WITNEY Town chairman Brian Constable is to press for the county's clubs to have greater representation on the Oxfordshire FA Council when the extraordinary general meeting is held next month.

Constable was speaking in the wake of OFA chairman Ray Mills's resignation on Wednesday and the announcement of an EGM at Pressed Steel Social Club on Monday, March 20 (7pm).

He said: "I think one thing that the clubs are concerned about is that they have 12 elected members, but the council has 25 seats, which means that there are 13 people appointed that the clubs don't have anything to do with.

"Therefore, the problem is that the club's 12 elected members don't have a say - and that is what the clubs want changing. That will be one of the major issues."

Constable repeated his point that the clubs were now controlling the agenda for the EGM - after the OFA had failed to meet their deadline to set a date for the meeting - and he would be prepared to take legal action if their agenda wasn't followed. He said: "I had threatened legal action before to remove Ray Mills because I knew in black and white we could do that, and we threatened to freeze the OFA's assets if they didn't listen, but thank goodness it didn't come to that.

"We have a legal right if the agenda on March 20 is not similar to the one we have put forward."

However, Constable didn't expect such a stormy meeting now Mills had quit, and said he wouldn't insist on an independent chairman - Nicholas Coward had been offered by the FA as a possibility. He said: "I think the clubs will be happy whoever chairs the meeting as long as it is not Ray Mills because he had no right to be on the council."

"My hope and prayer is that the football clubs and the OFA get together sensibly at this meeting."

Constable, who anticiaptes more OFA resignations, is also keen to see some new blood on the council.

"This now signals a breakthrough for the revamping of the council with younger members," he said. "I don't think we want to go down the line of having the senior citizens.

"I think it is a signal for change and I think it is a welcome signal for change."

Story date: Friday 25 February

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