Dartford moved up to Ryman Div 1 NORTH !

Absolutely ridiculous ! This is what has ben put on the official Dartford website:

At tonights board meeting it was decided reluctantly to accept the situation, and to focus all our efforts into the upcoming campaign. We had investigated the possibility of appealing against this decision, but had been advised that this would be a futile exercise. We will be however writing to the various bodies to express our extreme displeasure at the recent events. We are still in a state of shock at the events of last night, where this situation was sprung upon us without any prior knowledge. It was obviously something that had been arranged by a group of other clubs in advance, and it would have been only right and proper to have had advance notice. The apparent collusion of the Nothern clubs is understandable, where they will benefit financially from the large away following that we will bring, but the reasoning of the certain clubs in the South is less understandable.
From the information that we have gathered, we believe the standard of the Div 1 North is not as low as some people assume, having only met less that half the clubs before, and we feel that it will be just as competitive as the Div 1 South.
It is now time to look forward, and to reach the same goal as in Div1 South which is to get into the Premier Div.
The Board of Dartford FC


Over the last few weeks prior to the meeting, we had spoken to the league about who would be going where, and at no time had any indication that we would be involved in a move. In fact the FA Alliance committe had put Molesey into the north, which is why it appeared in the constitution on the Ryman league website. This was then followed by protests led by clubs other than those involved, and was discussed by the Lleague board prior to the AGM. When entering the meeting we were given an updated constitution which became the recommended proposal. This was 23 teams in the South, and 21 in the North with Molesey staying in the South. This proposal was then rejected by an alliance of clubs from north, who were looking after their own self interest, and some clubs from the south who were looking to remove us as potential rivals for the title. A long and chaotic discussion then took place with three names being put forward to be moved. Eventually it was proposed to have a blind ballot to decide between the 3 clubs who should be moved. Voting was 27 for Dartford, 21 for Corinthian Casuals, 2 for Molesey and 9 abstentions. A further vote was then taken approve moving us. This went 35 for, 17 against, and 10 abstentions.
Therefore we had to move.