Hawks director criticises FA’s leadership as National League season is brought to an end

Hawks director Trevor Brock has criticised the footballing authorities’ leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hawks director Trevor Brock. Picture by Dave HainesHawks director Trevor Brock. Picture by Dave Haines
Hawks director Trevor Brock. Picture by Dave Haines

Yesterday the National League announced that enough clubs had supported their proposal to cancel the remaining games of 2019/20.

While that brought clarity to some in terms of players’ contracts, the burning question of just how the NL brings the campaign to a close has yet to be answered.

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Clubs will now be asked whether they believe 19/20 should be null and voided - as is the case with all non-league football between steps 3-7 - or final tables worked out on a points-per-game (PPG) basis.

The Hawks were second in the NL South when the season was first suspended in mid-March, three points behind Wealdstone having played a game more.

Hawks had eight league games left, but had completed 81 per cent of their fixtures.

As Brock revealed, the NL decision also goes no way to explaining how Hawks are supposed to carry on paying the players who have contracts running throughout the summer months.

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Back on April 9, the 68 National League clubs were asked to support a resolution to end the playing season for all fixtures scheduled up to and including April 25.

‘With almost 90 per cent of responses returned, it is evident a clear majority of clubs are in favour, including a majority of clubs in each of the National League, National League North and National League South divisions,’ a NL statement said.

‘In the knowledge that the ordinary resolution has been passed, the League’s Board has chosen to communicate the decision now and before the last few responses are received, which will not change the outcome, to enable clubs to make decisions with greater clarity as soon as possible.’

National League chief executive officer Mark Tattersall said: ‘At a time when the entire country is wrestling with the devastating impact of Covid-19, the cancellation of the remaining normal season matches brings a degree of certainty to our clubs coping with the business implications of the virus.

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‘The options regarding the sporting outcomes of the 2019/20 remain under timely and careful consideration, and further updates will be given in due course.’

Hawks boss Paul Doswell had repeatedly said he believed the season should be completed – even if that meant playing games in the summer months or even beyond.

But Brock said: ‘It wasn’t a surprise to me, I always thought that would be the case (clubs voting to end the season now).

‘We voted against the proposal because we thought we should have been asked on how we wanted the season to end.

‘It will be very interesting to see what happens next.’

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Brock admits there has been a lack of leadership from the authorities since the last round of NL matches were played on March 15.

‘I’ve heard almost nothing from the league and the FA have been useless. They have basically just told us to carry on as normal,’ he said.

‘If our players have got contracts where they will be paid throughout the summer, we have to carry on paying them otherwise they could walk away.

‘It’s ok the league telling us the season has been finished, but the players’ contracts aren’t with the league, they’re with the FA.

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‘Some of our players have contracts where we pay them in May, June and July. The question is this - pay them with what?

‘It’s no good the FA telling us to carry on, because we can’t. I know they have problems with tv money, but they have gone into self-protective mode when they should be stepping forward and showing leadership.

‘There’s three main ways we make money - gate receipts, the (West Leigh) pub and sponsorship.

‘We’ve already had big sponsors saying they can’t meet some payments because they’re not making money. I can totally understand that - they’re in the same boat as we are - but it doesn’t help us.

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‘At our level, sponsorship is more important to clubs than gate money.

‘And people at the club who might have been putting money in are suffering because money is not coming into them - it just goes on and on, it’s a vicious circle.

‘For most of the clubs at our level, the assets are out on the pitch - there’s not many with cash reserves put away for a rainy day.’

Hawks have received their share of the Premier League’s ‘solidarity’ payment which has been brought forward from the autumn.

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‘The Premier League made a great deal out of saying they’ve given £125m to the EFL and National League, but in reality they have not given us one extra penny,’ Brock explained.

‘The £13,500 we will get is only money that we would have got in September.

‘The National League have told us we should be grateful, and we are - we would obviously have it rather than not have it. And clubs below us get nothing.

‘I think the Premier League should be helping more - in reality it’s only the Premier League clubs who have the money to help.

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‘Bearing in mind the billions of pounds in the Premier League, only a sliver of it is passed down.

‘Paul Pogba’s monthly salary would solve all the problems in non-league football.’

Some Hawks players are out of contract at the end of next week - in non-league football players’ contracts usually run out at the end of April, while in the Premier League and EFL they expire at the end of June.

‘Next week I’m going to have to tell players whether they are being retained or let go,’ Brock said.

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‘I’ll be offering new terms, but at this moment I don’t have a good steer on what we can afford to pay. It’s a really difficult scenario.’

The NL voting system has been criticised by many in the South and North divisions.

While all 24 top flight clubs received a vote on whether to end the season now, the 22 South clubs only got four between them - as did the 22 North clubs. And all four votes have to be cast the same way - ie, if South clubs had voted 12-10 in favour of ending the season now, all four votes would be for that option.

With 32 votes in all, it only needed 17 of the 24 National League clubs to have voted to end the season now for the proposal to have been passed.

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That was the case even if every single one of the 44 NL South and North clubs had voted to continue playing 2019/20 to a conclusion.

That hardly seems fair, does it?

Brock said: ‘We told the league we thought every club should get a vote in what are exceptional circumstances.

‘It would have been more democratic, but it was always going to be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

‘Why would clubs who get £58,000 each (from the Premier League) give some of their voting power to clubs who only get £13,500? And I understand that the National League clubs have bigger bills.

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‘It’s the same in the EFL – Pompey are on an associate member in League One, they won’t have as much voting power as Leeds in the Championship.’

The question now is how many clubs will vote to null and void the season, and how many will choose final tables to be calculated on PPG - with promotion and relegation included?

‘I know clubs who will vote for null and void,’ said Brock.

‘Most clubs will want the season to finish, but we obviously don’t because we have something to lose if it’s null and void.’

It is believed the South and North clubs will first be asked how they want to bring the season to an end.

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But whatever they decide, the NL top flight clubs can do something totally different if 17 of them choose to do so.

Yeovil Town chairman Scott Priestnall has been critical of the decision to ask clubs to determine the outcome of 2019/20.

‘Our position is that we don’t want to vote at all,’ he said.

‘I think it should be left to the governing bodies – the FA and National League – to decide what should happen.

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‘I don’t think it should come down (to) a club level, because clubs will vote for what is right for them, not what is right for all clubs and the integrity of the league in general.’

Brock said: ‘I agree with what Yeovil said - we elect these people to serve the clubs, it should be done by leadership.

‘Football has a great problem in that too many people want to keep the status quo.’