A year out for Non League?

[ForeverBlue]

Sky Sports reports:

"Premier League clubs prepare for the possibility of the 2020/21 season behind closed doors.

Clubs are expecting football to get back to normal only when there is a coronavirus vaccine.

While clubs discuss proposals to complete this season behind closed doors at neutral venues, they have also started considering the impact of playing the 2020/21 season without fans as well.

Clubs are expecting football to get back to normal only when there is a coronavirus vaccine. Most experts believe a vaccine will not become available until the middle of next year."

If social distancing can't work for a 75,000 crowd at Old Trafford, do we have a chance at Non League level of hosting games for a few hundred fans next season?

Doesn't seem very likely to me.

[Ant of Grays]

Anything is possible either side.

1. Cure could be found tomorrow. 30 Million doses by September. 67 Million by October.
2. It could burn out like last Viruses have.
3. Any of the other outcomes.

Wait till August.
I doubt not a lot of games till October atleast
. maybe even over 70's and care homes in lockdown still.

But as I said to many variables. Way to many variables.
Just really protect Care homes and stay safe.

I want to look on the bright side.
Why not stream games,
have league websites and sell Merchandise, DVD's, Advertising Streams.........
a thousned and one things you could add to that.
In fact you could burn the DVD'S of Games. sponsoring the production cost.

My old Grandads North Weald Market mindset once again.

Innovate or Cry.

[ForeverBlue]

A recent BBC Sport report about the Champions League (planned final in Poland on 29 August) and the restart of the Premier League, drifted on to talk about non league.

Perhaps disappointing, but maybe realistic:

"No football until 2021 in the non-league?

This is a very real possibility. There has been a suggestion even clubs in the National League are thinking about this as the impact of a statement by the government's chief medical officer Chris Whitty when he said "highly disruptive" social distancing would need to be in place for "really quite a long period of time", sinks in.

Lower down the pyramid the situation is stark. Should the current limit on gatherings be extended to just a small number of people, BBC Sport has been told by one league official there would be 'no point' in matches behind closed doors.

Below the National League, where there is no TV deal, virtually all revenue comes through supporters attending matches, either by their admission money or cash spent on food and drink, programmes and even raffle tickets.


And, unlike the National League and beyond, where clubs have primacy of tenure over their stadiums, at non-league level shared facilities and rented grounds mean extending seasons is a logistical impracticality.

It leaves many leagues and clubs in limbo and wondering whether there will be any play next season at all."

I put their raffle ticket comment in bold. I think Audrey and our raffle ticket team would object to that! They raised well over £3,000 for us in our truncated 19-20 season. Without their help, the club would have struggled even more to try and be competitive in our Division.

[gazza56]

At the end of the day ,with our gates social distanceing really isn't a problem...but what really matters is the safety of the players and officials ,which is the problem with all leagues the only difference is money seems to come above the health and commonsense of the so called big boys

[Scoop]

What I find laughable is clubs at our level announcing player signings, Felixstowe are the latest signing "two new seasiders",. It would be interesting to see what sort of contracts are being offered when we don't even know if non league will return this year or even next. Madness!

[Ant of Grays]

May 22, 2020 11:58:05 GMT 1 Scoop said:

What I find laughable is clubs at our level announcing player signings, Felixstowe are the latest signing "two new seasiders",. It would be interesting to see what sort of contracts are being offered when we don't even know if non league will return this year or even next. Madness!

That's one of the most telling things of some football powers all day I've heard.

Signing players right now is beyond insane it's contemptible.

No football date. But they have gone to all the lengths administratively and met with them or atleast telephoned (Costs)
For no real logical reason.

All that paperwork and time.

[ForeverBlue]

On signings, I would like to add something that we have said in previous seasons.

Our League doesn't issue registration documents for players to sign until after the annual League AGM.

In past seasons, this meant that documents weren't available until around the end of June/early July.

If clubs are offering contracts to players, these can be signed earlier, but at our level, Step 4, of non league, the vast majority of players are non-contract, so as yet, there is no form to sign for these players.

This year, we have no indication yet as to when the non league season may start, so the registration of players can't even be contemplated yet.

I am sure some clubs will be keen for players to make a commitment as early as possible so plans can be made to build their squads and be ready to get quickly out of the blocks for their assaults on their particular League title.

In our position, I know our management will be keen to move as soon as possible to a pre-season training programme and invite players to be involved.

For the present, no firm plans can be made.

I have commented in earlier threads about if/when the non league game will resume for 2020-21.

I suspect it will be a while before the League is in a position to issue any guidance on timings. Some form of shortened season (at best) for 2020-21 seems more likely as each day passes.

[Ant of Grays]

Noted.

But as he said if Felixstowe are the latest signing "two new seasiders",.

If the paperwork atLeague level is not yet out....
Even if League paperwork is not done. Phone calls and they have signed something with no date yet.
Depending on a number of factors.
It could be a waste of cost and time and effort.

I would have 60 shortlisted then when the green light is given. Sign them up.

[ForeverBlue]

No problem for me if other clubs "sign" players, but what financial commitments are they making AND from what date?

Our club can't make any of those decisions until we know when we may start football again. Most pro clubs seem to be suggesting four weeks pre-season training before a competitive start.

We would "normally" have about six weeks for training and pre-season friendlies. I am sure four weeks would be acceptable with more training and less games, but when will that start? It would need to be early July if we wanted to start our league/cup programme from Saturday 8 August (the planned start date given by our League some months ago).

Unless and until social distancing "rules" or "guidance" (for fans of Dominic Cummings) are relaxed to allow gatherings of hundreds of people and no need for testing of players/officials (which non league clubs could afford that anyway?), I can't see a start which would allow a full league season for 2020-21 at our level.

Then there are the cup competitions - FA Cup and Trophy in particular. The FA Cup will have to finish by May 2021 because of the Euro Championships starting on 11 June.

When would the qualifying rounds need to start so the whole competition can be completed on time?

With Cup money being very important to non league (not us last season but hey, ho!), how will the FA manage that?

There are many more questions than answers at the moment.

[Deleted]

You give a very concise explanation of events as you see them FB.

I'm sure that you are pulling a lot of heads out of the sand (mine included).

Would you also conclude that (at our level) pre-season couldn't really begin until after an ''order'' allowing gatherings of say 300 people had been given?
In other words,pre-season couldn't begin before such an ''order'' in the hope of that ''order'' coming (4 weeks) later?

[ForeverBlue]

Thanks ONC.

I was probably only stating the "bleedin' obvious", but we can't plan for next season until there is the "science" to help our Government make the judgement about a much more significant relaxation of social distancing and crowd gatherings.

The early July "Step 3" provisional proposals certainly don't include anything that we might be looking for in terms of getting players back together.

Unless the national situation improves more that the plans seem to assume, I can't see football with people attending in person starting for a long time yet.

Difficult for our club and many hundreds like us trying to prepare a financial business forecast from 1 July 20 to 30 June 21 (which are our financial year year dates).

I suppose it's part of what supporters elected us to do but we might need some help!