Hampshire FA waive £80,000 to help grassroots football clubs survive the pandemic

They have revealed that all affiliations for the 2020/21 season will be waived - a decision that will cost the association around £80,000.

Teams will still have to pay to enter the county cup competitions, but the waiving of affiliation fees will save the county’s largest clubs huge sums of money.

‘Every county association is trying to help in whatever way they can,’ said Hampshire FA chief executive Neil Cassar.

‘We are trying to find ways to keep football clubs going in the county.

‘Other counties are approaching it in a different way - some are offering free entry to the county cups.

‘We’re not in a position to do that.

‘We desperately want to help clubs who need support. For a club struggling with no income, even £100 could make a difference.’

Like many other businesses, the pandemic has put a stranglehold on the Hampshire FA making any money.

‘Our income taps have been switched off,’ said Cassar.

‘Since mid-March we haven’t held any courses, referees courses have been cancelled, we’ve had no disciplinary offence revenue, we’ve had no booking fees at our three venues - it’s all been switched off

‘We’ve had to furlough 41 of our 45 staff, otherwise we would have been looking at losing jobs and that’s the last thing we want to do.

‘It’s been difficult.’

Since March 26, the only four Hampshire FA staff working have been Cassar, operations manager Darren Parker, development manager Chris Smith and marketing and PR manager Emma Allen.

The HFA have been grateful to the national FA for stepping in to save them from greater financial hardship.

All county associations normally receive their annual grant from headquarters in monthly sums, but some of that cash has been advanced ‘to help with cash flows.’

Cassar said it would take a ‘collaborative effort’ to ensure grassroots clubs emerge from life in lockdown still able to continue playing in 2020/21.

There are certainly a number of initiatives set up to help clubs since the pandemic struck.

Sport England announced a £195m package to help sport and physical activity. Of that, clubs can apply for grants of between £300 and £10,000 from a £20m Community Emergency Fund.

In addition, the Football Foundation has recently set up a £9.56m fund for clubs to access grants of up to £5,000 to be used purely for pitch maintenance.

‘I would strongly recommend to all clubs that they look at all this,’ Cassar remarked.

The county FA are also in discussion with insurance provider Bluefin to offer clubs discounts - of around 15 per cent - for the 2020/21 season.

Like many aspects of grassroots sport, affiliation fees might be higher than a lot of people would imagine.

Last season, Hawks, Moneyfields and Gosport Borough paid £225 each to affiliate with the HFA as they were members of the National League or Southern League.

Clubs in the Wessex League Premier - AFC Portchester, Baffins, Fareham and Horndean - paid £160 to affiliate.

US Portsmouth and Petersfield paid £120 as they were playing in the second tier of the Wessex League.

Hampshire Premier League clubs - in both divisions - paid £70. That was the same price for clubs to enter any of the three Wyvern League divisions.

Mid-Solent League clubs paid £42.

Clubs in the City of Portsmouth Sunday League paid £75, with clubs in the First and Second Divisions paying £53 - the same as the top flight of the Gosport Fareham and Solent League - and everybody else £42.

All women’s teams also paid £42 - the same as men’s veterans teams.

In junior football, every youth club paid £24 plus an additional £14 for each team that came under its umbrella. All mini-soccer teams paid £9 each.

There were discounts available, with each adult team attached to an affiliated club only paying £30 per team.

For example, Moneyfields would only have to pay £30 each for the reserves (Hampshire Premier League) and women’s teams rather than £70 and £42 respectively.

The Dover Road club had to fork out over £1,000 to affiliate all their teams for 2019/20 - first team, reserves, women and 12 youth sides from under-18 downwards - across a variety of leagues and cups.

The Hampshire FA decision to waive affiliations for next term will save them almost £500 based on the teams they fielded in 19/20.

These are the savings:

First team - £225

Reserves - £30

Women’s team - £30

Youth Club - £24

Youth teams (u11-u18) - £140 (10 x £14)

Mini Soccer club - £19

Mini Soccer teams (u7-u10) - 18 (2 x £9)

Total = £485.

Though they have saved on Hampshire FA affiliation fees, they still have to pay their Southern League affiliation fee.

They have also already paid £165 to enter next season’s FA Cup and FA Trophy, even though at present no-one knows when next season is actually starting.

Moneyfields will also benefit from the Hampshire Premier League’s announcement last month that all league and cup registration fees are being waived for 20/21.

That will save them another £70 - £50 for their reserves to enter the league and £20 to enter the League Cup.

They have also been given £30 worth of free player registrations, and along with the other 27 HPL clubs will also be reimbursed £100 as a goodwill gesture.

Overall, the HFA and HPL’s waiving of fees etc, will save Moneys £555 - plus £130 of freebies.

A not insignificant amount, for sure.

AFC Portchester are another club who stand to make a major financial saving.

Last season, the Royals ran three adult sides - first team (£160), reserves (£30) and vets (£42).

They also have a big youth programme - in 2019/20 consisting of six mini soccer sides and a further 13 youth teams.

In all, it cost the club £469 to affiliate all their teams last term - and that’s without any cup entry fees on top.

When told of the savings his club could make, Portchester chairman Paul Kelly said: ‘That’s brilliant news - every saving helps.

‘It’s a good saving, it will help cover the cost of part of our lease.’

Like all grassroots sporting clubs, the Royals are still having to pay ‘utility bills and other standing orders without any revenue coming in.

‘There’s lots of offers of help out there, but at the moment we haven’t received any money. Until we do talk is cheap.’

Portchester have applied to Fareham Borough Council for a £10,000 grant to help them through lockdown. ‘I’m told it’s pending,’ said Kelly.

‘We’ve also applied for a grant from Sport England. We’ve been told we’ve got a good chance, but there’s no timescale on when we might see any money.’

The Royals have also applied for a share of the Football Foundation’s £9.56m fund to help them reseed their Crest Finance Stadium pitch.

The Premier League, The FA, the government and Sport England have funded the Foundation’s fund.

It is believed the cash could benefit up to 4,000 grassroots clubs that maintain their own natural grass pitches and have at least 12 months’ security of tenure.

Portchester, as a step 1-6 club, can apply for a maximum grant of £1,500 for one pitch. The maximum grant any club can receive is £5,000, and that’s if they are responsible for four grass pitches.

The application window is open until 9pm on Monday, May 25.

‘We’ll use that to reseed the pitch,’ said Kelly. ‘During last season we played some games when we really shouldn’t have.

‘At times we had volunteers getting the pitch ready, including some of the players.

‘We got the games played because we needed the revenue coming in.’

Prior to the pandemic, the Royals were looking forward to once again hosting the Lee Rigby Memorial Cup game between a former Glasgow Rangers XI and a Pompey XI.

The fourth staging of the match was due to take place on May 23 - seven years and one day since the off-duty soldier was murdered on the streets of London.

‘We’ve had 1,800 people before and were expecting the same again,’ said Kelly. ‘It would have raised a lot of money for the club and for the (Lee Rigby Foundation) charity.’

The Memorial Cup game has been provisionally rescheduled for September 5.

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Moneyfields, like all other clubs, will still have to pay an entry fee for Hampshire FA cups in 2020/21.

Last season it was £63 for the Hampshire Senior Cup, £47 for the Russell Cotes Cup, £25 for the Women’s Senior Cup and £20 for the Hampshire Trophy (reserve team).

Elsewhere, all county youth cups (u-12-u18) were £20 per team.