WE WILL STAND OUR GROUND!
DOVER Athletic chairman Jim Parmenter says the club will continue to not fulfil National League fixtures unless grant funding arrives – even if that means being kicked out of the division.
The long-standing Whites chief resigned from the league board two weeks ago after disagreeing with their actions and isn’t prepared to put his club into debt by taking on a loan through Sport England, which also currently goes against league rules.
Dover have been charged with the non-fulfilment of their last two fixtures, a theme that looks set to continue after National League clubs voted 13-7 in favour of playing out the season.
“We just don’t have the funds to continue playing, it’s not a question of we don’t want to, we can’t,” Parmenter told The NLP. “There’s seven clubs who can’t afford to play or will struggle to play for the rest of the season, there appears to be no account taken of that. They’ve known this is the likely outcome because I personally mentioned it three times at board meetings and there’s no plan for it, and I think it’s a disgrace.
“What I’m told is the money is only available in loans and grants may be made available in exceptional circumstances.
“The people at Sport England seem to be making all sorts of assumptions that because I put half a million quid into my club last year I can automatically afford to do it for the next 20 years. It just doesn’t work like that. The whole thing is a mess. The season should have never been started unless we were very sure the funding was coming.
“The only option for us is to furlough the players to avoid insolvency. If grant money is made available in the next two or three weeks that covers our expenditure then we can start playing again.
“If the funding is not forthcoming, we stay with our players furloughed, we keep the club alive by paying the statuary bills and we look to play football next season at whatever level the authorities decide it should be. If they wish to punish, they punish us, it’s not something we have a choice over. We’re powerless really; we just have to take whatever comes.”
Credibility
Dover cut costs over the summer before receiving £252,000 in grant funding to start the season behind closed doors from October through to December with it believed further grants were to follow should the situation remain unchanged.
Some National League clubs are now planning on furloughing first team players and fielding U23 or academy youngsters to reduce costs, but Parmenter believes that shouldn’t be the solution.
“I don’t agree with playing U23s or U19s and I don’t agree with dragging 16 players off the streets to play for nothing, I just think that makes a mockery of the National League and its credibility,” he said. “I understand why clubs are doing it, to avoid charges, but is it worse to do that than to stop? In my view it is.
“We’re not at the top of the table, we haven’t been signing any star strikers with that funding money. We’ve still cut our playing staff and our wage bill but still there’s no money left.
“The worry is, I think there are clubs still out there who are continuing to trade who don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills and that is a big problem for the National League.”
Parmenter says the current problems come back to the grant funding not being offered beyond the initial three months.
“The affiliated directors on the National League board did not have any say in the negotiations for the funding, that was done by FA people, the executive of the National League and the DCMS with Camelot,” he added.
“They believed from those conversations if the situation was such that we weren’t back to normal then funding would continue.
“Either they were mistaken or DCMS have moved the goalposts, I don’t know, but it is a fact the grant funding hasn’t been forthcoming.”