Bangor City handed football ban by FAW over unpaid wages
- Published
Bangor City are three-time Welsh champions but currently play in the second tier Cymru North
Bangor City have been banned from "all football-related activity" after failing to pay nearly £53,000 of unpaid wages owed to players and staff.
A Football Association of Wales (FAW) disciplinary panel ruled that "all outstanding monies" had to be paid within 31 days from 29 October.
The Cymru North club failed to meet that deadline, sparking the suspension.
Bangor have accepted the sanction but are "working tirelessly to be able to resume normal activities very shortly".
Ex-head coach Hugo Colace and players Enzo Agustin Zicarelli and Juan Ignacio Torres Matanza are some of those owed money.
Assistant manager and first-team coach Ricardo Pellegrino and head of sport science and medicine Luke Bailey have also not received expected wages.
An FAW statement confirmed that the ban will remain in place until Bangor comply with the ruling.
The suspension from all football-related activity includes but is not limited to:
Football matches played in a competition and/or at a ground under the jurisdiction of the FAW.
Prohibits training activities connected to the club under the jurisdiction of the FAW.
Conducting administrative duties connected to football or the club.
Bangor have responded by issuing a statement on their website.
"Bangor City Football Club accepts and respects the suspension enforced by the FAW, despite the club's efforts to avoid this situation," it said.
"However, the club believes that the consequences are specially harsh in our juniors, who have nothing to do with this issue.
"Therefore we are working tirelessly to be able to resume normal activities very shortly. Updates will follow in the coming days."
Last month Bangor confirmed that Colace had been sacked as head coach, with a statement criticising his "conduct... activities with third parties and... performances of the team".
The ex-Argentina Under-20 player, 37, was appointed in June 2020 and Maturin Ovambe has now overtaken first-team affairs.
Prior to his dismissal, an image had circulated on social media showing the club's players and Colace together, holding a banner which said: "Even without wages our integrity is not broken."
Colace told BBC Sport Wales last month: "We have fought this issue for a long time, six or seven months. If you work you must get paid."
His representative, Chris O'Neal, added: "Hugo doesn't want any bad feeling towards the club at all.
"He only wanted his salary paid and doesn't hold any personal feeling against the badge of the club."
Colace told BBC Sport Wales he also intends to challenge his Bangor dismissal at the FAW and through a legal challenge, and denies the allegations made against him by the club.
"I must refute this because everyone knows the job I've done in Bangor, you can ask everyone in Bangor," said Colace.
O'Neal added: "Hugo has gone beyond being a head coach to a mentor to the players, to the ball boy and kit man, to every position in the club because of the few resources he's been left at the club. He ran the club on his own for a long time."
The same day as the FAW's ruling, Bangor announced that former Argentina forward Pedro Pasculli, who won the 1986 World Cup with them, will take on the role of sporting director and run the academy.
The FAW's original verdict on 29 October read: "A disciplinary panel of the Football Association of Wales was recently convened to consider a number of disputes from personnel of Bangor City FC in accordance with FAW Rules 39.2.5 and 43.2 for the alleged non-payment of salaries.
Hugo Colace in action during his time at Barnsley
"After carefully considering the written and verbal evidence submitted, the panel decided that Bangor City FC must pay all outstanding monies to the complainants.
"In accordance with FAW Rule 49, this must be paid within 31 days as and from 29 October 2021. Failure to comply with the order within 31 days will result in an automatic suspension from all football-related activity for the club and until compliance with the order."
The three-time Welsh champions were demoted from the Cymru Premier - then called the Welsh Premier League - at the end of the 2017-18 season after being refused a domestic licence.
The Citizens were only spared relegation to Welsh football's third tier the following season after a 42-point deduction for alleged breaches of FAW rules was halved on appeal.
That season also saw the club stave off a High Court winding up order for the third time in 12 months.
In September 2019, Italian Serafino was appointed Bangor's sole director.
A recent Newyddion S4C investigation found the club also had five county court judgements outstanding against them, totalling £26,127, although three of these relate to matters before Serafino took over.
Bangor have four wins and three draws from 14 league matches so far this season and sit 12th in the Cymru North table.
They had been scheduled to host Buckley Town in their next match on Saturday, 4 December but as it stands, this fixture will not take place.
It is not yet clear how Bangor's ban will impact on the shape of the Cymru North season.