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STADIUM PROBLEMS: Durham City's Archibalds Stadium, which might prevent City being promoted through the national system. Picture: pk4images

DURHAM City are champions of the Arngrove Northern League Division One - but they may well have to defend their trophy next year, as they have been told they may not be promoted to the UniBond League.

Whitley Bay, City's nearest rivals, lost at Tow Law on Tuesday night, securing the title for Durham, who ironically beat the Lawyers the Saturday before.

But improvements to their Archibalds Stadium needed to gain entry to the UniBond will be finished too late in order for them to move up the national system.

The works needed to be carried out by the end of March, in order for them to be eligible for promotion.

But the work, mainly on hardstanding, hasn't been completed, and now FA official Adrian Titcombe, who is responsible for ground inspections, has told the club that they've missed the deadline and will be pointing that out in his report to the FA.

Durham secretary Danny Day said: "In an e mail to Adrian Titcombe, we told him that our ground improvements would be finished by the end of April. He told us that he would reschedule his visit, but he would also tell the FA's Leagues committee that the works weren't done by the stipulated deadline. We believe that we've still got time to do them and be accepted into the UniBond."

And vice chairman Gerard O'Connor revealed: "We didn't do some of the work until we were absolutely convinced that we were wanting to go to the UniBond. A lot of work is superficial - I don't think there's an insurmountable problem."

But the Northern League feel that the FA will have no option other than to rule out Durham's application. League chairman Mike Amos said: "It seems to me that the FA must abide by their own rules. If they don't, then there'll be mayhem. They can't bend the rules according to circumstances.

The clubs who said they wanted to go to the Uni- Bond have known about the March 31 deadline for a year."

Durham also applied to the UniBond League last season, but withdrew their application at the last minute following huge uncertainty over whether the UniBond First Division North would get off the ground.

They also applied to join the UniBond League in 1994 when they last won the Northern League, but were rejected because the Archibald Stadium was only at the planning stage, and their old ground, Ferens Park, wasn't up to standard.

How much football politics will play in the FA's final decision remains to be seen. There is no love lost between the FA and the Northern League over the national system, and some people in the league feel that the FA might take the opportunity to admit Durham with a ground below standard, as retaliation for Newcastle Blue Star's decision to drop back into the Northern League from the UniBond League, and also to save face following Whitley Bay and Dunston's decision to withdraw their applications.

But the FA has also been known to reject applications in the past because clubs have missed deadlines by just a few days. A decision will probably be made after the season has ended in the middle of next month.

Meanwhile, the Division One trophy will be presented to the Citizens after their match against Seaham Red Star next Saturday.

Kick-off is 3pm, and the club are urging fans to come along and join in the celebrations.

With both Newcastle and Sunderland playing on Sunday, the club are expecting a large number of floating fans along.

En-route to the championship, Durham won 15 of their last 16 games, scoring 55 goals. Steven Richardson scored 23 goals in their last 12 games, and the Citizens have scored a total of 98 goals in 38 games, with four left to play.

Tomorrow, City travel to Gateshead to play Dunston Federation. Kick-off is 3pm.

2:29pm Friday 11th April 2008

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