So, Who Can Call a Match Off? Accrington Stanley v Sunderland – abandoned
Members will be aware that John Newsham, on behalf of a number of EFL clubs is engaged in dialogue with Bob Eastwood and Paul Snellgrove to try to ascertain precisely who is entitled to call off a match should unusual circumstances prevail. This is not intended to be some kind of witch hunt, just an attempt to drill down into the correct procedures.
I know what happened at Accrington Stanley over the weekend was unusual and it is a bit of a different situation, but in the biggest match in terms of attendance ever staged at the Wham Stadium, the weather was so poor that after around 75 minutes it was decided to bring it to a halt.
An e-mail was sent to Mark Turner, Safety Officer at Accrington Stanley asking him about it and he told me that there was a collaboration between the match referee and the coaches of each team as there was concern over players’ safety as well as that of the 5000+ spectators attending the match, of which almost 50% were from Wearside. There had been a number of inspections ahead of the match in order to give it the go-ahead. Clearly a pre-match postponement would have caused a number of challenging issues, but who would have been making the final decision?
Both Rick Riding of the SGSA and Bob Eastwood of the EFL were present at the match.
Next up is BBC News take on the events.
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