Rather than let me explain the ins and outs of what is going on, please take time to read the following plea from a Macclesfield Town die-hard and please bear in mind that this plea was published three days before Christmas Day 2005.

Dear Football Fans,

Yes, I know - yet another football club is on the rocks, and of course it's up to all of you to bail us out. It's the way it goes these days, and I don't blame you for feeling a bit apathetic about Macclesfield Town's current plight. But since you've made it this far, you might as well take a couple of minutes to hear our case, because what has happened to this club should raise fundamental concerns about the suitability of the Football Association to run the game, even if you decide that best wishes are all you can offer us.

Allow me to explain.

On Monday morning, Macc Town were a club with strong links to the community, who, despite a lowly League ranking and small attendances, had as bright a future as any other club in the League.

By 4pm, they became a club on the verge of extinction.

I won't bore you with the details, but Macc Town were charged by the FA of misusing a Football Foundation grant which paid for a new stand. At no point did the money go near the playing staff, and the club gained no competitive advantage (no points were docked).

Our current board (which bears no relation to the board of 4 years ago which committed the offences) plead guilty to those charges, and they were fully co-operative with the FA at every stage of the investigation.

Naturally, we were mainly optimistic about the outcome of the FA's enquiry. Of course no-one expected a pardon from the FA, but we did expect a substantial but even-handed fine that would see justice done without unnecessarily hampering the considerable efforts we've made in building a community club.

After all, the FA (according to their website) are about 'Promoting the development of the game amongst all ages, backgrounds and abilities in terms of participation and quality. This also involves promoting the availability of the sport to the greatest possible number of people.'

Perhaps I am being particularly short-sighted, but I am unsure how giving Macc a £300,000 levy to pay in six weeks quite ties in with this. Sadly it will almost certainly prevent us from helping the FA to achieve these laudable goals, due an imminent lack of existence on our part. Perhaps there is a clause in the FA's many regulations which exempts Macclesfield from this having to do any of this tedious 'promoting the availability of sport' stuff.

Essentially, the FA is serving a brand of justice with a much greater injustice. If you'd like a portrait of how the great minds at the FA work, I recommend Simon Jordan's article from The Observer, 'So Who Is Barry Bright?'. He talks about the sort of people running your game - people unconcerned about promoting the availability of football, but in expanding a relentlessly punitive bureaucracy.

Samuel Johnson is always good for a quote, and he once said 'An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.' And so it is the case here, because this is a punishment that will aid nobody. £195,000 will admittedly go to the Football Foundation, but the benefits of that will be entirely outweighed by the loss of a community football club.

By fining Macc so harshly, the FA are in fact failing in their fundamental obligation to promote football, which is a much higher injustice than the extinction of a tiny club in Cheshire.

Of course, I implore you to donate to this scheme because it will directly save my club. But I also offer this as a referendum against the damaging bureaucracy of the FA, and ask you to consider that by assuring the future of Macc Town, the goals of 'promoting the availability of sport' are upheld. If the FA can't do this, then we must.

To donate please visit www.mtfc.info

Thank you

Now since this was published before Christmas, it appears that the Silkmen's cause hasn't got any better. Judging by the 'responses' on their front page, www.mtfc.co.uk they need to raise an awful lot of money in just over two weeks.

This is where you can help. Purchase a pixel for as little as £1.25. What is £1.25 trying to help save a club that someone loves? If it were your club, you would want someone to help you.

£1.25 per pixel. What can you get for £1.25 nowadays??

http://www.mtfc.info

Thanks Everybody

40 YEARS A BLUE!