Update
12/03/2012
Are Hampshire FA ignoring their own rules?
Having received a charge of "Improper Conduct" from Hampshire FA last month (29/02/2012), Stuart Byles phoned Hants FA and spoke to Debbie Sowton (Hampshire FA's Disciplinary Manager), he informed her that having left Jubilee 77 in January he no longer had any connection with the FA, Hampshire FA or any of it's affiliated clubs or other organisations and, as such, the FA had no right to level charges against him. Debbie Sowton told Stuart that under "Football Law" (is there such a thing?) the FA could "charge any officer of any club or anyone else that they were aware of." Stuart disputed this but said to Debbie Sowton that if she could produce proof of Hampshire FA's authority over him then he would deal with Hants FA's charge. Debbie Sowton replied that she would send Stuart proof of their authority by post later that week. Nothing came from Hampshire FA that week or the next.
However on the 8th of March 2012 Stuart received an email from his website hosting company that complaints had been received "that you are displaying logos and personal information of others that you don't have expressed permission to use", and demanding that Stuart's website be taken down. After several emails back and forth the hosting company agreed not to interfere but would not divulge the name of the party who had complained, nor could they tell Stuart which logos or personal information were the subject of the complaint. Stuart has since asked for this information and is awaiting a response. Stuart has since taken precautions to prevent the information on this website from being removed by unwarranted threats of legal action against his hosting company.
This action may not be the actions of Hampshire FA but it's timing makes them a prime suspect.
Having secured the website against this kind of backhanded attack and making that clear on the website on 09/03/2012 Stuart was slightly (but not altogether) surprised to receive an email from Hampshire FA's Discipline Administrator, Mike Desborough, this morning (12/03/2012) which stated: "In response to your query regarding the charge issued against yourself and the authority we may or may not have had as a County FA to do so, I can confirm that The Football Association have made it quite clear that as you are currently serving a suspension of 112 days as a result of a previous charge, you are still classified as a participant within football, thus the charge will remain and needs to be answered." Stuart responded to this email with the following: "Debbie Sowton assured me that she would send me evidence of your authority by post last week. I told her that I would deal with your charges if she did. Your saying that the FA have confirmed this is meaningless. I've been through your rules, I am not a participant and unless you show me that section of your rules that shows that you have authority I will take action against you for harassment." The FA's response to this came from Debbie Sowton, who replied: "You can either answer the charge or not but when the case has timed out we will be dealing with it under the regulations. No further correspondence will be entered into until such time as you either request a personal hearing or the case times out and we send you the findings!"
Surely if Hampshire FA is right and I am a participant then they would be able to show me the relevant section of their rules which prevails here? They haven't.
Why haven't they?
Because there is no such section. That's why.
Hampshire FA seem to think that they are a government department with jurisdiction over everybody.
Sorry to break it to you Hampshire FA, but you're just a local sports club with your own members and membership rules. You have no more jurisdiction over me than Fareham & District Chess Club does.
What's more their letter detailing the charges comes with a note which explains that in order to be free of these charges you must send them some money. Is this demanding money with menaces?
Update
09/03/2012
Another attempt to interfere with this website Fails.
My Hosting company have seen sense and, in their words, "will not interfere".
I have received confirmation from the Navy FA this morning that The club has gone back on it's agreement with Aiden and removed him from his Level 2 course.
This content is now hosted on multiple servers.
Update
08/03/2012
Another attempt to interfere with this website.
Somebody has complained to my current website hosting company about this website.
This is becoming harrassment and I will take action against that.
This content is now hosted on my own server. Please note the new url.
Update
07/03/2012
Latest attempt to interfere with this website fails.
Jubilee 77 YFC's club Secretary (that's Andy Vince) and another Jubilee 77 YFC committee member (Alex Bourne) have complained to Fareham Police that what I have written on this website is false and intended to cause them offence, harm, distress or anxiety.
Having asked me to come in and talk to them about this matter, two very diligent and intelligent Police Officers from Fareham Police Station concluded quickly that there was no case to answer.
