BAFA Timeout – Maidstone Pumas withdraw from league

It has been announced today that the Maidstone Pumas have withdrawn from the National League South East division with immediate effect. The news was broken this evening by BAFA Director Andy Fuller.

In the statement Andy Fuller said “Following discussions with representatives from the Pumas it has been agreed that the team will withdraw from their fixtures and work towards returning to League action in 2015.”

Fuller continued “It is not a decision which has been taken lightly. We hope that the coming months will provide the team with an opportunity to review and strengthen its offering so that they have a great foundation for when they complete the Associate process and return to our competition. We look forward to welcoming them back.”

With the Pumas having already started the season, all future games shall be awarded as 1-0 scorelines unless the Competition Management realign the fixtures. This will be looked at with the remaining teams from Monday”

This is another blow to the League following the withdrawal of the Sussex Thunder and DC Presidents just before the start of the season three weeks ago. Add to this the forced postponement of a couple of fixtures already, we can only hope that this is the end of such blips for the League this year.