MP praised for ‘absolutely phenomenal’ work in helping to keep Hawks’ promotion dream alive

Mak was contacted by club officials on Friday morning after Hawks had been told by the National League that only the champion club in their division, Wealdstone, were being put forward for promotion.

The league told Hawks and other clubs at step 2 that play-offs could not be held because the government - through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and via the FA - had ruled that those two divisions were not classified as ‘elite sport’. Therefore, the games could not take place behind closed doors. Therefore, no play-offs.

The National League’s top flight, though, WAS ruled as ‘elite sport’ – where the competitors ‘derive a living through their salary’ – so the play-offs were taking place at step 1 of the non-league pyramid.

Due to only one club coming up from the South and North divisions, Ebbsfleet and AFC Fylde - third bottom and second bottom respectively in the National League top flight - were being spared relegation.

Only Chorley, at rock bottom, would go down - the only club relegated in the whole of English non-league football in 2019/20 if the National League’s proposal was successfully voted on by clubs.

Hawks, along with other clubs at step 2 harbouring play-off ambitions, were furious and called on Mak for help.

Thankfully for Hawks, Mak - a season ticket holder at the club - was in the area and met officials at Westleigh Park on Friday morning.

Within hours, he had sent letters to Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston and National League chairman Brian Barwick.

On Saturday morning, he got a reply from Huddleston to say the government had NOT declared step 2 non-elite sport. Following that, Mak sent another letter to Barwick asking for the National League to either hold the play-offs or promote Hawks as the second-placed side under the unweighted points-per-game methodology that had seen Wealdstone crowned champions.

In his second letter to Barwick, Mak made three points:

‘1 The Government has not expressed a view about whether the National League and/or the National League South are - or are not - ‘elite’ - and has not expressed a view about whether the players employed by HWFC are ‘elite athletes’ or not under the regulations. The Government doesn’t give case by case guidance at such a granular level, and they’ve not issued a special ‘directive’ about the National League, the National League South or HWFC. Any reports to the contrary are not correct.

‘2 It is up to the National League to decide whether there are play-offs this season (including for the National League South), and how it promotes and relegates teams in the leagues that it oversees.

‘3 ‘Elite athlete’ means, in the regulations, a person who is ‘an individual who derives a living from competing in sport’. If HWFC and the National League agree that HWFC’s players meet this definition, the Government is not intending to prevent National League South play-offs from taking place or HWFC from taking part, if this can all be done safely with regards to the Government’s Covid-19 guidance and the wider public health advice.

‘As a result of the above, I am calling on you and your colleagues at the National League to organise play-offs for National League South.

‘If the play-offs cannot be organised, I am calling on you and the National League to automatically promote HWFC to the National League on the basis of their league position to date this season.’

A copy of the letter was also send to Huddleston.

Hawks director Trevor Brock told The News: ‘Alan has been absolutely phenomenal.

‘For an MP to get a question answered within 24 hours just does not happen normally - I know, I worked in government for 35 years.

‘But Alan made it happen, he got an answer within 24 hours from a government department over a weekend, and we are eternally grateful to him.’

As The News went to press last night, Hawks had still not heard from the National League about whether South and North play-offs were back on the agenda.

Last Thursday afternoon, Hawks and their 21 South rivals had attended a Zoom meeting with National League chief executive Michael Tattershall and FA official Lawrence Jones, head of the National League System.

Clubs were told it would be cost prohibitive to stage South play-offs, with fees of £50-60,000 mentioned. S o, by deciding not to hold them following the DCMS’s ‘advice’, the league were financially helping clubs who, they said, could not afford them.

‘They were speaking as if the league was doing us a favour. That’s not a judgement call for them, it’s a judgement call for us,’ said Brock.

Hawks believe the total cost of taking part in the play-offs - including testing and bringing players back off furlough - would be around £20,000.

‘People have said we would need to pay the players three weeks’ wages. Why?’ asked Brock. ‘We might decide to bring them back for just a week before a game.’

Dorking - who would also take part in the South play-offs if they are held - were also unhappy that the league talked up the potential costs to the clubs of staging play-offs.

Owner/boss Marc White said ‘there was almost an establishment-led propaganda around the cost involved. I didn’t understand why so much conversation in the meeting was about this. Regardless of whether the cost would be a barrier, it was irrelevant.

‘The costs quoted in the meeting, like the guidance, had absolutely no detail, none. Costs are subjective anyway. The affordability comes after can it (the play-offs) happen? It will differ as clubs make different decisions on training etc.’

