Boxing Day/ New Year's Day will be Harrogate as there is no one else any closer.

We are lucky to have escaped so lightly after Coxall and his crowd.

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Well if they are removed as is virtually certain, then Aldershot will remain in the Division. This is a regular occurrence at this level
feel sorry for aldershot as well. they might have got themselves geared up for regional football next season and released players and offered different contracts to players they might have kept or signed ones they would have got rid of. should have been done earlier as it hasn,t helped gateshead one bit.

There's a good summary on the Yeovil fan site:
http://www.ciderspace.co.uk/ASP/news/ne ... emId=29956

There's a theoretical right of appeal but it sounds all done and dusted as far as the League is concerned.

Thanks - a good, simple read.

Who would pay for any appeal?

Coxall and cronies found a buyer just before the crap really hit the fan, that's the difference. If Sage hadn't stepped in (and how much must they regret that decision?) Pools would very likely have been a fan-owned club starting life in the Northern Premier League in season 2017/18.

Once again the F.A. allow crooks to take over a club bleed it dry and disappear then to add insult to injury then punish the club involved, another success story for the fit and proper persons test. The only losers are once again the fans.

Not wishing to add insult to injury but how can they impose a points deduction for a season that has already finished? What's the point, particularly if it doesn't have any significant impact. I thought there was a cut off date or does that only apply to clubs going into administration?

I do think the officers of the FA who approve someone as 'fit and proper' owners should be held to account if the owners prove to be sharks? There should be an inquiry and disciplinary action taken against officers who have not done their jobs thoroughly and/or properly.

Not really a buyer as such or anything like that Sage loaned the club/Coxhall a lot of money, that’s how it started it wasn’t investment it was a high interest loan because Coxhall was desperate to cover his tracks after Goldberg departed the scene with God knows how much.

They only became involved for me because Blackledge realised it was the only way he’d claw anything back from his misjudgment. They essentially asset stripped the club. Sage made a bad situation a lot worse.

You're right to recall that Sage's initial involvement was as lenders - they obviously put the thought of a quick profit ahead of due diligence. But the real asset strippers were Coxberg. Unlike JPNG, there was more to Sage than a photograph of an office front. The season before last was a disaster, but the show stayed more or less on the road just long enough for Raj and Jeff to take over. We could easily have 'done a Gateshead' at the end of the relegation season if Coxall hadn't been able to cut and run leaving Sage holding the baby.

Have a look back at how many players were sold for fees after Coxhall left the scene, it’s quite a lot. I would call Coxberg outright thieves more than asset strippers right down the salaries they were paying themselves without any competence or knowledge for the roles they had put themselves in. Sage didn’t do anything wrong technically I think the remit was to try and make the best of a bad mistake and situation.

"I would call Coxberg outright thieves more than asset strippers"

Ouch! That's the sound of a hair splitting.

Has any attempt been made to prosecute Coxberg etc or is it the case that the rules are so loose that conmen are literally queuing up to shaft yet further lower league clubs?

He was the chairman and owner of the club when he, ahem, chose to deploy club funds on other projects.

The Glazers have apparently taken over £400 million out of Man Utd since they became owners there so it can happen at all levels of football.

Not really, you can’t put Sage in the same bracket as Coxberg. Blackledge in a way was a victim of them it’s hard to have sympathy for him but he did lose a fair bit of cash, maybe not as much as was suggested though as they sustained the club and clawed back what they could by asset stripping and season ticket money until that ran out Christmas. Nothing illegal he just decided no more of his money was to be poured into a black hole. But he runs a proper company and has actually money pointing out the difference between them and two conmen isn’t splitting hairs. He parted with money, Coxberg took money.

People who dealt with him like Jeff Stelling said Blackledge was a man of integrity, and in the end he did play a part in the clubs survival. Coxberg nearly destroyed us a couple years after being handed a debt free business. Again, not splitting hairs completely different people with completely different motives.

Are you having a laugh? You started off a few posts ago saying "Sage made a bad situation a lot worse."