The reason that there is no case to answer is that my intention is to inform the parents and prospective parents of players of Jubilee 77 YFC of the lack of diligence by Jubilee 77 YFC when it comes to putting into practice the Child Protection Policy which it displays on it's website. Also, it's all true (and telling the truth isn't a crime), so those of you who have asked members of Jubilee 77 YFC's committee about this website and have been told that it's all lies, ask them again, there are no lies here.
Jubilee 77 YFC's Child Protection Policy states under section 2:
The key principles of The FA Child Protection Policy are that:
- The child’s welfare is, and must always be, the paramount consideration
- All children and young people have a right to be protected from abuse regardless of their age, gender, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation
- All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately
Jubilee 77 YFC have failed to implement this policy on a number of occasions that I am aware of and this "Turning a blind eye" to incidents of verbal abuse by some officials in the club towards players of the club is what led me to resign from the committee and then the club as I will not be a part of any organisation that does not take the protection of the children in it's care seriously.
Unlike members of Jubilee 77 YFC's committee, I am not prepared to ignore an assistant manager of the club calling one of his players "A Useless C**t!" or a parent referee screaming "Shut Up!" directly into the face of a player who questioned one of his dubious decisions, this player was left feeling that this (supposed) referee was about to assault him.
The referee incident caused the player's parent and myself (his manager) to rush onto the pitch to stop this abusive referee. Jubilee 77 YFC's committee decided that it was more important that I had broken the FA's rule on entering the playing area without the referee's permission than stopping the abuse directed at a Jubilee player. They ignored our complaints against this abusive man, their findings state that:
The Panel after deliberation agreed that his actions were regrettable. The panel agreed that it was the result of provocation by a U18 Hurricanes player
This abusive man was excused because a child provoked him, the player's manager was suspended from the club for 2 months.
That player's parent and I have talked to several serving police officers about this incident and they all agree that the abusive referee could have been arrested and convicted for his actions and that provocation by a minor would not be a defence.
The assistant manager who called one of his players "A Useless C**t" did so in front of his team mates and at least one parent (the one who told me and the club Treasurer about it), that parent was the club secretary Andy Vince who complained to the police about this website.
He also implied to the Treasurer that the assistant manager concerned regularly talked to his players in this manner.
Despite repeated requests from the Treasurer and myself for the committee to take action against this abusive man, The chairman (Dean Scopes) declared the matter closed after the abusive assistant manager apologised to the other club managers.
No disciplinary panel was convened to hear this case, no disciplinary action was taken against this abusive man, the club accepted his apology to the managers.
Surely he should at least have been made to apologise to the player and his parents?
Does this mean that Jubilee 77 YFC think that "Entering the field of play without the referee's consent" is worse than calling a child in their care a "Useless C**t"?
That's what it looks like to me.
Members of Jubilee 77 YFC have, so far, tried to use lawyers, Hants FA & the police to stop me giving you this information. What next? The UN? The mafia?
On top of this somebody told lies to a jubilee 77 player in my 10 year old daughter's class who (along with his mate) taunted her with the lie "Your dad got kicked out of Jubilee because he swore at a kid in the Nursery Squad".
They have threatened my partner Trudy with legal action.
They have tried to renage on an agreement to fund my son's coaching course (see below).
They have thrown away £165 of the club's money in order to stop my son and I attending a FREE COACHING COURSE.
WHY?
Ask them WHY?
Had they acted properly, as it states they will in the club's Child Protection Policy they wouldn't need to try and gag me and they wouldn't need to answer awkward questions from worried parents.
So Jubilee 77 YFC Committee, why don't you publicly come clean, admit your failings, apologise to the children whom you failed to protect (along with their parents) then find some people who really care about children and let them run the club.
I do know that there are some very good, honest, trustworthy & caring managers and helpers at Jubilee 77 YFC, so in order that the trust that parents have in those good people isn't damaged, I should tell you that the abusive referee referred to above is Andy Valvona and the abusive assistant manager was Simon Mewett's assistant Warren Greenslade.
Update
29/02/2012
Latest developments involving Hampshire FA charging Stuart Byles with misconduct over comments made on this website.
