Blues escape pitch penalty
Birmingham City have been found not guilty of misconduct following the postponement of their game with Leeds United earlier this season.Blues' clash with the relegation strugglers on 13th January was called off for safety reasons after the club had resurfaced St Andrews.
Adverse weather conditions resulted in the new pitch being unplayable, yet Birmingham were charged with misconduct by the Football League.
The promotion hopefuls' bid for a place in the Premiership could have been hit by a points deduction as part of any punishment.
But at a disciplinary hearing on Friday, the club were cleared of any wrongdoing and will face no sanctions.
According to a statement on the club's official website, the FDC chairman James Goudie QC and panel found that:
"The postponement of the game was caused by circumstances beyond the control of the club, namely freak weather conditions.
"Those conditions could not reasonably have been foreseen or anticipated before the pitch was taken up and occurred before the relaying could be completed."
Birmingham chairman David Gold was happy with the verdict, saying: "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 relaid and ready to play on?
"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."
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Blues Cleared On Leeds Postponement Charges
Blues have been cleared of any misconduct charges relating to the postponement of the game with Leeds United in January. A new pitch was laid just prior to the Championship game with Leeds at St Andrew's on January 12th but following adverse weather conditions the pitch did not take properly forcing the postponement of the game.
Blues have, however, now been cleared of any wrongdoing following a Football League disciplinary hearing on Friday.
"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 relaid and ready to play on?," chairman David Gold has 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."
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