Club statement

https://www.bathcityfc.com/club-statement-possible-cessation-of-national-league-south-and-upcoming-fixtures/

Very sensible decision.

And Ebbsfleet's take on tomorrow's postponement...

https://www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk/statement-issued-as-bath-city-game-called-off/

comrade powell wrote:And Ebbsfleet's take on tomorrow's postponement...

https://www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk/statement-issued-as-bath-city-game-called-off/

Kuwaiti owned so possibly backed by £billions of oil money?

We are getting a lot of stick on Twitter - not just from Ebbsfleet fans - because we played the friendly last week (yawn) and paid a fee for a player, but won't play tomorrow.

Dulwich have come out with a very similar statement to us and have also said they won't play tomorrow, while Eastbourne have said they want the season to continue (they are also voting against Resolution 1 apparently because they don't agree that there should be separate votes for Steps 1 and 2). In North, Kettering and Spennymoor have come out to say they won't play while Chester, who are second, have apparently voted for the league to stop.

Reading the comments from different clubs, whatever the outcome I think the league is going to be very divided after this. Hopefully this won't distract them from some sort of vote of no confidence in the Board, who seem more than happy to sit on the sidelines and let the clubs fight amongst themselves.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to no longer read comments on social media which is the best decision I’ve made in a while. If other people/clubs don’t like our course of action so be it. Our board know more than Alex936362628822 or whoever.

I agree with you Mark - it is quite amusing that those in favour of stopping the season are getting grief from those who want to continue and vice versa in equal measure! I think the sooner this is resolved, whatever the outcome, the better then at least everyone will know where they stand.

I laughed when Chester came out with their statement as it finally shut up those bores on social media immediately referring to the league table to explain the latest club announcement. And I seem to recall that Fylde were pleading for null and void less than 12 months ago when threatened with relegation - how they’ve changed their tune.

I think it’s 14 in step 2 saying end it now so that is a critical mass which makes continuing difficult?

A lot of division out there but it’s our Club and we want it to be there in the future

So if 14 clubs in our league want to fight it our for a promotion, let them. No club who can't afford this madness should be penalised for saying enough is enough.

I would be absolutely astonished if any Clubs are penalised for refusing to play on, regardless of how the voting goes - and I cannot see that happening, even with the present incumbents in charge of the Leagues.

Besides the seemingly overwhelming cause of financial difficulty, that attempting to continue with the fixtures would bring to a lot of Clubs at our level, I was delighted to see that Nick has also included, in the Board's statement, that proper and regular COVID testing must be funded, before our Club is prepared to consider continuing with the season. Quite right. The safeguarding of all our players, team management, and support staff must be paramount in this matter.

Had a quick trawl through some of the club websites and does seem that in South there is a concensus for continuing. There were a lot of postponed games in North today, but don't know how much that was clubs refusing to play and how much because of the Trophy.

Tonbridge, despite being one of the clubs who have voted to end the season played today, apparently because they were concerned about the punishment they might receive for not doing so.

The Gloucester chairman has said that all National League (I assume North and South as well) clubs will be provided with Covid testing kits from next week. He seems to think that this and the funding on offer should be enough for the season to continue, but pretty sure he is another one whose deep pockets are funding the club so they don't need to worry about grants or loans.

I would have prefered if we had not called the game off unilaterally. If the vote goes against us we will look a bit premature.
Presumably we would then be forced to fulfil the fixtures.

The stupidity of continuing with part time football is blatantly obvious;  the risks of contracting the virus, and its mutations, are very high, even millionaire Premier League footballers are catching it.

The lack of leadership from government and football authorities is typical of the incompetence over the last 12 months in every aspect of the pandemic.  

There is plenty of other sport to entertainment us, especially the live test match cricket on Channel 4...  

LB wrote:

The Gloucester chairman has said .

Got through a few minutes of an interview he was on last night on Radio York, switched it off as he started directly comparing his decision to vote for playoffs to proceed while they were 17th and would have no matches to play, to clubs voting to stop now and not commit to 27 more matches without income. Another holier than thou, a shame.

Beau Nash wrote:The stupidity of continuing with part time football is blatantly obvious;  the risks of contracting the virus, and its mutations, are very high, even millionaire Premier League footballers are catching it.

The lack of leadership from government and football authorities is typical of the incompetence over the last 12 months in every aspect of the pandemic.  

There is plenty of other sport to entertainment us, especially the live test match cricket on Channel 4...  

I presume that is tongue in cheek given the irony of players travelling half way round the world to play a game during a pandemic.