Are Hants FA exceeding their authority?
Stuart Byles received the following charge by Hants FA this morning by registered post
It should be noted that Stuart Byles resigned from Jubilee 77 YFC on 02/01/2012 and is not associated with any organisation which is affiliated to Hants FA or the FA.
A quick look through the FA's "RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION" shows that Hants FA do appear to be overstepping their authority.
Section A2 "DEFINITION AND INTERPRETATION" states:
“Participant” means an Affiliated Association, Authorised Agent, Competition, Club, Club Official, Licensed Agent, Player, Official, Match Official, Management Committee Member, Member or Employee if an affiliated Club and all such persons who are from time to time participating in any activity sanctioned either directly or indirectly by The Association;
I am none of these.
Section E "CONDUCT" Subsection 31 states:
A Participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and shall not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use any one, or a combination of, violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour
Not being a "PARTICIPANT" I do not come under this rule.
Hampshire FA should really be conversant with it's own rules surely?
Having received this letter, Stuart Byles immediately removed the offending text highlighted by Hants FA in this page of their letter as he accepts that this text may be subjective. However this does not mean that Stuart Byles accepts the right of Hants FA to interfere with his right to freedom of expression as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights, which says:
Article 10: Freedom of Expression
(1) Everyone has the right of freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without inference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
(2) The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
This action by Hants FA will, however, make it more likely that all the correspondence between Officials of Jubilee 77 YFC and Hants FA in regard to complaints made to the club and Hants FA about the behaviour of members of Jubilee 77 YFC and a Portsmouth Youth League referee and Official will be published shortly on this website.
Any attempts by the club or Hants FA to interfere with this website again will also be published.
Update:
25/02/2012
Jubilee 77 YFC commitee is throwing your money away in a spiteful attack on ex-coaches Stuart and Aiden Byles.
The club has cancelled 2 McDonald's funded Module 2 courses with just a months notice meaning that it will lose £165 of your money, money that parents have paid in training subs for the benefit of their kids.
That's almost as much as Scott Miller's u15 team has collected in the whole season!
If the club had honoured it's agreement to allow Stuart and Aiden to complete the course then the club would have been refunded the full cost of the course by McDonalds.
The commitee (that's: Dean Scopes, Andy Vince, Simon Barable, John Gilmour & Alex Bourne) is acting purely out of spite
IF YOU PAY YOUR KIDS SUBS EVERY WEEK THE CLUB HAS JUST THROWN AWAY ALL THE MONEY YOU'VE GIVEN THEM SINCE JUNE 2010!
IT COULD HAVE BOUGHT 30 FOOTBALLS!
IT COULD HAVE BOUGHT 10 WATERPROOF JACKETS!
View the letter from the club here.
Jubilee 77 YFC Commitee plunge to new depths of vindictiveness
*******************************TEXT REMOVED DUE TO THREATS FROM HAMPSHIRE FA*************************, Jubilee 77 YFC's commitee (that's: Dean Scopes, Andy Vince, Simon Barable, John Gilmour & Alex Bourne) are now going back on an agreement to reward one of the club's most loyal, helpful and productive player/coaches Aiden Byles.
Having captained his Jubilee 77 team for 5 years, coached an u10/u11/u12 team for Jubilee 77, coached the Nursery Squad for 18 months (helping to produce the current u7 & u8 teams) and conceiving and running the Summer Soccer School for the club, The Chairman, Dean Scopes, and I agreed that the club would pay for Aiden's Level 2 Coaching qualification as a reward for his efforts.
At no time was there any discussion of any conditions being attached to this, as was the case with the u16 coaches Henry, James & Connor, their coaching qualifications were a reward for their great work in the Nursery Squad.
Below is the club's letter to Aiden, delivered by Andy Vince on 20/02/12.
The idea that the club would appoint a 17 year old as it's Head Coach is preposterous as well as being a blatant lie.
Those of you who know Aiden will know how much he has contributed to the club and would, I'm sure, accept that he has certainly earned this reward.
Please let the commitee know your thoughts on this matter and be wary of any agreement you make with the club in the future.