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BLUES TO APPEAL FA LEAGUE ALLOCATION
BY ROB MCNEIL  2 HOURS AGO 

Long Eaton United FC confirm their intention to appeal the FA's decision allocating them to the NPL Division One East. Newly appointed Long Eaton United Chairman Nick Dargan has today confirmed the club’s intention to appeal against the Football Association’s decision to promote the club to the Northern Premier League Division One East, rather than the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands, despite the fact that the club is Midlands based.

Speaking about the decision to appeal, Dargan said: "Having achieved promotion to Step 4 for the first time in the club’s history, the level of excitement from everyone associated with the club, along with the whole local community, was fantastic to see.  "However, with one decision, the mood has changed from eager anticipation to utter despair and fear of the consequences. “We understand league allocations are complex - but at a time when the FA publicly state that, ‘the restructure will have a positive impact on a significant number of clubs, supporting them with reduced travel and costs and providing greater opportunities for generating income via localised fixtures’, allocating seven fixtures with over 200-mile round trips - four of which exceed 300 miles - cannot be right.“ We fully expected, planned and budgeted for increased travel from our promotion, but the proposed allocation just does not work. "It is not in the best interests of the FA, the clubs in the NPL East Division, the clubs in the NPL Midlands Division, our manager, his assistants, the players, our supporters, our volunteers and our management group, as well as having a significant negative impact on the environment.

"We have notified the FA of our wish to appeal the decision and look forward to sharing our concerns with them during a personal hearing, where we will suggest what we believe to be sensible, workable alternatives that would prove to be logistically, financially and environmentally better for all concerned.

”The club will keep fans updated via social media on the situation as and when decisions have been made and meetings have taken place.