Grassroots football return?

[ForeverBlue]

Here's the latest Daily Telegraph view from their top sports writer:

"When will grass-roots football return?
By Jeremy Wilson
CHIEF SPORTS REPORTER
24 June 2020 • 9:19am

With new lockdown rules and professional sport having returned to action, many recreational players across the country will be wondering when their next chance of a match or even some form of training will be.

The Football Association is in talks with the Government about protocols for how grass-roots and recreational football could return later this year.

The most recent easing of lockdown restrictions allows people who play contact or team sports like football to practice in groups of up to six but ongoing two metre social distancing rules mean no matches or physical contact.

Numerous grass-roots fixtures were already lost before March due to the wet winter but the FA hope that matches will resume this year and have taken encouragement from how other sectors of society have introduced modifications to gradually return. Smaller sided forms of football could be permitted to return first and the FA have told non-league clubs to prepare for a September or October return, subject to government guidance. They also hope to increase the training numbers over the summer.
Leagues have received no definite guidance but a later start to the season will mean fewer fixtures, with league matches to take priority over cup competitions. "

With a four to six week pre-season required according to respected managers at our level, a September start would need a decision from the FA ideally by the middle of July - only three weeks away.

An October start is looking more likely to me.

[Ant of Grays]

I agree late September or Early October.
Or many clubs and grounds will find it impossible to come back "a bridge road to far". So the FA need to get it going again.

But once they have sorted out the distancing.... they will have to look into football financeing for the future of the game. It has to be sustainable and viable.
I am really looking forward to getting the season ticket form and looking to the future of GAFC for the town.

[ForeverBlue]

Thanks Ant.

I hope you are keeping well and coping OK.

Rest assured the season ticket application form and the other "support the club" documents will come out just as soon as we get the official line on the start for next season.

Rebecca has already emailed out the reminder for memberships renewal - due on 1 July and we are also happy to receive applications for community shares (just bear in mind our rules limit that to £100,000...........).

[Ant of Grays]

Thanks Boss.

I hope you all are keeping well as well.
I bumped into Peter J, at the parade a month ago and he is looking good he looks younger to me. What ever he is doing can I recommend He keeps it up. 16 by November.

Not too keen on being stuck in Thurrock back on IOW in July.
Will be back and forth. Will try to see West Wight FC.

Hoping Land Values crash so acres can be bought. I do keep a massive eye on the Thurrock values.
Soon as that God dam road is sorted. it opens up West Tilbury.Bulphan, Orsett, Horndon, Linford, North Grays.
Lots of room for an Academy.....
I always was in favour of a ground in Grays. But football training/academy somewhere else....
I never knew how much pitch rents were till David/Tony/Yourself told me.
Massive surprise. or is it commercial oppotunity for GAFC in the South Essex region.

[ForeverBlue]

Cheers Ant. Enjoy IOW. Look forward to seeing when the season starts........

One of the many good features of a community football facility funded with Govt, etc support is that the fees for users have to kept to an affordable level so the local community is able to use it. Commercial operators can charge "what the market will bear", so community use is restricted.

We aim to provide a community facility that will work for at least two local schools during term-time and as many youth teams - boys, girls and "soccabililty" for those with special needs - as can be catered for within the site available.

Difficult times for us while the Lower Thames Crossing remains under discussion and the new Local Plan is only now moving into the public consultation stage. We are hugely frustrated with the delays, but the board is determined to "hang in there" until all hope is gone.

[Ant of Grays]

Jun 25, 2020 11:47:36 GMT 1 ForeverBlue said:

One of the many good features of a community football facility funded with Govt, etc support is that the fees for users have to kept to an affordable level so the local community is able to use it. Commercial operators can charge "what the market will bear", so community use is restricted.

I agree with the community football facility plans, aims and concept 100%.

But there is nothing to stop having a seperate entity in some format. Non Profit/CIC/Charity/ Business formation format .

That concentrates on the more commercial aspects at reasonable prices "Not Profiteering" But by compedetive reasonable pricing.
It's not about making a S&^t load of money but about adding to revenue streams and the community for sustainability.

I mean Four Football camps in Thurrock, Basildon, Southend, Havering. With affordable Pitch rentals, Bar......
If managed correctly would n't only add to the clubs revenue, but local football clubs regionally and the community as a whole across South Essex. plus the new road will open up North Kent oppotunities as never before.

Numerous revenue avenues are better than one in case the one is effected.

