‘The fear for me is losing the volunteers’ – Moneyfields chairman on a post-pandemic non-league football landscape

Moneyfields (yellow/blue) have only played 29 Southern League Division 1 South games since the start of 2019/20. Picture: Duncan Shepherd

Moneys are just one of hundreds of teams up and down the country operating in the lower reaches of the English pyramid who are reliant on those devoting their time for free to keep going.

Whether it's in the tea hut or changing rooms, volunteers are a vital cog in making sure clubs continue to just exist, let alone thrive.

But Seiden is now worried whether some of those might not return to the Southern League Division One South outfit when 'non-elite' football is allowed to return.

He fears the '25-30' volunteers might have now found an alternative way to fill their time given the stop-start nature of the past two seasons because of the pandemic.

The Dover Road club have only played 29 league games since August 2019 - 25 last season (out of 38) and a paltry four (out of 28) this term.

Seiden says it's a concerning time for clubs across the non-league pyramid.

‘I don’t think a lot of teams will come back (if a second season is null and void),' he remarked.

‘I think the longer they leave it uncertain, people lose interest. The worry for us is if your volunteers now find another pastime and they didn’t come back we wouldn’t be able to function.

‘We have probably 20-25 match-day volunteers but if they’ve now got into rambling or allotments and go, ‘actually, I’m enjoying this now’ and didn’t come back.

‘They phone me up every week asking if there’s any news.

‘Logic tells you that these people are going to find something else to do, be it walking or whatever.'

Seiden admitted it's impossible to foresee what impact the latest 'non-elite' suspension will have on hard-up clubs.

But with sponsorship also likely to be at a minimum next season, he conceded there could be some teams who don't make it through the latest obstacle teams are facing.

‘Until we know (season verdict) no-one is going to know (how things might look),' he explained.

‘I think people who have sponsored this year probably aren’t going to want to do it again next year. They’ve had a board and no-one is in the ground.

‘There are the volunteers, there are a million repercussions to come from this and I think a lot of clubs will go.

‘The fear for me is losing the volunteers - if you haven’t got volunteers you haven’t got non-league football, that’s it.'