Opportunity for game to live within its means again – Wild
FC HALIFAX TOWN manager Pete Wild is in no doubt whatsoever.
The coronavirus crisis in football, quite simply, represents a chance for a dramatic reboot and restructuring of the game at arguably the most critical point in its history.
Essential to football’s survival in parlous times is the requirement for clubs and – more especially, players – to cut their cloth accordingly to enable the sport to survive a prolonged period without income and a post-covid downturn, which could last years and not months.
Going forward, wages are likely to be not just be reduced at the top level and across the EFL, but also at National League levels where reality will bite amid dramatically slashed revenue streams, according to Wild.
He told The Yorkshire Post:
“There is a real chance for a shake-up of football here. In all this, we can really shake football up.
“Clubs are going to have to take a massive hit and players too. They are going to have to really remember that when they are asking for the money they are asking for next season.
“It is just not going to be there and they are going to have to understand that.
“There is a real chance for football to get back to a sensible way of working and clubs and players to come back to living within their means instead of demanding astronomical sums of money for something that is, quite frankly, not warranted.
“I think there’s a chance for football to take a backward step and start to live within its means a bit more.”
The notion of National League clubs not living within their means and ‘shooting for the moon’ in their quest to reach the supposed riches of the EFL may seem a fallacy to some, but the game at this level has not been immune to some extravagant spending on wages.
Wild has his own word for it. Scandalous, even if his own club are one of the more sensible ones in refusing to pay over the odds and maintaining a sensible wage budget.
He reflected: “It is scandalous. I have been so surprised at what money players have wanted and what (some) clubs have been prepared to pay players. I have been absolutely gobsmacked.
“We are one of the lower – if not one of the lowest – budgets in the National League. Because we have been doing well, agents come onto you and want to offer you players, but when we get down to the nitty-gritty of what they are on, I end up laughing down the phone 10 times out of 10 because I have not got it.
“And they think you have got money because we are up there. We have one of the lowest budgets in the league, but have managed to do all right.”
Alongside wage cuts, regionalising the top tier of National League is being seen by numerous onlookers as an option to minimalise the risk of clubs going under and continuing to survive.
Former Sutton United chief Paul Doswell has called for the league to be regionalised for the next three seasons and many in the non-league game agree.
Higher up the football pyramid, regionalisation of League One and League Two and effectively turning football’s clock back to the Fifties with a north and south divide to permanently ease the cash burden for clubs is something that has been mooted and is on the agenda.
Fleetwood owner Andy Pilley is among those who are supporting that idea, with Gillingham manager and former Leeds United and Rotherham United chief Steve Evans also publicly backing the notion.
Wild added: “It could be interesting. We have had 13 overnighters this year at £3,000 to £3,500 a trip. It is a costly business to just to travel to the games.
“Let’s be honest, it (National League) is a southern league, so regionalising it could financially help clubs.
“But it might to difficult to thrash that out and with the logistics. Financially, it would certainly help our club and some other clubs in that vein.”