“Ilkeston FC will belatedly get their 2016/17 campaign underway tomorrow, with a home game against Ashton United. After missing the first four games due to a league suspension everyone at Ilkeston FC is excited to finally have football back at the New Manor Ground.”
This is the simple announcement on the Robins’ website, which is great news but supporters would be interested to know how this came about as until now the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League had seemed unmoveable in their decision to ‘ban Ilkeston from all football activities’.
In fact, surely they had no power to ban them from all football activites, only from playing in their league.
This morning’s announcement by the NPL that the suspension has been lifted does not alter the fact that Ilkeston still have to defend themselves against a charge of failing to fulfill four fixtures – even though it was the NPL that stopped them doing it. They appear before the NPL panel next Wednesday.
Anyway, with the playing suspension being lifted, the Robins have chance to get back on the football field – let’s hope the delay and their position at the bottom of the league doesn’t affect them psychologically.
