Stones vow to fight Conference veto

Maidstone United’ officials are vowing to continue the Ryman Premier cub’s campaign for wider acceptance of the latest artificial surfaces in football after the Football Conference vetoed their use next season.

Representatives from the Conference’s 68 clubs met for an extraordinary general meeting in Telford on Tuesday to debate the issue before voting against the introduction of state-of-the-art surfaces.

The reverse comes 24 hours after Stones co-owner Oliver Ash and first team manager Jay Saunders met with the Football Conference Board of Directors to make the case for 3G.

Ash said: "Our discussion with the Conference Board was open and constructive. Despite today's vote we will continue a dialogue with the league and press for the acceptance of these surfaces which I am confident will come sooner rather than later. We know there are many clubs in the Conference who favour allowing 3G.

"However, we had modest expectations about the vote because it gave 24 Premier clubs one vote each, while North and South got just eight between them. Additionally, the compelling facts and figures on 3G were not disclosed to the clubs by the Conference Board prior to the vote."

Ash also believes Saunders’ side could still go up despite the knock-back and insisted: "It’s business as usual for our club. We will continue to campaign for 3G to be allowed higher up the pyramid, while the first team will push for promotion from the Ryman Premier Division. If we were in a promotion position come the end of the season we are very confident we would be allowed to go up on 3G."

* A workshop on '3G Football Turf' for club directors and managers in the Ryman, Southern, Northern Premier League and Football Conference is taking place at the Gallagher Stadium on Wednesday 26 February.

The event is being staged by 3G4US, the growing group of clubs who are supportive of synthetic pitches and are lobbying for their acceptance throughout football. To register, visit www.3g4us.org.