New FA advice on pre-season friendly crowds ‘could be the death of local league football’ admits Paulsgrove boss

Paulsgrove boss Wayne Grant has criticised the FA's decision to extend behind closed door regulations to step 7 level.
Even clubs at step 7 level like Paulsgrove must try and play their home pre-season friendlies behind closed doors following latest FA advice. Picture: Keith WoodlandEven clubs at step 7 level like Paulsgrove must try and play their home pre-season friendlies behind closed doors following latest FA advice. Picture: Keith Woodland
Even clubs at step 7 level like Paulsgrove must try and play their home pre-season friendlies behind closed doors following latest FA advice. Picture: Keith Woodland

And the manager of the Hampshire Premier League outfit admitted facing issues in trying to enforce the updated guideline.

The FA announced on Tuesday that all pre-season and competitive fixtures involving teams at step 7 - locally, the top division of the Hampshire Premier League - will not be allowed spectators until further notice.

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Initially, the guideline stated that only clubs from step 6 and higher had to hold fixtures behind closed doors.

However, the FA have now enforced the updated ruling in order to prevent crowds gathering at matches.

A statement from FA official Laurence Jones - head of the National Game System and the former chief executive of the Hampshire FA - said the government are ‘sensitive to crowds of all sizes and, as such, crowds at pre-season matches does put the longer term supporter strategies at risk.’

But it's a decision that Paulsgrove boss Grant has hit out at.

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Some clubs at step 7 play in public parks, which could make it incredibly hard to enforce.

And Grant admitted the updated guideline could be the 'death of local league football'.

‘I’ve got no idea how they’re going to enforce it at all,' he stated.

‘How can you tell a man who’s walking his dog that he can’t watch a game of football that’s going on?

‘We haven’t got gates so we play in a public park.

‘It’s absolutely crazy.

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‘If they try to enforce it’ll be the death of local league football, especially with people that use football regularly for dog walks and things like that.

‘If there’s a game going on we’re going to have to divert them around a different route.

‘I don’t know anyone at step 7 level at this moment in time, even teams with floodlights like Liss, it’s a public park and you’re not going to be able to stop people.

‘You just can’t physically stop people.

‘It’s going to be very difficult.'

Rich Bessey - boss of HPL rivals Fleetlands - is in agreement.

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‘I understand covid and I understand we have to make things safe, but this decision baffles me,’ he said.

‘You can stand in a packed pub, you can go to a packed beach, you are encouraged to go and sit in a restaurant now, but you can’t watch a football game in the open air.

‘You can’t have one rule for one and one rule for another, it’s all got to be aligned.’

Parents are allowed into games to watch their children play, if they are under-18.

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Bessey said: ‘Technically you could have 44 parents of the 22 players watching a game, and no-one else.

‘We’ve got one player, Jack North, who is 17 - his dad can come and watch us play but no-one else can!

‘We’ve had to appoint a club covid officer, but what was the point if we can’t have any fans to watch us?

‘Clubs at our level are being punished. We don’t charge an admission fee, we look to make our money at the bar.’

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There is certainly no joined up thinking when it comes to sporting events.

Spectators - socially distancing of course - have been allowed in to watch grassroots cricket matches up and down the country for the past four weekends.