Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Whites take stand
With grants not available to make up for the lack of income caused by playing behind closed doors, National League Dover announced they would not be fulfilling their remaining fixtures and put their playing staff - plus Whites boss Andy Hessenthaler - on furlough.
It was also season over for Dartford, Ebbsfleet, Maidstone, Tonbridge and Welling after clubs voted in favour of nulling and voiding the 2020/21 campaign at National League South level. The Isthmian and Southern Counties East leagues followed suit less than a week later.
Like Dover, the Stones and Tonbridge had already put their playing staff on furlough - with Maidstone appealing for
replacements to play for free and were both in favour of null and void.
However, Dartford, riding high in the National South table, as well as Ebbsfleet and Welling, wanted to carry on.
Clubs in the National League voted 13-7 in favour of playing on - bad news for Dover, whose chairman Jim Parmenter was unwilling to take out loans and announced his club would not play again until “appropriate funding is made available”.
Stones co-owner Oliver Ash was so incensed by the funding issue he called for the FA to dismiss the National League board.
Ash was furious with the league’s handling of the distribution of grant payments in October 2020 - claiming the Stones lost out on £100,000
worth of funding - and over the way they managed the 2020/21 season and its early conclusion.
He said: “I think ultimately the FA, who are the governing body, despite the fact that they are embroiled in this mess should dismiss the chairman, the vicechairman, the entire board of directors and that should be immediate.
“They should supervise the holding of urgent elections for a new board for an interim period of 12 months. (They should) appoint a chairman with an unblemished record of governance of not just football organisations but governance in general and a respect for matters of governance, in fairness and in ethics that have been lacking for the past few months.”
Tributes were paid to former Gillingham manager Glenn
Roeder, who died aged 65 after a long battle with a brain tumour. Roeder, who went on to manage Watford, West Ham and Newcastle, kept Gills in the Football League after a dramatic 1992/93 season, where they avoided relegation with victory against Halifax in the penultimate game of the campaign.
It was confirmed the 149th Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s in Sandwich would definitely go ahead.
Originally scheduled for July 2020, organisers announced there would be no postponement for a second year and, if necessary, the major would be held behind closed doors.
In cricket, Kent’s Sam Billings was signed by the Delhi Capitals for £200,000 ahead of the IPL season.