National League North and South playoffs

[Brian Ashley]

Chorley finished 6th but have been placed in the playoffs due to Darlington's seating problems. Same in the south where 2 clubs who finished outside have been included. Is this a FA ruling that has applied accross all leagues or just a rule intoduced by the National league ? Has this happened before this season.

 

[Dave James]

Brian as I understand it, this is a newly introduced rule whereby every club in the National league premier division must have 500 covered seats in 2 stands. Due to Darlington moving to their new home in December they weren't aware of this rule change and by the time this came to light there was no chance of raising the funds in time or getting the work completed by the deadline. No doubt they will come back stronger next season.

 

[Mark Riding]

Pretty sure it's not a new rule. There's two seating requirements in the ground gradings for the NL N/S divisions. One for being in the league and another to be eligible for promotion. They just didn't read the manual!

Darlington and the Southern teams had the grading to stay in the league, but not the one for promotion.

As for teams substituting in for other ineligible teams, we should all know that one's not new. The last season that most of us followed Vics, FC United took the playoff spot despite finishing 6th after the NPL deamed Vics ineligible for the playoffs.