League comes under fire over a lack of festive fixtures

FOOTBALL

THE Nathaniel Cars Welsh Football League has come under fire for a lack of festive season spirit, writes Tony Poole.

Over Christmas football fans took to social media, pointing out that a three-week break in fixtures simply didn’t make sense.

The last round of fixtures was staged on December 17 with action resuming this weekend.

But the North Wales equivalent – the Huws Gray Alliance – staged fixtures on December 27, and attracted some eyecatching gates.

In the eight top-tier matches, 3,530 fans poured through the turnstiles to watch traditional derby clashes.

A crowd of 1,247 showed up at Caernarfon Town while 817 fans turned out at Holywell, as football lovers neglected armchairs and mince pies in droves to go and watch live football.

So, it would seem the Welsh League has missed the boat – and more to the point the 48 member clubs lost out on a potential money-spinner.

It’s doubtful, however, whether southern clubs would have matched these northern attendances, but to shutdown the league for three weeks would appear an error in judgement.

Granted when fixtures were struck back in June, the league weren’t to know the Christmas weather was going to be mild and games would go ahead.

But given the Welsh League possesses a very poor record regarding midwinter postponements, it would have surely been worth a gamble.

With a changing climate in recent times, postponements have led to the season dragging on well into May.

Against this background of course, the families of some players and match officials probably appreciated the threeweek break.

Nowadays men have more family responsibilities that down the years weren’t necessarily the case.

But one way or the other it will be interesting to see whether the Welsh League authorities have taken heed of what unfolded this Christmas in North Wales – and belatedly turn their back on a festive season closure.