Opinion: National League mess tells us a lot

Any Pompey fans who keep half an eye on matters at Westleigh Park will have looked on as a week of chaos and confusion has unfolded in the National League.

In a nutshell, clubs in the league's premier, south and north division were given government grants at the start of the season to get them through the first half of the campaign without any income (ie without fans).

They firmly believed a new grant would come if the second half of the season had to be played in the same conditions.

But the government said ‘You’re not getting grants, you can have loans.’

Clubs feel betrayed – but the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says grants were never promised for this half of the season. Somewhere along the line, there's been a major misunderstanding – or someone’s not telling the whole truth.

The upshot? A number of clubs in the south and north leagues have said they won't play on and incur further costs without the promise of a new grant.

Notwithstanding this, the Hawks have been so badly affected by Covid cases they are now in a new period of self-isolation.

Eyebrows were raised when the National League was labelled ‘elite’ football in the first lockdown – and it’s only right to point out many of the clubs themselves pushed for the status so they could play on.

Maybe there should have been an acceptance that football – below the top few divisions – is nothing without fans and therefore shouldn’t even try without them.

What we have now is a total mess, and no guarantee of any more financial help to come.

And if you think similar things couldn’t happen at Pompey’s level, well… are you certain?