Funding issues put National League season in jeopardy
Slough Town FC: Baker warns league campaign could still 'fall on its backside'
Slough boss Neil Baker believes the National League has only a few weeks to come up with a funding solution that will enable clubs to play out the remainder of the campaign.
Slough boss Neil Baker believes the National League has only a few weeks to come up with a funding solution that will enable clubs to play out the remainder of the campaign.
Baker believes the league is in danger of betraying the trust of its clubs, who only kicked off the season thanks to assurances their costs for playing matches behind closed doors would be covered.
The first three months of the season were covered by a £10m grant from the National Lottery, however, doubts remain over how much clubs are set to receive for the remainder of the campaign and in what form that will come.
Baker, who is currently avoiding training and match days to help care for his father who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, has it on good authority that a meeting will take place this week between the league and Sport England over how it plans to distribute £11m that’s been allocated for National League clubs from the Winter Survival Fund budget.
But, if clubs are asked to take out significant loans to pay their players and see out the season behind closed doors, Baker believes that will put the campaign in jeopardy.
“At the moment there is no funding whatsoever,” he said. “The National League are banking on Sport England giving them the £11m that’s been allocated for the league in grants. But so far only 20 per cent of the £300m Winter Survival Fund has been given out in grants and the other 80 per cent has been in loans.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the chances of us getting 100 per cent of the money we need in grants is minimal. Even if it’s 50/50 it causes a problem because at no point did clubs ever agree to taking out loans to complete the season.
“It gives clubs a massive decision to make because we don’t want to be paying out money that we don’t have.
“If we’d been told we’d get three months of grants and then a mix of grants and loans for the rest of the campaign I don’t think many clubs would have started the league.
“I think the league thought that fans would be back in the grounds by now and they’ve been caught because I don’t see fans being allowed back in anytime soon. As a club you can’t compete or pay players when you don't have money coming in.
“This is going to be a big couple of weeks for the National League, they really have to pull something out of the bag otherwise I fear the league might fall on its backside.”
Last week Slough called on the league to consider suspending the campaign for a short time to help better protect players, and their families, from catching COVID-19. They feel a form of standardised testing for all clubs could help with this, however, the league seems intent to plough on with season as it is, without bringing in further safety measures. The Rebels, who have slipped to 20th in the table in recent weeks, host Braintree Town on Saturday having not played a league game since December 8.