Scrapping season makes me feel like quitting blasts Stu
THE FA today stand accused of stamping all over the heart and soul of grassroots football.
If the non-league game in England was not already broken by the coronavirus ban, rest assured it is now following the FA’s decision to cancel the season in every division below the top three in the National League.
That’s the message from the football folk on the ground who dedicate every spare minute to local clubs at the base of the country’s famed pyramid system.
You need only listen to former Brighton and Torquay keeper Stu Jones, now manager of Western Division One side Ashton and Backwell and construction worker during daylight hours, to appreciate why.
The prospect of losing the final weeks of the suspended 2019-20 campaign – and all that brings with it – was proving hard enough to digest.
But for the FA to intervene last Thursday – and eradicate the previous eight months of blood, sweat and tears by declaring the season null and void – has left Jones and the tight-knit Bristol club utterly sick.
Jones, 42 (below) said: “The club is crucial to the community. At this level, it’s about the well-being of individuals – players, staff, fans, local businesses – as well as results on the pitch.
“To have three-quarters of the season, all that work, wiped out is devastating.
“This has upset so many people right across nonleague football.
“We couldn’t finish the season, fair enough, I get that.
“But why not use a points-pergame system – as we do for the FA
Cup qualifying rounds – to sort out promotion and relegation?
“We deserved that. This has killed everything. I feel like giving up.”
Talk about kicking people when they are down.
It will be a tough ask for Jones to pick himself – and the club – up.
He is no stranger to adversity, though.
After packing in a journeyman career at 28 because of injury, the Bristol-born shot-stopper endured several years of alcohol-fuelled depression until, with the help of the PFA, he returned to the game – firstly as manager of his six-year-old son’s team and then by taking his coaching badges.
Football gave Jones the focus to rebuild his life.
“I’m not ashamed to admit I had mental health issues after I stopped,” he added.
“Ex-players who pretend they don’t miss football are talking codswallop.
“I struggled and my life totally spiralled out of control.
“My partner and family come first, always.
“But after that it’s football. It’s all I’ve ever known.
“But it’s not just about me. What about my players too good for this level? They’d be promoted as things stand.
“What about the guy who lets us use his gym twice a week? The chairman’s wife who cleans the dug-out or Charlie, our secretary?
“I’ve been here 18 months. Others have been making sacrifices for this place forever.
“That’s all gone down the pan now.
“It’s terrible to see what’s happened in the last two weeks. “Not having football hurts everyone and everything about the game.”