BRIGHOUSE Town’s chairman has blasted the “politics” in football, after seeing his side kicked out of the FA Trophy for fielding an ineligible player during their 2-1 Preliminary Round win over Tadcaster Albion.

James Howard’s side, who were charged with the offence last week, were all set to host Workington in the First Qualifying Round, but vanquished Tadcaster are now set to play in their stead after the club decided against an appeal.

The reason given was that the ineligible foreign player had not received international clearance to play, a ruling Brighouse have questioned given that he has appeared in FA competitions for the last three seasons.

Brighouse were the sixth team the player had registered to play for in England at step five or above.

Howard, who also saw his side denied promotion last season due to a league restructuring, fumed yesterday on Twitter: “I apologise for the early morning rant!

“The past 6 months at @brighousetownfc have been fantastic running this great football club, but somewhat challenging and frustrating dealing with the politics.

“In 6 months we fall to two technicalities. Failing promotion for the first time in history due to a points per game ratio system and we now lose our place in the FA Trophy due to a technicality over what we felt as a club we have done correctly.

“As the underdog in me would say - we fight another day, we get our heads down and we continue to do the wonderful things on and off the pitch that everyone associated with the club knows we are capable of doing.”

An official club statement added: “Prior to submitting the registration, guidance was sought and advice provided regarding the information that was required to register the player.

“The information provided gave us permission to register the player, we received confirmation of registration and felt we had followed correct procedures.

“The question of International Clearance only arose when we requested further guidance from the FA due to an approach for the player from a Step 3 club.

“We believe this is an extremely unfortunate situation and all at the football club are hugely disappointed by the decision and the circumstances surrounding it.

“It must be made clear this wasn’t an administrative error or an oversight by anyone at the club, nor is the player concerned to blame.”