Two New Clubs for Second Division

As a result of recent events, the Football Alliance have announced that the two vacancies which existed in the Second Division due to the combination of Crewe Alexandra’s promotion and Matlock Town’s resignation will be allocated to the 3rd and 4th placed clubs in the 2014-15 regional league play-offs, the Newcastle-based Anglo-Scots Caledonia Thistle of the Northern League, and another team with ethnic origins and associations, Excelsior Benelux from the London and South-East Counties, whose home is Cambridge.

Crewe Promoted - Matlock Resign

Following a weekend of rumour but official silence, the Football Alliance have today announced that the position in next season’s Championship vacated by the recent merger of Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland to create the new Hartlepool Petrochemical will be awarded to last season’s third-placed club in the Second Division, thus promoting Crewe Alexandra after they just missed out at the very last (having occupied one of the two promotion places for much of the season).

Crewe have responded to this development with both surprise and delight, with the expectation having been that Matlock Town, the second-bottom club to be relegated from the Championship last term, would be reinstated to the division, but it transpires that the authorities have refused to ratify the proposed merger between Matlock Town and their Midland League neighbours Derby County, leaving both clubs in limbo at the moment and Matlock in a position where they feel unable to continue as a viable national league entity, thus leading them to the decision to resign from the Football Alliance, an unfortunate turn of events to befall its inaugural champions, and, indeed, title winners as recently as 2012.

These developments have now created two vacancies in next season’s Second Division, the filling of which will be announced in due course.

Major Merger News!

News today of the announcement of a merger between two of the north-east’s Championship clubs, Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland. The new club will be known as Hartlepool Petrochemical, based in the town and who will assume the history of United, four times winners of the Football Alliance Championship in its first 13 seasons, and thus end three and a half decades of underachievement at Sunderland, who at times promised much, occasionally challenging for the title, but ultimately failed to deliver on the trophy front. By way of a curious coincidence, Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland met in what proved to be their last ever matches as such, ending in a 5 - 0 victory for the 'Pool in the final round of Championships fixture of last season.

The club colours will be closely related to Hartlepool United’s - light blue and white halved shirts with Sunderland’s red star on the left, white panel, white shorts and red socks with white tops.

Being an amalgamation of two clubs from the same division, Hartlepool Petrochemical will take a place in the Championship, but the equation of two-into-one means that a place in the top flight becomes vacant, of course, which the governing body have announced, somewhat opaquely, will be allocated “after due consideration of a number of factors”.

Marlow and Oxford Merge

Following last season’s relegation from the Championship, it has today been announced that Oxford Excelsior have decided to merge with Marlow, who themselves only just retained their place in the top flight. The new club will be named Excelsior Marlow, based in Marlow, assume Marlow’s Championship status, their playing and honours history (including four league titles and a European Cup, of course), and sport the colours of Marlow, those famous blue and red quartered shirts with white shorts.

A significant consequence of the merger is that it means, of course, that what would have been the now-defunct Oxford’s place in next season’s Second Division becomes vacant - the Football Alliance have moved swiftly to announce that this vacancy will be allocated to the runners-up in the 2014-15 regional leagues promotion play-off, Bohemians. The winners of the play-off, Birkenhead’s Torpedo Tranmere, of the North West Counties League, have automatically replaced the relegated Newcastle United.

Name Change #2: Red Star Mossley

Another of the established Championship clubs has announced a change of name with immediate effect, in this case 5-times title winners Mossley, who will henceforth be sponsored by the Greater Manchester branch of the Communist Party, essentially being the sporting/football wing of the organization, and thus known as Red Star Mossley, with the intention to incorporate a red star into the design of the club’s traditional green, black and red colours for the coming 2015-16 season.

Name Change: Manchester Central

EWFA Championship club Manchester City have announced that they will henceforth be known as Manchester Central, and will kick-off the 2015-16 season as such.
This is as far as the rebranding process goes, as the traditional club colours of sky blue shirts and white shorts will be retained.

European League Champions and Cup Winners 2014 - 15

With the dust having settled on the domestic season, it's now possible to take stock of events on the continent and publish the list of the various league champions and cup winners from across Europe - these being the teams who, potentially, Stalybridge Celtic and Gainsborough Trinity might encounter during their adventures in next season's Champions' and inaugural Cup-Winners' Cups respectively.

Many a familiar name appears on the list, serial champions such as Internazionale and St-Etienne are present, as are Atletico Madrid and Vasas Budapest, both league winners again, and RWD Molenbeek in Belgium, completing a hat-trick of title triumphs, so the competition for the European trophies will be as fierce as ever, and the quality doubtless as high.