SEDBURY United have the Gloucestershire FA to thank for their North Gloucestershire League Division Four title after the county’s football authority ruled out a ’double jeopardy’ punishment.

North Gloucestershire League officials had hoped to dock Sedbury 24 points for two different offences.

The one occurred in November whereby United fielded six players from Chepstow who had not yet been given international clearance from Welsh FA.

The half-dozen appeared in four games in that period, according to the league.

They also fielded a 14-year-old who went on to score six goals in four games for Sedbury at the beginning of the season.

Despite being alerted to the issues in November, the FA did not respond to the league’s pleas to intervene.

The North Glos League’s executive committee then took the decision to remove Sedbury from the FJ Pope Cup competition and informed the club they would be docked for eight wins’ worth of points.

But Sedbury appealed to the Gloucestershire FA, who ruled that they would only be docked 12 points.

As such, Sedbury remained atop Division Four instead of dropping down the table.

“Most of you will be aware of the problems we had with Sedbury playing ineligible players,” a member of the league’s executive committee said at the annual general meeting last week.

“I think it’s a great shame when a team in one of our leagues decides to get through a whole season playing ineligible players.

“If the FA had replied when they should have then we would not be in the situation we are in.

“We will have to be more vigilant in the future,” added league chairman Roger Sansom.

“We thought we had done the right thing but unfortunately the GFA went against us.”

The league committee warned the member clubs that no slack would be given regarding similar issues in the coming season.