YORK Sunday Afternoon League club York Nomads 85 were today breathing a sigh of relief after successfully tackling the North Riding County Football Association.

The club 'triumphed' over the NRCFA in an appeal heard by the Football Association in York.

But if Nomads' action had gone against them they would have been faced with a cash penalty that could have had a crippling effect, said manager John Lynch.

The action was taken after Nomads 85 player John Leeming was found guilty of 'violent conduct' by an NRCFA disciplinary hearing in January. Leeming was banned for five weeks and also fined. But his club believed the County FA had not acted within the rules and launched an appeal to the FA in London.

Said Lynch: "We felt we had no other option but to do this."

A four-man hearing of FA officials from across the country met in York yesterday and upheld the appeal, explained Lynch, on the grounds that the NRCFA had acted 'unconstitutionally'. Leeming's suspension, of which he had served one week before the personal hearing was confirmed, was lifted and his fine rescinded.

Added Lynch: "We are just glad that we did not lose. The cost of the case would have been astronomical. It was a big chance that we took because we could not afford to have lost."

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