Dungannon retain place in IPL

[EalingGreen]

A third precedent was also quoted, incidentally (Canvey Island), which occurred before the Bangor case. So your point on that - however spurious it was to start with - is invalid.

Canvey Island was not the "third precedent" - the other two were ex post facto.

Nor are they comparable to Bangor FC, since Canvey pulled out of the Conference at the end of the season, rather than announcing their intention to pull out mid-season, as Bangor did.

Keep Googling...

[pineapple stu]

Either leagues should have specific rules to cover every eventuality in which teams leave them

I don't think there's many eventualities in which teams can leave a league. Either they pull out before the start of the season, during the season or at the end of the season. Why they pull out is irrelevant.

(That said, in terms of cutting them some slack, the FAI rulebook says that clubs can't pull out mid-season. When Dublin City did just that, they had to make up a rule as to what happened in that scenario. So they're not alone in screwing up!)

Nor are they comparable to Bangor FC, since Canvey pulled out of the Conference at the end of the season, rather than announcing their intention to pull out mid-season, as Bangor did.

Again, there's no difference. They played all their matches, didn't finish in the relegation zone but opted for relegation. Same situation. The same rule would have covered both scenarios, and when the decision was formally announced by the club isn't relevant. The play-off scenario just didn't arise because there is no promotion/relegation play off in England.

Also, you dismissed the Team Bath and Gresty Rovers examples spefically because they occured after the Bangor example. Canvey Island opted for relegation before Bangor, so it's a relevant example.

[EalingGreen]

Again, there's no difference. They played all their matches, didn't finish in the relegation zone but opted for relegation. Same situation. The same rule would have covered both scenarios, and when the decision was formally announced by the club isn't relevant. The play-off scenario just didn't arise because there is no promotion/relegation play off in England.

The difference is that when the Conference had to determine what to do as a result of Canvey Island pulling out, they knew exactly how their decision would affect all the other clubs. In which case, they made a single determination.
Whereas, when Bangor announced mid-season that they would be withdrawing, the IFA could not wait to decide until the end of the season and all the results were known.
Which is why their eventual determination had to contain three alternatives, each consequent on a different set of results.

As I said before, what the IFA eventually decided was hardly ideal, but imo there was no ideal decision which was likely to please everyone.

[pineapple stu]

Whereas, when Bangor announced mid-season that they would be withdrawing, the IFA could not wait to decide until the end of the season and all the results were known.
Which is why their eventual determination had to contain three alternatives, each consequent on a different set of results.

Which brings us back to the starting point, which is that (with hindsight) the IFA should have had a rule which said that if a team pulls out mid-season, but finishes all their games, they automatically place last. End of problems. The various possibilities of whom this affects are irrelevant, as indeed is the timing of the decision (and your attempt to use this to distance it from the Canvey Island case). Similarly, if a team pulls out mid-season and leaves matches unplayed, then either all remaining games are awarded 3-0, or all results to date are scratched.