Blues cleared of pitch charge
20 Apr 2007 - 17:50:10
Birmingham City have been cleared of a misconduct charge after failing to fulfil their fixture with Leeds United in January.
Their Championship meeting had to be postponed after torrential rain hampered the re-laying of the St Andrew's playing surface.
A Football League commission agreed with the Blues' claim that they had done everything in their power to ensure the match went ahead as scheduled.
"Those conditions could not reasonably have been foreseen or anticipated before the pitch was taken up and occurred before the relaying could be completed," confirmed a statement on behalf of the commission.
Birmingham chairman David Gold was delighted with the outcome as the Championship promotion hopefuls could have been fined or even hit with a points deduction.
"I am absolutely delighted. How could there be a case when we had done everything possible in the period leading up to the Leeds game to ensure the pitch would be re-laid and ready to play on?" he said.
"Unfortunately, we encountered some of the most extreme amounts of rain in a short period of time in recent history.
"It was bad luck and you can't go around blaming people when the issues are out of their control.
"We even brought in the Football League's own pitch expert to assist us and help us do the right thing.
"We have always believed we did nothing wrong and it is good news for the club."
