Statement: Wythenshawe Town

In such circumstances, the NPL does not normally make any comment. An exception is being made here because the claims made in the club’s original statement are false and misleading.

The club has been suspended from membership of the NPL for failing to provide information relative to the Financial Reporting Initiative (FRI) to which all clubs at Steps 1-4 of the NLS are subject and 87 out of 88 member clubs are currently compliant.

The purpose of the FRI is to provide a level playing field that ensures clubs manage their liabilities and do not gain an unfair advantage by ploughing money into the team at the expense of HMRC and the club’s landlord.

Wythenshawe Town FC has not been suspended because the club supplied the information required in the wrong format.

In the case of Wythenshawe Town FC, whilst the club has provided evidence of payments made to HMRC, it has not provided details of the full extent of its debt. The League, therefore, cannot assess the extent of any outstanding debts to the crown, or that the Time To Pay agreement – of which the club supplied details yesterday – covers the full debt to HMRC, as required by FA Regulations.

The club was given several extensions to allow the required information as laid down in FA Standardised Rules but has failed to do so despite being under a player registrations embargo for the past month, continued to be non-compliant.

11 weeks after being asked to provide this information, Wythenshawe Town remains the only NPL member club to be non-compliant with the FRI. At this point, a suspension was imposed, which will remain in place until the requirement of the League is met in full.

The Northern Premier League cannot permit any member club’s sustainability to put the integrity of the competition at risk.