Brighouse Town football club were recently charged with fielding an ineligible player due to not having international clearance in the 2019/20 FA Trophy.
The situation is the result of a recent signing (September 2019) who came to us from a Northern Counties East Team having also been registered this season with another Northern Counties East side before joining us.
The player had also played over a season in the Northern Counties East League playing in the FA cup and FA Vase competitions in the 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 Seasons.

Brighouse Town were the sixth team he has registered for in England at step 5 or above.

Prior to submitting the registration guidance was sort and advice provided regarding the information that was required to register the player.
The information provided gave us permission to register the player, we received confirmation of registration and felt we had followed correct procedures.
The question of International Clearance only arose when we requested further guidance from the FA due to an approach for the player from a Step 3 club.

As a result of the charge and despite the circumstances the FA have ruled to remove us from this seasons FA Trophy competition.

We believe this is an extremely unfortunate situation and all at the football club are hugely disappointed by the decision and the circumstances surrounding it.

It must be made clear this wasn't an administrative error or an oversight by anyone at the football nor is the player concerned to blame.

We have decided against an appeal and want to now focus on our positive run of results and continue with the season ahead.