Ballymacash and Warren share the title after long running saga

Ballymacash Rangers III and Warren YM II have been declared South Antrim League Division 2 champions.
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Due to recent appeals to the South Antrim Football League (SAFL), County Antrim Football Association (CAFA) and Irish Football Association (IFA) the SAFL have said; “Both teams played fair and within the rules throughout the season and the committee considered all possibilities and decided this was fair to both teams to share the title. Two sets of medals and two keepsakes will be issued.

The committee made a statement which might clear things up and set a few things straight.

They added: “Well done, lads”.

The statement reads:

Recent newspaper reports have been inaccurate, leading to misinformation being put into the public domain.

The SAFL acted upon information given to them from the CAFA.

The SAFL were found by the IFA to have acted correctly and without prejudice in the information given to them by all parties regarding an incident that occurred during a Ballymacash Rangers III v Ballymacash YM III game.

IFA praised the SAFL on their conduct and help on the matter.

As is their right, Ballymacash Rangers successfully appealed to the CAFA their initial findings.

This was then heard by the IFA who found discrepancies in the referee’s reporting of the incident and over-ruled the CAFA ruling.

Because they were successful the SAFL therefore found the original ruling to be unnecessary and re-instated the points deduction.

Warren YM II were successful in their appeal against Carrowdore YM, who were found to have played unregistered player(s) against them in last league game, which led to Warren YM being awarded two extra points for the game - a 2-0 win instead of a 5-5 draw.

Both clubs finished on same amount of points.

Goal difference does not come into play in our League.

‘League play-off’ at neutral ground was considered...but as of June nobody is classed as 1st, 2nd or 3rd, so could have been a very different game selection wise.

Transfer and registration open in June . . both clubs could have signed a whole new team, as well as playing last season’s 1st/2nd team players in a ‘play-off’.

Both clubs have not played in a number of weeks and now have players left the club or on holidays.

Footnote: Regarding the opening paragraph of the statement which mentions recent newspaper reports being inaccurate I can only assume this was only referring to “Star” reports, as far as I know the matter was not reported elsewhere.

I would suggest all reports in the “Star” were correct at the time of going to Press, but some may have been picked up wrongly due to publication time and events moving on during the week.

I think the League statement corrects any misconceptions and everyone is now happy to put the matter to bed - Harry Allen.