MATT Ford admitted that concerns over finance and the level of competition had prompted Poole Pirates’ decision to withdraw from the World Speedway League.

The promoter had been a big supporter of last year’s inaugural event in Poland at which Poole finished second behind Swedish outfit Piraterna.

However, despite initially having declared an interest in hosting this year’s event, Ford admitted that too many barriers had stood in the way of Pirates’ participation.

Discussing the decision not to host, Ford told the Daily Echo: “First and foremost the meeting would be incredibly expensive to put on and it would have meant that I would have had to start in the region of £30 for a ticket.

“That was a no go. I think the club would have ended up catching a pretty nasty cold staging the event, and that was just to break even, not make a profit.

“I didn’t want to give the club a huge financial loss in April.”

Ford added that he felt the setup of the competition would not give his team a fair chance of holding their own against their continental rivals – Gorzow, Vetlanda and Holsted.

He continued: “While Poland, Sweden and Denmark run to a squad system, Britain doesn’t. It’s only fair that if our opponents are afforded that facility then we should be afforded the same thing.

“The guys that came first, second and third in last year’s Grand Prix at Gorzow – Bartosz Zmarzlik, Matej Zagar and Krzysztof Kasprzak – all ride for Gorzow, along with Niels-Kristian Iversen and Linus Sundstrom.

“If you were to take a points limit for those five riders in the UK they would be near 45 rather than the 34 that we have to work to.

“Likewise, Vetlanda have Emil Sayfutdinov, Jarek Hampel, Tai Woffinden, Thomas H Jonasson and Peter Ljung and it’s just too much – we just wouldn’t be competitive.

“It cost us a five-figure sum to enter last year and I can’t see the sense in going into it again unless you have some chance of being competitive.

“It’s a totally different situation to the Champions League in football. When certain clubs enter that competition they appreciate there is very little chance of them winning it. However, because of TV rights and increased admissions, they know they can make millions of pounds.

“That’s not true in our case, we lose money by entering and I can’t see the sense in sending a team that isn’t competitive to lose money.

“The tournament needs to be taken seriously but all teams need to be level.”