Dover Athletic's scheduled Skrill South game against Farnborough goes ahead after Hampshire side get Football Conference membership approval
Published: 13:16, 05 September 2013
Dover Athletic will play a Skrill South game on Saturday after scheduled opponents Farnborough were cleared to begin their season by league officials.
The game had hung in the balance with the Hampshire side waiting to learn if they had been accepted into the division by the board of the Football Conference.
The club hit the headlines on the eve of the season when they agreed a deal with bookmakers Paddy Power which agreed to fund the club's exit from administration in return for the Boro players legally changing their names to those of football icons including Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona.
However the club failed to meet the league's membership criteria and were barred from playing fixtures unless they met a 5pm deadline on Thursday to have made off-field changes.
It left Dover with no idea whether they would be travelling west on Saturday until less than 48 hours before the game was due to start, with boss Chris Kinnear labelling the situation 'a bit of a circus.'
A statement from the Football Conference on Friday morning said: "At today’s Board meeting, the Directors of the Football Conference approved a request from Farnborough FC to transfer its membership of the competition from Farnborough Football & Social Club Limited to Boro FC Limited.
"The Board determined the club was now compliant with the FA’s Standardised Rules which govern such a transaction, and it had met all 13 of the terms & conditions set by the Conference at a meeting on August 21.
"The Board now hopes the club and its supporters will enjoy a bright and secure future in the Football Conference, commencing from Saturday with its scheduled home fixture against Dover."
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Alex Hoad