Falkirk denied promotion !

By Paul Marshall
June 27 2003

Falkirk have lost their appeal against a block on promotion, giving Motherwell a stay of execution in the top flight.

After 10 hours of discussions at Hampden, a panel led by Lord Ranald MacLean agreed the SPL had acted legally in refusing Falkirk promotion to the top flight since their ground did not meet SPL criteria. Falkirk are still not going to take NO for an answer despite the decision by the SFA, ' Bairns ' chairman Cambell Christie told the BBC " We will take stock of our decision with our legal advisers and see where we go from here. "


Administrator at Motherwell Bryan Jackson was delighted at the result " We were always fairly confident with the initial agreement and we wouldn't have signed the players and planned for next season had we not been. "


" We appreciate we have been the benefactors from the decision being upheld, but the club would have survived and there would have been no automatic winding up. "


" However, we would have had to adapt and it would have been very difficult. "


" Its a total relief. We were quietly confident but always anxious. This reflects the SPL directors behaved correctly at the time but we do have some sympathy for Falkirk. "