RAY Mills explained that he stood down as chairman of the Oxfordshire FA last week "on a technicality", after the Football Association confirmed that he was ineligible to stand.

Mills, who also quit as Oxford City's district representative after 17 years, was told that under the Oxon FA Ltd's new articles drawn up in 1999, he was ineligible because he lived outside the 1927 Oxfordshire boundary.

In his first public statement since his resignation, Mills said: "I have been a district representative of the Oxfordshire FA since 1983. The rules of the Association contained a clause, confirming my elegibility to hold this position.

"However, when the county was incorporated in September 1999, the FA's solicitors drew up new articles, which did not include this clause, but its omission was not noticed.

"Following the directors' meeting held on December 15, when the then secretary (Ron Leaver), was dismissed, a few people decided to support him by campaigning on the issue of my eligibility, hoping that if they could prove there was a defect in my appointment, then the decision of that meeting to dismiss the secretary would be invalid. "However, the directors were advised by the FA that this was not the case, and the decision of the directors was valid.

"At a recent meeting, the company secretary of the FA confirmed that they do not recognise the existing county boundary. Only those that existed in 1927 are recognised, and in that year Botley and North Hinksey, where I live, was just outside the Oxfordshire county boundary.

"So it would seem on this technicality, I can no longer serve the clubs of the Oxford City Division, who have elected me for the past 17 years.

"For this reason, I immediately resigned as chairman. However, the Oxon FA Council has decided to co-opt me in accordance with Article 49.

"During all this time, I have made a point of never making any personal attacks on anyone, and I regret that others have chosen recently to resort to personal abuse. "The duty of a chairman is to represent the majority view, and this I have always done.

"I have devoted many hours of my leisure time to the Association, for which I have no regrets, as it has given me a lot of pleasure

"I hope to continue in local football for some time to come, for, as player, referee and OFA councillor in Oxfordshire for 55 years, it has become something of a habit - although I have been rather 'gutted', in football parlance, to find I'm really a Berks and Bucks resident!"

THE OFA hold their EGM at Pressed Steel on Monday, March 20 (7pm).

Story date: Monday 28 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.