Ford says Pirates may go Premier next year

He has intimated Poole Castle Cover may pull out of the top-flight at the end of this season with a view to trying to join the second-tier Premier League.

And he has once again vigorously defended the Dorset club by categorically denying unsubstantiated allegations of average manipulation after the Speedway Control Bureau held an inquiry into their matches at Swindon and Peterborough last month.

In a lengthy statement posted on Pirates’ official website, which will also appear in the match programme for tonight’s Sky-covered clash between Pirates and Lakeside, he wrote: “The meeting could possibly be our last live Sky TV meeting as an Elite League club.

“It is only right to see out this season first and then make our decision, but I have already alerted our team of major sponsors, especially Castle Cover, of the dilemma we find ourselves in at the current time.”

Ford says the day the league changed the rules mid-season was a “catastrophic” decision – a “black day for British Speedway.”

He writes: “I think my duty as promoter of Poole Speedway is to protect riders, sponsors and every supporter from allowing outsiders to dictate our business in future.

“I don’t make idle threats. This has nothing to do with me throwing dummies out of the pram because we're not winning.

“This has everything to do with a rule that was unanimously voted on at the AGM last winter that the Elite League play-offs at the end of this season would consist of the top six clubs.

“Why continue in a league where we have absolutely no confidence? You simply cannot change the rules when it suits. What’s going to happen next week?

“My fellow promoters don’t like the new league points structure, so that will change too?

“They have opened up a can of worms which now says any rule can be changed at any time if the majority of promoters don’t like it.

“As far as I am concerned the play-off rule was voted on and passed, and that was that until next winter’s AGM.

“Our business prerogative since the start of the term – having made sweeping changes to keep within the points regulation after winning the Elite League in 2008 – was to pursue a top six place.

“We have lost Jason Doyle and Kyle Legault for the season before we had even turned a wheel and recently lost Chris Holder with a broken collarbone.

“Behind the scenes we have been working tirelessly on changes – at no small cost – to try and re-fit the team jigsaw all with a top six place in mind.

“Poole are still a massive 15 points behind the sixth placed club in the Elite League, but our focus has always been that no matter how steep the mountain, while it is mathematically possible we will chase the dream.

“And having won only three times at home in eight fixtures here at Wimborne Road this season – including a crushing defeat against Coventry – we took the decision to invest in bringing in former Pirate Hans Andersen to strengthen the team and give the club a chance of a place in the play-offs later in the season.

“But then my fellow Elite League promoters decided last week to move the goalposts and have a re-vote on the amount of clubs taking part in the play-offs in the middle of the season.

“And this time it was thrown out and reverted to four. They claim this decision is to do with Sky Sports not having the time to cover more play-offs on their schedules.

“That’s a lame excuse. Sky Sports didn’t cover the relegation play-off battles at the end of last season with Wolves, Peterborough and Edinburgh and no one batted an eyelid.”

The Pirates promoter says he thought Sky Sports enjoyed the drama of the play-offs and says he believes the play-off drama is a winner.

“They represent good business and are a roaring commercial success. We’ve had more than our fair share of home leg semi-final play-offs and finals over the last decade and for each home legs our attendances are considerably higher than at any other stage.

“I would like to think over the past 10 years we have built up a wonderful rapport with the hugely talented Sky Sports outside broadcast satellite team.

“We have always made them welcome and bent over backwards to accommodate them because we know ultimately their projection of speedway will benefit the entire sport in the long term.

“But if it’s their decision to push forward a motion for Elite League bosses to change the rules as there isn't room in their scheduling, it does seem to me it goes completely against the grain of every new innovation they have added to speedway's domestic scene.”

And Ford cites how football would react if the Football League suddenly reduced their play-off teams at the end of the season.

He adds: “There would be a riot. Imagine football club chairmen deciding that their end of season play-off semi-finals in the Championship, League One and League Two were going to be scrapped because they didn’t have time to fit them in?

“For a start Burnley wouldn’t have won the £60m golden game and be in the Premier League (as they finished fifth in the Championship) and Scunthorpe wouldn’t be in the Championship after they ended in sixth place in the League One table.

“We all know it simply wouldn’t happen in football or any other sport for that matter.”

The Poole boss says he has no idea at this stage which league Pirates will be in next season.

He continues: “What does the future hold for Poole Pirates?

“At this stage I really can’t answer that question. Of course we have no given right to expect promoters in the Premier League to take us into their division in 2010.

“We are certainly not arrogant to believe we can just walk in. We still have our presence in the National League with the successful Bournemouth Buccaneers and that’s one route we shall continue to enjoy.”

But in his most scathing attack, Ford holds nothing back against some of his fellow Elite League promoters claiming “My venom is particularly targeted at ‘promoters’ who have none of their own money invested in the clubs they are representing, yet are quite happy to vote and tarnish my name and reputation.

“Perhaps voting should be purely for promoters whose money is invested in their respective club.”

And Ford is quick to underline his anger aimed at rival promoters.

He writes: “Poole Speedway have been accused of underhand tactics by figures in responsible positions within the sport who have yet to substantiate any proof and are happy to go public telling all and sundry what they thought went on.

“Have we been found guilty of any dubious tactics? The answer, of course, is no.

“What I can categorically reveal that our skipper, Bjarne Pedersen, spoke to me after our home defeat against Wolves earlier in the season and was a broken man.

“He was choking up talking to me and I thought he was going to tell me he was retiring after having a torrid run of scores and was being booed by a mindless minority.

“But if you speak to some of my intrepid promoting colleagues it was all a cunning plan. Get real. As a result of this mud-slinging we now have to carry this stigma wherever we go.

“An engine failure, a fall, a tape touching incident and question marks are raised.

“I just hope these ‘employees’ of rival clubs who have verbally attacked us can quantify the sort of damage they have caused to my business and our reputation as a club.

“They should hang their heads in shame, the lot of them.”

In a final broadside at a rival promoter, Ford holds nothing back.

He concludes: “One of my esteemed colleagues was quoted in a local paper last week saying this was the ‘right decision at the wrong time’ and that the whole idea of a team coming from sixth place to win the title would have been the death-knell of the play-off system.

“What planet is he on? He voted in favour of it seven months ago! And it was unanimously carried…

“A word for my learned colleague: This was the wrong decision at the wrong time. The only death-knell, my old friend, was changing the rules mid-season.”