The National League board will ultimately decide whether the proposal that goes out to clubs for voting on will have South and North play-offs written in.

The make-up of that board is very interesting, in that it is skewed towards the top flight.

Eight men have voting rights, six of whom are associated with top flight clubs - Jim Parmenter (Dover), Shahid Azeem (Aldershot), Gary Plant (Harrogate), Sid Blaine (Barrow), Steven Thompson (Dagenham & Redbridge) and Anthony Kleanthous (Barnet).

The South and North divisions have just one representative - in the South’s case it is Richard Parsons of Hampton & Richmond Borough.

Bognor Regis’ Jack Pearce is the vice chairman of the National League board, but he does not have voting rights.

Hawks fear a board featuring mainly top flight representatives are unlikely to vote for any resolutions that affect the top 24 clubs. Turkeys voting for Christmas springs to mind ...

And in terms of voting, all 24 top flight clubs get a vote, while the 22 South clubs have four votes between them and the North have the same. In total, that’s 32 votes, but only 17 top flight clubs need to vote for a resolution to get it passed.

Hawks and York City - the team who finished runners-up in the North division on an unweighted PPG basis - got together last Thursday evening and came up with a fresh proposal that was email to the league that night.

Their proposal was, if the play-offs could not be held, the second-placed team under PPG be automatically promoted.

‘I was told if we didn’t like it (the original proposal) we could put forward a new proposal,’ explained Brock.

‘We went away, talked with York City, and we did just that - only to be told that league rules don’t allow any challenge to an ordinary proposal.’

Hawks are also annoyed that AFC Fylde, one of the clubs spared relegation if only the champion club come up from South and North, were granted a long chat with Barwick while they were limited to a single question during Thursday’s meeting.

Barwick talked to Fylde chairman David Haythornthwaite for two hours - a fact the latter confirmed himself in an interview on his club’s website.

The meeting was held after Haythornthwaite had been critical of the National League on numerous occasions.

‘I was quite surprised that I had an invitation from Brian Barwick to have a Zoom meeting,’ Haythornthwaite revealed.

‘They feel like some of my attacks – for want of a better word – were unjustified.

‘I laid out clearly my areas of frustration: we don’t know when the league is going to start, we shouldn’t be doing the play-offs, there’s no discussion about salary caps, there’s conflicts of interest and so on and so on.

‘I was pleasantly surprised when I received the phone call and we had a two-hour video meeting where we went through every one of those points line by line.

‘To be fair, they were very respectful and I was equally respectful to them. I have to say thank you to them for taking the time to do that.’

No doubt Hawks would have loved a two-hour meeting with the league chairman to put their own case to him in fine detail …

Hawks have received messages of support from Gillingham boss Steve Evans and Walsall manager Darrell Clarke in their bid to keep their promotion dream alive.

It has been reported that the EFL are unhappy with the National League for failing to follow their own example - there is promotion and relegation, and play-offs, in each of their three divisions.

But whether the EFL will get involved in another league’s politics is a question yet to be answered.

Boston United chairman David Newton is certainly on Hawks’ side.

He backed the call to promote two clubs from both the North and South if play-offs are unable to go ahead.

‘For most of us that was unjust and unfair and probably puts the integrity of the competition in question,’ Newton told Lincolnshire media about the proposal to promote just one team from North and South.

‘When you start the season you know two teams will go up. The bottom X number of teams come down.

‘They're saying the process to get a second promotion (place) is only by the play-offs. We said we need to amend that rule as they are exceptional circumstances.

‘York (and Hawks) put forward a proposed change to the rules which we supported and, as far as I'm aware, the bulk of our league supported.

‘The first thing is play-offs should happen if at all possible. If they can be done safely and every club can afford to do them.

‘Failing that then there should be another mechanism. If PPG is being used in deciding the champion it should be the same for second place as far as we're concerned.’

Newton is also a critic of the voting system that only gives the 22 South clubs four overall votes out of 32, and the same for the North.

‘It's something I think is totally unjust and totally unfair.

‘When we vote as a league that is classed as four votes, so is the South. Yet the 24 teams in the National League have one vote each.

‘When you're looking at this (original) resolution, only Chorley will get relegated. Surely the National League will support that, which affects us more than the National League.

‘For me it's all about integrity. It arises regularly and it doesn't sit at all well to me.

‘I don't see why we're considered less important than somebody in the National League.

‘You get the bizarre situation where, possibly next season, it looks like Chorley will be joining us. This season they have a vote, next season they have an equivalent of a (fifth) of a vote. Why is that?

‘Are they a less important team than they are this season? It does need resolving at some point.’