Deadline day as National League clubs consider No Confidence vote
06.04.2021
Fines in the thousands hit clubs across the National Leagues North and South in recent weeks, causing Maidstone United’s co-owner Oliver Ash to tweet “the lunatics are running our asylum, this needs sorting.” Ash’s words turned to actions, as the Stones issued a formal call for a vote of no confidence to the National League board. Seconded by Dorking Wanderers, the statement arrived in each of the 66 member clubs' inboxes and could catalyse a fundamental restructuring of the National League administration.
The letter, including 11 grievances from the past year’s National League governance, asserted that “the board’s management of the crisis has been inadequate from the beginning”. It closes by urging fellow clubs to help trigger an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) on the board’s future. The EGM would need 10 per cent weighted support to go ahead, and a 75 per cent weighted vote to pass. Deadlines to reply, originally intended for Wednesday, March 31, extended to midday on Monday, April 5, 2021.
The term “weighted vote” becomes the deciding factor in this proposal’s viability. Like the recent “null and void” vote, the National League hierarchy creates a dramatic divide in each club’s impact on board decisions. National League top-flight clubs get one vote each, but National League North and South clubs receive a mere 4 votes per league. This provides 23 weighted votes from the top-flight and a mere 8 votes from the bottom two leagues.
The total of 31 votes overwhelmingly privileges the upper competition, as a third of the voters dictate half of the vote. This echoes the alleged privileging National League top-flight clubs received for National Lottery funding to start the season. Again funding forms the core of each National League crisis. The top-flight weighting also reflects the overwhelming advertising and revenue advantage which clubs in the upper echelons earn over their regional peers.
In the top-flight, Dover Athletic, who were fined £40,000 and deducted 12 points, seem destined to back no confidence. Dover Athletic wield a full weighted vote of a total of 31, so only need three more weighted votes to reach the 10 per cent EGM trigger. With clubs at both steps in years-worth of debt, and few with hopes of promotion, the board’s future hangs in the balance. Whether the proposal can pass 75 per cent is an altogether different prospect.
Upon hitting the 10 per cent trigger-threshold, the board must hold an EGM in the next weeks. Whether the proposed vote will prove a radically decisive National League flash-point or just the latest in the long list of 20/21 scandals remains to be seen.
