THE Football League is to demand an investigation into Monday’s power failure at Dagenham and Redbridge’s ground which forced the postponement of a match under the glare of TV cameras.
Sky Sports had brought 10 cameras and 50 members of staff to Victoria Road to televise the clash between the Daggers and top of the table Brentford.
But the floodlights blacked out three times in the half an hour before kick-off, meaning the game was delayed and then eventually postponed at around 8.10pm.
Now, the club fears it could lose up to £50,000 worth of TV cash as a result.
A spokesman for the Football League said: “We will be asking the club for a full and frank investigation to find out what happened and establish the root cause.”
He would not comment on what action the club could face as a result.
EDF supplies Victoria Road with its electricity. It said it only found out about the problem 40 minutes after the game was called off. Power was restored at 10.30pm.
In a statement, EDF Energy said: “We appreciate how difficult it can be to be without electricity and apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident. We do encourage customers who rely on power for essential business or commercial reasons to arrange back-up supplies for times like this.”
On Tuesday, Daggers managing director Steve Thompson did not rule out taking legal action over the matter.
He apologised to fans who attended the ground for the game, and spoke of his fury at what happened.
“We’re investigating what steps are open to us. We pay £25,000 a year in electricity bills. We’re being put under extreme pressure by the Football League to guarantee our power supply. How we do that I don’t know.”
He continued: “Apart from the immense embarrassment, there is the likelihood we won’t have Sky cameras here again. When they have so many games to choose from, why would they choose to come here?”
A Sky Sports spokesman looked to quell club fears of a spell in the TV wilderness.
“This sort of thing is an occupational hazard,” he said. “These things happen.”
The problem which plunged Victoria Road into darkness was caused by a malfunction in a piece of kit which distributes energy through three cables to the floodlights from a sub-station in the stadium car park.
Daggers will look to banish memories of the episode with a home win over Macclesfield on Saturday. Boss John Still’s men recorded a 4-0 away win when the pair last clashed.
No new date had been set for the Brentford match, at the time of going to press.
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