Following the reprieve Dartford FC would like to release this statement from the Board of Directors :
Statement from the Board
The manner in which Dartford Football Club retained its place in the Conference Premier may not have been as satisfying for the club and supporters as it might have been but it is fair and just nevertheless.
Whilst enormous sympathy must be felt for countless supporters and backroom staff who do so much to keep community football alive, clubs at any level which do not meet their financial or governance responsibilities – whether by accident or design – can find advantage over those that do. Clubs which meet their responsibilities deserve to be protected.
Dartford is not a club to protest, litigate or complain unneccessarily and we offered support and space to the Conference Board for their considerations. We are grateful to them for their logical and professional handling of a difficult situation. The Board of Directors of Dartford Football Club wish the supporters, players and staff of Hereford United and Salisbury City FC well and sincerely hope that a sustainable future lies ahead of you.
The Board are enormously grateful for the loyalty of Dartford supporters, not just for their magnificent support last season but for the manner and character of their response when it appeared that relegation had been confirmed. Your response during those days is perhaps what sets us apart from so many other clubs and we are confident it will be at the heart of our future stability and success.
The financial precariousness of clubs much larger than our own but competing in the same league should be a sobering reminder that whilst so much of our Club may lie with what we do on the pitch, in the community and in schools – the less romantic business of securing stability behind the scenes is every bit as important. The Board is not made up of ‘football directors’ and ‘non-football directors’ and nor are its members ‘new’ or ‘old’. We are ALL focussed on delivering different parts of the same ambition.
The Conference is an expensive and difficult league in which to compete and we need your help in sustaining a business model to help us do so. Please help us expand the club family by encouraging people to attend, support and sponsor The Darts.
As you know, none of the Board, management team or players ever read the Forum (!) but if we did, we would be enormously proud of the passion, interest, ideas and constructive nature of most of its debate. The Board cannot respond to every viewpoint, nor correct every point of speculation but we do recognise that the future our community club does not lie in short term fixes, overseas investors, over-spending or gimmicks. It lies in competing fairly at the highest level we can sustain and showing respect for our history, supporters, volunteers, players and our community.
That is what we intend to do.
The Board.