‘The league’s board didn’t seem to learn and they certainly didn’t listen’ - chairman hits out
It was a season that lasted just 136 days, but the 2020/21 National League South campaign will never be forgotten by the clubs that took part in it.
Hawks managed just 14 games out of a scheduled 40 - just 35 per cent of their fixtures. But that was still more than Slough (12) and Bath (13) completed before the league officially null and voided the season on February 18.
Those two clubs had been among the handful who had been refusing to fulfil fixtures ever since the two-week suspension of the sixth tier was ended in early February.
The South and North tiers were paused while clubs digested the fact that Government aid would be delivered via loans rather than the previous grants.
The two-week break, though, solved nothing - it just pushed the same problem back a fortnight. Clubs were in exactly the same situation.
With no major income due to games having to be played behind closed doors, clubs - rightly - pleaded virtual poverty. After all, it was only the same as pubs being told to open and pay staff wages, while no-one could come in and buy a drink.
It was a farcical situation, for sure, and it got increasingly ridiculous in the National League.
There, one club - Dover Athletic - informed the powersthat-be in early February that they wouldn’t be playing any more league games, even though their division was carrying on.
The Kent club are owned by Jim Parmenter, who was on the National League’s board of directors prior to resigning earlier this year.
The league last week got tough on Dover, issuing them with a £40,000 fine. They will also start next season with a 12-point deduction.
Parmenter says the club have no money to pay the fine, and so an unedifying tale rumbles on.
On the one hand, it is easy to have sympathy for Dover - told to carry on playing behind closed doors and with the Government only offering loans for financial support.
But Dover did bank £252,000 of grant money, via the National Lottery fund, over the first three months of the season the same as 15 other clubs in their division. And those other 15 clubs were continuing to play - still are playing, actually while Dover downed tools.
While Parmenter was able to put staff and players on furlough, 15 other clubs who were given the same £252,000 of FREE money - £162,000 more than Hawks were given over the
All they have done is to pour fuel on a fire which in some quarters was already raging National League fines
Every club who said they could not afford to continue is now being penalised ... National League club chairman
same three-month period have carried on playing, incurring costs and paying wages.
Some of their rivals have sought loans from the Sport England Winter Survival Package, with Chesterfield recently revealing they have been given a £1m loan.*
So, another argument goes, Dover deserve to be heavily fined. Why should they, and they alone, decide they don’t want to play anymore after happily trousering £252,000?
Within non-league circles, there was astonishment their punishment wasn’t much greater. Instead of a 12-point deduction for next season, some thought the National League should have relegated Dover instead.
After all, the National League has got very tough with clubs that have fallen foul of the rules previously - twice relegating Salisbury, in 2010 and 2014, for financial reasons.
Dover, it seems, have got off lightly. The same, though might not be said about the National League’s board and under-fire chairman Brian Barwick.
Looking in from the outside, and not including Dover here, I have sympathy for all the clubs who have been fined (see story on facing page) for non-fulfilment of fixtures.
What is there to gain by fining clubs who were not playing games because they were concerned about their financial position in the middle of a pandemic?
Dulwich Hamlet, for example, have been fined £8,000 for not playing four games that would have been declared null and void anyway had they gone ahead.
All the National League have done by issuing fines is to pour fuel on a fire which in some quarters was already raging.
They could have quietly dealt with the situation using common sense, but instead decided to invite a new tsunami of criticism from furious clubs and fans.
Dulwich’s Twitter account has been busy retweeting posts from supporters describing the National League board as ‘incompetant’ and ‘abysmal’. Imagine the Manchester United Twitter page retweeting similar fans’ comments about the Premier League ...
Hawks never refused to fulfil a fixture so haven’t been fined, and CEO Stuart Munro won’t be getting involved in the vitriol that some of their rivals are now aiming at the NL board.
The story of the 2020/21 National League South - and North - season is a very sorry one indeed, and it does not reflect well on the league officials.
While there is disappointment at Westleigh Park that the season was over so quickly, elsewhere there is anger and hurt. That will take a while to go away, and before it does a broom needs to have swept through the corridors of power.
The anger and hurt is justified, and clubs deserve better leadership. Actually, they deserve new leadership and new rules. To start 2021/22 with the same people in charge and the same voting structure would be a fresh insult after the events of the last few months.
David Mahoney, chairman of NL North club Kettering, said this week: ‘It’s fair to say that a lot of mistakes were made by the National League board over the last year, but to be fair the pandemic was new to everyone and so lessons were being learnt over the course of the journey.
‘The sad fact though is that the League’s board didn’t seem to learn and certainly didn’t listen. Numerous clubs, including ourselves, expressed concerns over starting the season and were assured that financial support would be forthcoming.
‘For the board to ultimately confirm that they made a mistake and relayed false information with regards to the funding, only to ultimately fine clubs for not being able to fulfil fixtures, is quite unbelievable.
‘In effect every club who said that they could not afford to continue without being supported is now being penalised financially.’
* South and North clubs, prior to their season being null and voided, were also invited to apply for Sport England loans. It does not appear, though, that any sixth tier club were successful in getting one.