Littlehampton Town furious as they’re told to play Brighton & Hove Albion in cup FORTY hours before league game

The Sussex FA has set Thursday, February 23, as the date for the game after other possible nights for it to be staged proved difficult for one or other club involved.

Littlehampton feel the new date suits Brighton, not them, and they are threatening not to play their first team.

It is the latest in a series of disputes which have hit the competition down the years in which some of Sussex’s smaller clubs have felt they are not being treated equally by the Sussex FA.

As things stand the Marigolds are due to visit Ashford on Saturday, February 25, for an Isthmian south east clash vital to both teams’ hopes of making the play-offs – but the Sussex FA are suggesting to Golds that’s the game that should be put off if one has to go.

Brighton U23s are the holders of the competition, having beaten Worthing in last season’s Amex Stadium final.

A statement issued by Littlehampton Town, who represented Sussex at Wembley last May when they reached the FA Vase final, explained the background to the date for the tie and why they were unhappy.

"Last week the Sussex FA ordered our Sussex Senior Cup tie vs Brighton and Hove Albion to take place on Wednesday 22nd February,” said LTF.

“Despite our preference for the tie to take place on Tuesday 21st February we accepted the decision due to Brighton having an U21 league game on the Monday night. We were then informed that Brighton did not agree to the Wednesday date on a player welfare basis.

“However, Brighton didn't seem to have this same issue when they played Leicester City last Monday and Burgess Hill two days later.

“We then offered to host the fixture on the week commencing 27th February which would result in our Isthmian League game vs Sevenoaks having to be postponed.

“Today (Friday) the Sussex FA have ordered the tie to take place at The Sportsfield on Thursday 23rd February. This now means we would have less than 48 hours before our league fixture vs Ashford Utd.

“If the competition committee agrees a full-time club (with a large playing squad) can’t play two games in 48 hours due to player welfare then you can’t expect a part-time club to play with 44 hours difference.

“We are baffled by this disappointing decision made by the Sussex FA. With such a big game at Ashford to focus on, we will now consider whether this Senior Cup tie will even be a first team fixture for us.”

Sussexworld.co.uk asked the Sussex FA to explain and they gave us this statement, which says the county cup is more important than league games – a fact that has always been a mystery to many clubs and fans as county cups rarely attract as many fans as league matches.

The Sussex FA said: “This decision (to play on Feb 23) was made by the competitions committee as the two clubs could not agree on a date for the game to be played.

"In these circumstances the County FA set a date for the match to be played. Brighton originally requested the game to be played on the 15th February, but Littlehampton declined as they already had a game on Tuesday 14th February in the Ishmian League.

"The county cup takes priority over this fixture but the County FA and the committee wanted to accommodate a date that worked best for both clubs. The decision for the game to be played on 23rd of February was made in line with competition and FA handbook rules."Priority is given to the County Cup Competition. All other competitions must be considered as secondary, so with that being said the league game on Saturday should be treated as secondary and potentially needed to be rescheduled."The Sussex FA also quoted the FA rulebook which says: “Except by permission of the Management Committee all Competition Matches must be played on the dates originally agreed but priority shall be given to The FA and parent County Association Cup Competitions. All other matches must be considered secondary.

"Clubs may mutually agree to bring forward a Competition match with the consent of the Competition. Failure to comply with this Rule will result in a fine in accordance with the Fines Tariff.”

Brighton & Hove Albion declined to comment, indicating it was not their decision to set February 23 as the date for the tie.