SOWING THE SEEDS FOR A FRESH START
SO, there we have it. season.Fixtures at Steps 3 to 6 of the NonLeague pyramid have now been “curtailed” for the 2020-21 At the same time, however, grassroots leagues have been given the green light resume from March 29 and play right until the end of June. My initial feeling is of disappointment as I really wanted to see a groundbreaking summer football experiment at Steps 3 to 6 this year. I had hoped that matches would recommence as soon as the Government allowed, continuing right through June and July. I just felt that summer football would have led to increased attendances at games due to warmer weather conditions in the summer and less competition from televised Premier League matches. Instead, more than three quarters of the Step 3 to 6 teams voted to end their season. On reflection, I fully understand and respect the reasons involved. With players being paid at this level, clubs desperately need spectator and clubhouse revenue to function properly. Yes, team sports can restart from the end of March but it appears that fans will not be allowed back until May.
Adverse effect
Some 81% of matches were still to be played at Steps 3 and 4 and 75% at Steps 5 and 6. So, even by extending the season into the summer and clubs playing twice a week, there would still not have been enough scope to fit all those remaining games into the 12 weeks of May, June and July. In the North West Counties League, for instance, some clubs have only played three league matches this season due to the lockdowns. So they would have had to cram 33 or 35 games into those three months depending on what division they are in. I am also aware that a huge fixture pile-up in the summer could have had an adverse effect on the welfare of players. Lewes manager Hugo Langton tweeted me to say: “Imagine 22 weeks with no games and no training and being expected to play? That’s like entering the London Marathon, doing no training and turning up and expecting to run 26 miles with ease and not injuring yourself.” A different take against summer football came from the official twitter feed of Spartan South Midlands League club Oxhey Jets FC. It read: “Get real and get over it …start in August proper season, cups and fans and interest…in May to July our seed grows ...thought you understood football clearly not…Clueless…need to seed pitches in the growing season.” As for being “clueless”, I would politely point out that I have travelled extensively to watch matches in the Republic of Ireland where summer football is the norm. I have spoken to many clubs in the Emerald Isle and none of them have reported problems with their playing surfaces. For example, the Mayo League is an amateur setup where the teams have volunteer groundsmen. Brian Lacey was secretary of Ballina Town FC when I visited and he told me this week: “There are no serious issues with seeding of the pitches and playing at the same time in Ireland. Of course, not playing on the grass would be best practice. “I would think how much the pitch is played on would be a factor. Daily or every other day may be a problem. But we are happy to stage matches on our pitch once or twice a week throughout the summer seeding.” Personally, I am happy to see grassroots leagues, at Step 7 and below, being allowed to continue from March 29 and play on until the end of June. The FA have stressed, however, that “the extension does not apply to County Leagues at Tier 7”. Several leagues have opted to recommence playing. After months of inactivity, it is lovely to see full fixture lists from early April onwards starting to be published online. Could this be the revolutionary inception of grassroots football adopting a permanent summer season? The main drawback is that a significant amount of teams at this level still play on local recreation grounds which are also used for cricket or other summer sports. That said, there are also more and more 3G pitches around the country nowadays so finding alternative venues for clubs who share with cricket shouldn’t be too difficult.
Mindset
The councils and schools who own the 3Gs may be inclined to hire these out quite cheaply at the moment. They will certainly need the money having had very little rental income for the past 12 months. If grassroots footballers have a desire to play until the end of June then the opportunity is there for them this year at least. They may well enjoy and prefer it. Then there could be a clamour for summer football at this level of the game on a long-term basis in the future. We shall see! In saying that, we should be back to normal in August when the entire adult population will hopefully have been vaccinated. Therefore, we should all pull together with a determined collective mindset to make Non-League football bigger and better in 2021/22. Clubs will have lost nearly 18 months of income by then despite having had to continue paying their bills throughout the entire period. For all of us, it will never be more important to get the message across that people should actively support their local football teams.