Ailing Non-League is left to sink or swim!

SOMETIMES good things happen to those who wait.

Those of us who gain our main football fix from Non-League were beginning to wonder whether the big guns of the Premier League were aware that Step One and below is the cornerstone of our national sport, the very fabric of our game.

That’s because since the Coronavirus pandemic started in March – and that seems like about two years ago now – the elite has done next to nothing to help Non-League restart play while it has happily funded return to play protocols to get the money-spinning Premier League and Championship going again to fulfil those lucrative television contracts.

But this week came the welcome news that the Premier League has launched a new fund to help clubs in the National League system, Women’s Football pyramid and Welsh Premier League prepare for the resumption of football and safe return of supporters to their stadiums.

The new Matchday Support Fund follows the recent publication of government and FA guidelines for the return of football and spectators.

Grants range from £1,000 to £20,000 and the amount clubs can apply for has been aligned with the tier they play at. More than 1,100 clubs will be able to benefit from this support and the window for applications closes on 16 September.

This is much-needed assistance and it should have come along well before this week.

Leagues up and down the country are about to start and the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round began on Monday night.

Quite how so few clubs who survive hand to mouth have failed to go to the wall in the last six months is remarkable and a testament to the ingenuity and determination of the countless, unpaid, generous volunteers up and down the country who are the lifeblood of our game.

But the truth is that the late arrival of this cash – and with red tape and bureaucracy it won’t get to our clubs for some time to come – means that people’s health, and, indeed, their lives will be put at risk somewhere along the line by a club unable to fully implement the necessary social-distancing measures needed to ensure spectators, players, coaches and officials are free from danger.

Some will say I am scaremongering and, of course, I hope I am proved wrong. But the news this week that two clubs have had to pull out of the FA Cup because some of their players had tested positive for Coronavirus just shows that Non-League football is far from immune.

Quite simply, all I can say to the Premier League is – about time too!

BOB SMITH Sutton Coldfield, West Mids