Angry chairman blasts the FA

The Northern League had received verbal and written assurances that the FA would not "cherry pick" clubs from the four feeder leagues to fill the extra division, but they have now discovered that the FA is going ahead with its intention anyway, regardless of the ANL's protests.

The ANL was under the impression that the three clubs who have expressed interest in promotion to the UniBond at the end of the season - Newcastle Blue Star, Consett and Dunston - would have to finish in the top three of the ANL to guarantee themselves promotion, a view that appeared to be endorsed by FA official Mike Appleby at a meeting of ANL clubs in Durham when he said that "promotion should be won and not talked about".

But now the FA have opened the door for the three clubs to move upwards, as long as they meet the required ground standard, even if they finish in the bottom half of the ANL table.

A statement on the UniBond League website said: "A meeting of the FA's leagues committee agreed that there will be six divisions at step four of the game from season 2007/08 and two of those divisions will be administered by the UniBond League. To achieve this no more than three clubs from any league at step five will be promoted except with the permission of the league concerned." The UniBond League Premier Division is at step three.

Amos is furious that the ANL appears to have been double crossed, and said: "Mike Appleby sent a letter to all clubs in October saying that there would be no cherry picking, and at the meeting he said the same again, and that promotion should be won on the field and not talked about.

"The chairman of the FA Leagues committee, Brian Walden, was also at the meeting, and didn't contradict anything that Mike Appleby said, or indeed make any attempt to.

"To be fair to Mike Appleby, he has acted honourably throughout this, but his employers, the FA, have undermined him completely and have pulled the rug out from beneath his feet. I feel sorry for him. The Leagues Committee is making a desperate attempt to draw a line under a mess of its own making. How can we believe a word that these people and this organisation say in the future - they have gone against every principle of football and fair play.

"There has been no thought given to the consequences or the knock on effects to leagues, who will be weakened by this, because not only will we be affected, but also the other leagues feeding into the UniBond, assuming that clubs will still want to go. The FA has made a draconian and unilateral decision because they're sick of the issue.

"I understand the difficult position in which the FA have placed ambitious clubs but I hope that even now they will tell our masters in Soho Square that they agree with Mike Appleby. Promotion should be won, not gained for reasons of expediency, symmetry or sheer desperation.

"The goalposts have been moved for the FA's own convenience. If any of our clubs who have said they want to go up and don't finish in the top three, should then change their minds on that basis, it will prove that they have acted honourably, unlike others.

"The two key aims of the restructuring were to reduce costs and to reduce travelling. They have long been abandoned. Clubs in the new Unibond division will have to travel approximately four times as far to play at the same level - and that supposed solution has taken six years to achieve.

"Throughout that time we have tried to point out the particular difficulties facing North-East clubs because of their geography and relative isolation. By refusing to think outside the box that was made for them, or to resist the specious lure of symmetry, the League committee has turned the box into a coffin."

Nobody from the FA has yet commented.

The FA leagues committee is due to discuss the issue further in February, by which time the intentions of the three ANL clubs should have become clearer - and the relationship between the ANL and FA might become even more frosty.