IRISH LEAGUE: Portadown in hot water AGAIN with a NIFL fine

It comes from the Northern Ireland Football League over claims made by the club’s Board of Directors relating to their payment of an IFA fine during the summer.

As punishment for payments made to Gary Twigg, Portadown were due to pay a £5,000 fine.

However, their cheque bounced and in the Portadown Times on October 21, the club claimed this was because of a £4,200 payment from NIFL which had not arrived as they expected.

Here is the NIFL statement in full:

“The Board of Directors of NIFL have been made aware of a statement made on behalf of Portadown Football Club which appeared in the Portadown Times on Friday 21 October 2016.

“In that statement it was alleged that a fine imposed by the Disciplinary Committee of the IFA had not been paid because of a lack of income in the close season. It was also stated that Portadown was going to put a payment which the club expected to receive from NIFL (£4,200) towards the payment of the imposed fine. A representative of the club then directly said that the payment from NIFL was late and as a result of this a cheque of £3000 had to be stopped.

“After investigation by a commission appointed by the Directors of NIFL, which included the consideration of the written response from the club, NIFL wish to make clear that this statement grossly misrepresented the situation. The NIFL advance is only payable to a club once a signed Participation Agreement is received from that club. The advance to Portadown Football Club was made available on 2nd August 2016 within 24 hours of the receipt of the club’s signed agreement. It should be noted that the Participation Agreements were issued to clubs on 29 July 2016, a week after Portadown Football Club’s deadline to pay their disciplinary fine.

“This situation has caused considerable embarrassment to the Board of Directors of NIFL and has undermined the reputation and integrity of the Company. After consideration, it has been decided to impose a sanction on Portadown Football Club by way of a fine of £1000.”