Falmouth Town chairman Steve Kimberley has hit out at the Football Association (FA) this week after his club, and many other Cornish sides, were kicked out of the FA Cup and FA Vase.

The prestigious national competitions are viewed by fans as one of the highlights of non-league football calendar, but Falmouth Town, along with Camelford, Launceston, Liskeard, Newquay, Penzance and Torpoint have been told they will not be allowed to play in this season’s competitions.

This is because the FA have brought in new ground grading regulations, which require clubs to reach a higher standard than usual. This, among other things, requires the teams to have separate toilet facilities for the away, home and referees’ changing rooms at their grounds.

Many Cornish sides do not have this and, while Kimberley is not arguing the fact that grounds need updating and improving, he claims the FA have sprung these new regulations on clubs and not given them enough time to implement changes.

“I feel they (the FA) have let Cornwall down at a grassroots level,” said Kimberley. “They have sprung it on all the Cornish clubs and we weren’t able to get the work done in time.”

Kimberley added that the FA wrote to clubs at the end of last year, giving them until March 31 to make the changes.

However, for Falmouth Town to put toilet facilities in each of their changing rooms it would have required a complete overhaul of the dressing room facilities at the club, with walls having to be knocked down and building regulations submitted.

As this would have had to have taken place at a time when the club was playing regular home games in the Carlsberg SW Peninsula League it left them with an impossible task, especially during a recession.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees and we can’t just call in a large scale building firm to get the job done quickly,” added Kimberley. “Falmouth Town FC don’t have the money and budget to get these jobs done quickly. As a local football club we rely on help from the community to get these things done and they (the FA) just didn’t give us enough time.”

When it became clear that a number of clubs were going to be excluded, CSWPL secretary Phil Hiscox spoke to the FA asking for the teams to be given another season to get the work done, but to no avail.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Falmouth Town. They had a good run in the FA Vase last season and were looking forward to another successful year in the competition.

Added to that Falmouth have a long history with regards to the FA Cup. They are the only Cornish side to have reached the first round proper and this year was set to mark the 50th anniversary of that achievement.

Back in 1962 Falmouth played Oxford United at Bickland Park, who named former Manchester United boss Ron Atkinson as their captain. More than 8,000 fans flooded through the gates to watch this match, many of whom would have been looking forward to catching another FA Cup game this season to mark the occasion.

“I’m pretty hacked off with the FA’s decision to be honest,” added Steve. “I’m upset for the club, the supporters and the players, who were really looking forward to playing in the competition.”

An FA spokesman, said: “The criteria for entry into FA Competitions was slightly amended for the coming season to support both The FA National Ground Grading and The FA National League System.

“All clubs that competed in FA Competitions and also all Leagues in The FA National League System were initially made aware of the new criteria sometime in October last year.

“In addition to that, certain clubs and Leagues had been advised some time before this about the need to improve facilities in order to remain part of The FA National League System.

“That criteria has been applied to all clubs across the country and it wouldn't be fair to allow dispensation for one club or one region of the country when there are other clubs that have completed work on time and others that have already been denied entry for next season already.”