Welcome to the Team Bath Plug - the new, unofficial Team Bath supporters forum! By the way, this site has no connection whatsoever to any of the players or staff of Team Bath.

TEAM BATH FC - RIP

It is with heavy heart that I write what may be my last update on this site, to confirm that Team Bath FC, as we know it, will soon be no more.

Ged Roddy, manager of Team Bath FC, confirmed today that from next season Team Bath are withdrawing from the Conference South. It is not clear which league Team Bath FC will be playing in - in fact it sounds like Team Bath FC will not be playing at all next season! This is a tragedy for the Team Bath supporter community, and I think we will all want answers in the coming weeks. At the moment, though, I'm in too much of a state of shock to start pointing fingers at this point.

Here is Mr Roddy's statement as reported in today's Bath Chronicle:

"Unfortunately the letter from the Blue Square Conference said that no further promotions would be possible for us, thereby denying us the opportunity to progress.
"Our dream has always been to promote a student football team into the Football League and in effect the Conference's decision means the club has gone as far as it can go without making significant changes to its structure.
"As a trailblazer for university sport TeamBath FC is unique and we feel that its structure has served us well and is a fitting and robust model for the 21st century. As a result, we don't want to change that model.
"We would like to thank the FA and particularly the Somerset FA for their outstanding support they have given over the years. We are privileged and proud to have had the opportunity to represent student sport in FA competitions, particularly in the FA Cup.
"It is particularly disappointing that as a result of the board of the Conference's decision, we will have to give up our hard-fought membership of FA Cup competitions.
"We would also like to thank Ted Baker, Kukri, our chairman, John Laycock, and our other benefactors for their support over the years.
"Thanks too to the staff and students of the University of Bath who have supported us over the last decade on what has been an incredible journey. On behalf of the players, thanks too to every supporter that has followed us home and away, and watched us in all parts of the country.
"I would like to extend my special thanks to the coaching staff, Andy Tillson and Brian Parkin, the backroom staff, Phil Searle, and all of the other coaches and staff that have worked with us over the last 10 years.
"Our heartfelt thanks go to every single player that has pulled on the blue and gold shirt over the years.
"It is heartening at this time to see many of our graduates are playing professionally or coaching, taking forward the footballing principles and philosophy that we have promoted at TeamBath.
"To all of our former players, wherever you are playing or coaching, we trust that in your future careers you will do your very best to promote the five key characteristics of TeamBath football."





This week's Non Leaue Show discusses the supject in the first fifteen minutes. Here's the link so you can listen yourself. Be sure to post your comments below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p002my6z/The_NonLeague_Show_06_04_2009/

In the above show, Geoff Todd, the Bath City chairman, comments on the ongoing negotiations with Team Bath over the tenancy at Twerton Park. His comments, as quoted in the Bath Chronicle are bleow:

"When we looked at the minutes from one of the recent Blue Square meetings there was the prospect that TeamBath would not be admitted to the Football League and therefore they would not be promoted this season should they be in that position. That was quite a shock to us when we heard that news.
"Obviously it made us question some of the negotiations we had with them over the last few months.

"We have met them on a couple of occasions to talk about a new agreement.

"Those meetings have all been positive and we have been waiting a response from them. To date we have had no response."









Here are the forum rules. Break them and your posts will be deleted and you may find yourself banned:

1) No swearing. If you swear in a post it will get deleted. A large proportion of the fans at any Team Bath game are children and I don't want any children seeing some of the comments that have been posted thus far.

2) No more anonymous posts. If you want to post get a profile.

3) Feel free to ask the same old questions everyone asks about Team Bath over and over again but don't expect any definite answers. As stated above, this is an unofficial site not connected to the management of Team Bath or the University of Bath.