[Ant of Grays]

But the GAFC Community Ground. FC. would need to be seperate from. South Essex facilities.
But it would add more options and different aims. Plus options for other areas in Revenue going forward.

[ForeverBlue]

Latest thoughts on "Non League Project Start" from the Southern league, this time, below.

He goes along with my thinking on so many things, so he must be a good guy!! LOL

"Southern League column: We must plan carefully to ensure bright future

Southern League clubs are waiting to find out when football is deemed safe to return

Southern League vice-chairman Anthony Hughes pens an exclusive column for The NLP

Covid changed our world and lest not forget the thousands of people who sadly lost their lives, including the many who gave unstinting service to the Non-League game.

Sadly, people are still dying but we hope to continue seeing those numbers dwindle until we find a way of treating this virus effectively or vaccinating against it.


Many have called for this crisis to become an opportunity for the National League System to become something which more actually reflects how Non-League football should look in 2020, and I believe there is merit in that.

After the debates and deliberations over the decisions to expunge the season or settle it on a points-per-game basis, we are now, at least, talking about when to start the 2020/21 campaign.

The decisions made by the leagues, in consultation with The FA and of course with each other, were difficult, purely because there wasn’t a good decision for everyone. It was about trying to do the best of a bad job but also trying to get some uniformity throughout the National League System and working together.

I sincerely felt for some clubs, including some in our own league.

Not so long back, many in the game were thinking we may not be able to start before the end of the year so, with the considerable help of the National League System team at the FA, scenarios were drawn up as to what the season would look like if it started at any time between August and December, and even January 2021.

Now there is more optimism around a possible September or October start and in those situations we would be able to accommodate a full league campaign – even if it meant going into May.


At the Southern League, we recently asked clubs about their feelings with regards to restarting and a number of things became clearly evident.

Over 90 per cent of the clubs told us it would not be viable to play behind closed doors whilst slightly more said they could operate with reduced capacities and accommodate social distancing.

So, to start the season we need clubs’ hospitality facilities to be open for business, as is now the case in England. It is not yet in Wales but that could change in the next few weeks.

The other crucial decision the Government would need to make is to allow mass gatherings. With minimum ground capacities at Steps 3 and 4 being 1,950 and 1,300 respectively, a possible solution could be that attendances would be restricted to a percentage of those capacities.

That could be enough to see us start the new season but will still require significant planning and procedures which I am sure the clubs will embrace but only with the help, advice and guidance of the leagues.

That leads on, of course, to how clubs will cope. We have all feared that some clubs would fall during this crisis and that, sadly, may still be the case. The task for us as administrators is to give clubs the best possible opportunity to function financially and despite a difficult economic situation. We are endeavouring to secure further sponsorship which would enable us as leagues to provide at least some help in terms of equipment and services to member clubs.


There is also an onus on the clubs themselves to plan for next season in a financially sensible manner and to ensure their forecasts and spending plans are realistic, just as we as leagues have had to.

Sponsorship will be a challenge but there is now another element to the planning not taken into account previously. That is the possibility of a second wave of the Covid-19 virus and also the possibility of local lockdowns as we have seen in Leicester just this week.

When the crisis first began in March, the Government did assist. Grants were made available to many of our clubs under the hospitality sector through local government and many clubs were able to furlough staff and players, which was a huge help. Further assistance has come via the Football Foundation.

Clubs were rightly concerned about how they would be able to pay their players before the furlough scheme began, particularly those on contract, and the reality was that either agreements had to be made with players or the contracts had to paid until the furlough scheme came into effect at the end of April. It was extremely difficult for some clubs.

In all the planning we do for the new season, we must take into account the possibilities of a second wave of the virus striking or regional areas of the country going into lockdown. We hope it doesn’t happen and the last thing anyone wants is a second season without promotion/relegation so we must seek out contingencies to ensure that doesn’t happen even if the season was to be curtailed.

I sincerely hope clubs will also take this into account when putting playing squads together because a second wave of the virus coming in January or February could be catastrophic for the clubs as well as public health.

My concern is that it will be difficult for the Government to offer the financial support to business in the way they have this time. Is the money there? Hopefully it would be but what if it was not? I appreciate there are club owners screaming right now… “that is our business, not yours”.

Understood, but…..contracts would still have to be paid unless agreements could be reached with players and for that reason maybe we will see more clubs going down the non-contract route throughout Non-League in order to give them more flexibility at this time. Obviously, time will tell but one thing is for sure – we need to get this fabulous game of ours back on track as soon as possible'.