An eight-tier football match set to take place this weekend had to be postponed after one club had four players called up for international duty.
Lacing, based in West Sussex, were set to face off against Three Bridges in the South East Division of the Isthmian League on Saturday.
However, the club have extraordinarily had to ask for a postponement after four of their players were called up by their respective nations.
Charlie Gibson and Sam Bull are currently in Croatia competing for England’s six-a-side team at the World Minifootball Federation (WMF) U23 World Cup.
But the village club also lost midfielder Knory Scott and forward Luke Robinson who will both be 3,500 miles away representing Bermuda in their Concacaf Nations League fixture against Dominica.
Premier League and Championship clubs automatically have their games rescheduled during the international break, but other clubs further down the footballing pyramid can ask for a postponement if they receive three call-ups.
‘It’s ridiculous for a club at this level,’ Lancing chairman Barry Sutton told BBC Sport.
‘To have one person called up [Scott, last year] was something we celebrated, but to have four off in the same week is unheard of.’
Scott is in his second year at the club having signed from Hastings the summer prior and last year became the first player in Lancing history to win a full international cap while at the club.
He is now joined in the record books by Robinson, a former academy player at Brighton, who joined the club this summer from Whitehawk.
‘Knory [Scott] is a lovely lad – quiet. You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer guy,’ Sutton added. ‘Luke has been around a lot of clubs at a higher level.
‘To have international players is something we’re enormously proud of. We’ve got a Bermuda flag which we hang up behind one of the goals each home game.’
Lancing sit 20th in the league with four points from their first eight games. The club are playing at their highest level in history having been founded in 1941.
.
.