Comment: Boris Johnson won’t have all the answers to non-league’s burning questions on Monday – and then it’s up to the FA to be brave and creative
Hawks and their 42 National League South and North rivals were last Thursday delivered the verdict of the vote to carry on a pandemic-scarred campaign or scrap it.
To no great surprise, the top flight voted unanimously to play on while the majority across the South and North - by a 25-18 margin - elected to draw an unedifying line under a season which lasted just 136 days.
Where non-league football goes from here is anyone’s guess.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHere are just some of the questions that need to be answered in a bid to end the uncertainty swirling around the heart and soul of English football - the non-league and grassroots scene.
With no clubs relegated from the National League, will the EFL fight to prevent its bottom two clubs dropping into non-league football? Will the null and voiding of step 2 - the sixth tier of English football - lead to steps 3-6 also being cancelled, in their case for the second year running? Will the Football Association take the opportunity to implement their planned restructuring of the pyramid which was agreed two years ago? And what will Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ announcement on Monday mean with regards to the 2020/21 season below professional level?
Let’s try and answer those questions in order …
1 Throughout the National League funding crisis, one word has been bandied around like confetti - integrity.
The integrity of the top flight of non league is now in serious jeopardy.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdEven though the National League is carrying on, Dover Athletic have furloughed their entire squad and have said they won’t be fulfilling any more fixtures. The Kent club last played on January 30.
And fellow strugglers King’s Lynn Town have promised they will only fulfil their next two league games before potentially following Dover’s lead.
With no relegation from that division now, can the league just allow clubs to remain inactive while other clubs carry on playing games and spending money on wages?
And with no relegation, can there still be promotion? The answer to that is ‘yes’ - that was the case in the South and North divisions last year.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBut this is different, as it involves the EFL, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see League 2 clubs currently in danger of relegation to the National League start to kick up a big fuss.
2 The FA canvassed all clubs at steps 3-6 last month for their views on how to bring 2020/21 to a finish.
There is no way a full season can be completed in the Southern League - Moneyfields have only played four of their 38 games and Gosport Borough seven of their 38 - while no club in the Wessex League have reached the 50 per cent threshold of fixtures.
Johnson’s announcement on Monday could - fingers crossed! - provide an indication of when non-elite team sports can restart. But even if the green light is given for a March return, I would be staggered if the FA do not announce another null and void verdict, and probably as early as the next few days.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDue to the South and North being null and voided, there can be no promotion from step 3 even if the season is resumed and somehow completed in some form. As a result, the domino effect is felt all the way down the pyramid - locally, as far down as the two Hampshire Premier League divisions.
Unless, of course, the FA ploughs ahead with a restructuring programme. And that brings me neatly onto …
3 In early 2019, the governing body revealed plans to overhaul the pyramid. Among the decisions made was to increase the South and North tiers from 22 clubs to 24.
The South tier only ran with 21 clubs in 2020/21 due to Wealdstone and Weymouth winning promotion last year and just Ebbsfleet coming down.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThat means there are potentially three places in the South division the FA can fill if they want to bring in the restructuring that was due to be in place for the start of 2020/21.
How the FA fill those places is a very good question. With so few games having been played at step 3 level this term, it cannot be a case of just promoting the clubs who sat top of the tables when the November lockdown was announced.
The brains behind the Project Non-League campaign would be keen to see the FA take up their proposal of promoting those with the best points-per-games ratio since the start of 2019/20.
That would see the following:
* Truro and Tiverton promoted from Gosport’s Southern Premier League South (step 3);
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad* Frome and Cirencester promoted from Moneyfields’ Southern League Division 1 South (step 4);
* Christchurch and Lymington Town promoted from the Wessex Premier Division (step 5);
* And US Portsmouth, Hythe & Dibden, Alton and Andover New Street promoted from Wessex Division 1 (step 6).
The FA could then promote clubs from step 7 - the Hampshire Premier League Senior Division - into Wessex 1. Fleetlands, Infinity and Bush Hill are the three clubs desperate to make the step up out of county football.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdProject Non-League, however, also poses its own questions. Worthing and Cray Wanderers would be promoted from the Isthmian Premier under their proposals, but that would mean four clubs - Truro and Tiverton the other - fighting for the three places to take NL South up to 24 clubs. Possibly the best PPG from those two divisions and the second best PPG across both of them could be promoted?
4 The Prime Minister will on Monday hopefully make mention of outdoor sports in his ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ address to the nation.
Across the American state of California, outdoor youth team sports can return next Friday, February 26, in the counties that report an average of fewer than 14 new cases per day per 100,000 residents.
Here in England, the wait will be a bit longer. Whether that’s a little longer or much longer, Boris Johnson could well reveal tomorrow.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAlmost certainly, sports like tennis and golf - those which lend themselves to social distancing - will be allowed to return first, possibly some time in March. That was the case at the end of the first lockdown last summer, and there is no reason to presume it will be any different.
If outdoor team sports have to wait until April to return, that will almost certainly mean the null and voiding of steps 3-6 unless leagues and the FA are prepared to be inventive.
With all due respect, though, you are naive if you think the FA and leagues will be creative in attempting to see seasons completed. The Trident Leagues - those at steps 3 and 4 - told their clubs in January they wanted the season null and voided. No doubt numerous clubs voted the same way.
You would presume football clubs, football leagues and football governing bodies would be doing all they can to actually facilitate the playing of the game, and rewarding success on the field.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIf you do presume that, sadly you will almost certainly be proved wrong in the coming days or weeks.
The Hampshire Premier League - steps 7-8 - have been creative; they have talked about teams possibly playing each other just once.
Again, easier said than done; Locks Heath have already played Overton twice and have played more than half their fixtures - 16 out of 30. You could hardly leave them on the sidelines kicking their heels if the league were allowed to return in April.
Though Locks could complete their season by playing twice a week for seven weeks - the FA could grant a 2020/21 extension to the end of May - other clubs have many more games to fit in. Liphook, for example, have played just nine times - they would have to play three times a week for seven weeks to fit all their fixtures in, and that’s presuming a mid-April start.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdYou can easily see why the FA would/will issue a null and void verdict - it’s just easier for them that way.
It was the easy way out last season - even though some clubs (Vauxhall Motors, Jersey Bulls) had actually won promotion and most had played around 75-80 per cent of their fixtures - and if it was the easy way out in 2019/20 it is sure as hell the easy way out in 2020/21.
Lower down, eight of the Mid-Solent League’s 13 clubs have played 10 or 11 of their scheduled 24 games. While a mid-April start would leave sufficient time for an end of May finish, via two games a week, some clubs play on council facilities where the goalposts are taken down in late April.
The MSL committee are meeting virtually on Tuesday to discuss how to end their season. They have waited for the Government’s ‘roadmap’ revelations before getting together. Almost certainly, other leagues will be doing likewise.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBoris Johnson will no doubt be able to answer some of non-league’s burning questions on Monday.
He hasn’t got all the solutions, though; eventually, it will be up to the FA to see how brave and creative they want to be ahead of 2021/22.
I’m not holding my breath ...