National Leagues North and South halt season amid funding and COVID safety disputes
22.01.2021
Following an announcement on January 22nd, Step 2 of non-league football will suspend its two regional leagues for at least two weeks. The brief statement contains a mere three lines, describing a decisive “Board meeting,” with results “effective immediately.”
This abrupt call came less than 24 hours after a joint statement from 12 National League North clubs urging the league to halt, stating their intention and desire to avoid fixtures over safety and solvency concerns. These twelve teams (AFC Telford, Alfreton Town, Bradford Park Avenue, Blyth Spartans, Curzon Ashton, Darlington, Farsley Celtic, Gateshead, Guiseley, Kettering Town, Southport and Spennymoor Town) made themselves clear in a statement which immediately impacted the league. Alongside their financial concerns due to pandemic restriction, they cited “the safety of our families, staff, volunteers, or the heroic workers who are tackling this pandemic” as the main reason behind their call to suspend the season.
Circumstances forced their hands, as an unprecedented surge in COVID cases and a corresponding tightening of restrictions coincided with the end of vital funding. The season began with three months worth of National Lottery funding in the form of a £10 million grant to replace National League gate revenue. As of January, the fund dried up. The government offered £11 million in emergency funding to replace the lottery grant with one crucial difference: they offered it in the form of low-interest loans. A significant amount of National League clubs currently risk insolvency, and club boards across the country are opting away from accruing excess debt, no matter how low-interest.
In the joint statement from the 12 National League North clubs, questions arise concerning administrative forethought or lack thereof. The statement suggests that “66 clubs would not have willingly participated in any footballing competition which initiated player contracts without assurances.” They thereby suggest that the league assured them of grant funding for the full season and that they now feel misled.
One notable absence from the list of 12 cosigners is the National League North’s Chorley Town. While their league season halts along with the rest of the National League North cohort, an alternative remains for the Chorley Magpies in the FA Cup. On the same day that the league announced its suspension, Chorley Town host top-flight Wolverhampton Wonderers in the Cup’s third round. The Magpies remain firm underdogs in the bout, but their high-flying cup run offers them some financial stability, proving scarce among their league peers.
Several National League South clubs echo the joint statements’ sentiments, most notably Slough Town and Concord AFC. Concord Chairman Ant Smith announced that his club wouldn’t be upholding their imminent fixtures before the league’s statement, and later described the league’s conduct in reacting to his club’s decision. Smith stated that “the threat of expulsion is a further embarrassment to the league from where I am sitting. Sometimes you have to respect people’s decisions and not try to bully them [...] .” This suggestion of threats and bullying stacks up with the National League North’s implications surrounding broken assurances and league indecision.
The two-week halt offers an opportunity for further discussions and attempts to source sustainable funding. However, it also raises questions about the season’s future, along with that of the National League above, non-league’s national top flight. The 12 clubs' joint statement revealed an ongoing “financial risk assessment against a null and void scenario” which may well devastate morale and revenue in one blow.
If the National League declared the season null and void, it would also rob Torquay United, the runaway league leaders, of a return to the EFL. The remaining alternatives include accruing debt from loans or ending the season based on unweighted points per game (PPG). Crises mount in the 20/21 National League competition, and the two-week break will be over before we know it. When it disappears, this break may well take the season with it.
