Stunning ‘goodwill gesture’ by Hampshire Premier League will cost between £8-£10,000

The News recently reported that the HPL committee were to vote on whether to waive registration fees for the 2020/21 league season and the League Cup competition. They are worth £70 - £50 to enter the league and £20 to enter the cup.

In addition, each existing club - 16 in the Senior Division and 12 in Division 1 - were to receive 20 free player registrations (worth £30 per club).

All those ideas were duly passed when the league met on Thursday, but there were also more financial benefits to the clubs.

All existing clubs are to be reimbursed £100 - a move it itself worth £2,800.

All outstanding registrations and transfers invoices for the second half of the 2019-20 season are cancelled.

And first aid, referees and FA Level 1 coaching courses carried out by members involved with clubs in 2019/20 will be reimbursed.

The coaching course itself costs £170, while the first aid course is £30.

Mid-Solent League champions Harvest Home and Salisbury area club Clarendon are expected to be invited into the HPL Division 1 for next season at the annual meeting in June.

If that is the case, both will receive 20 free player registrations (worth £30) but they will have to pay the £70 to affiliate to the league and cup competitions.

They will also receive three match balls, a physio bag top up, five bibs for substitutes, a club banner/board for their home ground, a whiteboard to write the teams down for spectators, and an insurance cover upgrade if using Bluefin (Intermediate Cover to Senior).

They would have received all those free anyway.

Summing up the freebies handed out, HPL secretary Paul Proctor said: ‘We anticipate this will cost the league in the region of £8-£10,000.

‘I’m sure you will agree a not insignificant sum of money.

‘We hope this goes some way to assisting you for planning ahead for the 2020-21 season.’

Proctor added: ‘We have reserves in the bank, so we thought ‘let’s help the clubs.’

‘There’s no point running a league if you haven’t got any clubs to take part in it.

‘I’ve been involved in football since 1987 and I’ve never known anything like this (in terms of a league giving money back to its clubs).

‘I’ve already received lots of emails and messages thanking the league.’

The HPL have followed the example set by another step 7 league, the Wiltshire League.

Last week they announced they won’t be charging a registration fee either, and also the first 20 players will be registered free of charge.

Secretary Jim Thorne said: ‘This should save Premier Division clubs about £150 each and U18 Division and Vets clubs up to £70.’

All 28 clubs HPL clubs, meanwhile, have been asked to vote on how to decide Division 1, even though the FA have declared the Senior Division null and void.

With league committee members also voting, the options are either a) null and void; b) points per game (PPG); or c) award each team a point by declaring all remaining games as a 0-0 draw.

The latter option was the way in which the Mid-Solent League worked out their final 2019/20 table, which saw Harvest winning by a point from FC Strawberry.

Proctor said: ‘The voting is tight - tighter than I thought it would be. But the least favoured option was the 0-0 one, there’s only been two votes for that.’

If the title is decided on PPG, Moneyfields Reserves will win it. They will be awarded a trophy either at the annual meeting, if it takes place at Hamble Club in June, or at an early-season match in 2020/21.

The HPL were looking into whether they could stage the League Cup final between Colden Common and Bush Hill in pre-season.

But the FA have told them that is now impossible, as all leagues and associated League Cup competitions have been declared null and void.

The likes of the FA Cup, FA Trophy and FA Vase - indeed, the Hampshire Senior Cup if needs be, or the Portsmouth Senior Cup - can be played to a conclusion as they are not linked to a particular league.

Proctor also said there was no common consensus amongst the HPL committee regarding a view to supporting or criticising the FA’s decision to null and void all step 3-7 non-league football.

‘It’s a mixed opinion,’ he remarked. ‘Whatever the FA did there would be winners and losers. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.

‘I don’t think there was a collective view as such - I know most of the clubs would have preferred points per game.’