A lot worse than who? JPNG? That's a load of bollocks, which I pointed out. You then made a feeble distinction between thieving and asset stripping, which is the same fucking thing in most people's books. So I pointed that out to. Which brings you round to "People who dealt with him like Jeff Stelling said Blackledge was a man of integrity, and in the end he did play a part in the clubs survival." Wasn't that my fucking point in the first place???

But you're "not spitting hairs." Jesus fucking wept.

Asset stripping isn’t illegal, morally questionable yes but not the same as theft which is illegal. If you can’t see the difference in the two then I’m wasting my time.

They made the situation worse because as soon as Blackledge loaned Coxhall a million pounds or whatever it was, which we can assume at the time was in good faith that he might get the money back, we had a mountain more debt and payments to keep up with beyond the quick fixes that Coxhall had used in previous months. It compounded a bad situation and put the club in serious trouble.

The point I disagreed with in the first place was you saying Coxhall ‘found a buyer’ he didn’t, Sage didn’t want to own or run a football club they ended up involved as a damage limitation exercise. Had we found a buyer and Coxberg had disappeared before Sage loaned us money the situation wouldn’t have been as bad.

It's official now. Gateshead in national league north while aldershot remain in the national league.

for me its a bit of good news as i thought they,d end up in the evo stick.

So does that mean Aldershot home and away on boxing day and new years day?

With clubs being penalised by getting demoted, could we soon welcome the likes of Bury and Rochdale into the National League? Or Oldham?

I remember going to Oldham for festive period matches - you could see the snow coming in from miles away! Made the Vic feel positively barmy by comparison! So, could Oldham replace Gateshead? Be better than Barrow!

I imagine we will simply play Harrogate Boxing/New Years Day?

Have Gateshead been treated fairly or not? They fulfilled all their fixtures last season and have already been fined and deducted 9 points for other breaches of NL rules. They've now got new owners who appear to have enough money to put them back on a sound financial footing. According to the Evening Chronicle "The Tynesiders are expected to remain a full-time professional outfit, one of a number in National League North." I wonder if any of their former players will re-sign now?

In the NLN the Heed have got derbies with Blyth Spartans, Spennymoor and Darlo to look forward to and trips to places like York, but relegation still looks like a double punishment when the League should be taking some responsibility for last season's fiasco, caused by a phantom takeover that they approved.

The initials in their FAPP test for new owners must surely stand for Fuck Any Proper Procedure.

Fapp - Urban Dictionary
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fapp

To masturbate furiously. So hard, in fact, that it makes a wet "fap" noise repeatedly. the double "p" in this word is because it is the abbreviated version of "Fapping"

Rather appropriate, I would say ...

I think Halifax might have something to say about that it’s about half an hour away I can see us being lumbered with Barrow!

Being selfish Harrogate on a sunny August afternoon would be jackpot.

Not quite that straightforward PJ, you still have company law to contend with.

If a director purposefully transfers money or assets out of the company knowing that debts cannot be paid as a result then he or she breeches his/her fiduciary duties. Whilst that's a civil offence rather than criminal, more often than not the same actions constitute fraud.

I think Halifax might have something to say about that it’s about half an hour away I can see us being lumbered with Barrow!

think halifax could get stockport. apart from a couple of miles at the start and end its motorway and duel carriageway for the whole journey. halifax to harrogate is a ball ache A roads or miles round motorway journey. barrow could get fylde. they deserve each other.

Maybe. It’s only 30 miles away though and it’s who they played last year. Fylde v Chorley looks fairly obvious to me, I reckon Wrexham and Stockport will pair up, I just see us and Barrow out on a limb a bit and Barrow would probably want us looking at other options.

In terms of crowds we’d be better off playing Stockport, Wrexham or Chesterfield.

Does anyone else feel it’s not as good an idea as it actually sounds anyway to play your closest game over Christmas? A lot of these teams are devoid of away support whenever you play them and we would probably take more away on a normal Saturday when all the trains/transport options are running. Gateshead away would have been far better as a social day early or late season on a Saturday than Boxing Day. Plus I’m not sure about playing the same team twice in a week, it all feels a bit unbalanced and shit.