Season 2019/2020 Conclusion?

There was a statement made by the National League Executive (I can't find the original) but here is the text -

“As many of you will know, The National League held a Board discussion yesterday (Monday), which was the third such meeting in 11 days. The broad consensus was that our Clubs wish for a decision to be made to close the season as soon as possible.

“The National League attended a further meeting last night (by video conference) with The Football Association, and The FA have been asked to assist us with making the decisions to officially postpone all remaining National League fixtures and to end the season as soon as possible for the purposes of player contracts.

“The National League is also working with the FA to define all reasonable and practical options for the determination of the 2019/20 season, and to provide guidance to Clubs on dealing with player contracts, player registrations and the application of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. We will continue to press for updates and will ensure that any further information is relayed to Clubs as soon as it is received.

“The League is very aware that Clubs are looking for answers and greater certainty, and we remain focused on delivering these in the most timely manner possible. Please keep the flow of information going with the League’s Directors and staff, and be assured that we will respond as soon as we can when updates are available on the various issues.

“Finally, thank you to all Clubs for submitting financial questionnaires. The data and comments have been reported to The Football Association, and we will continue to press for urgent additional assistance to be made available to National League and other non-league clubs.

“Above all we wish everyone a safe and healthy passage through these turbulent times. “

This has been circulated to all clubs so i assume Bath City FC are considering their reply?

An interpretation of this with a reply can be found here - https://www.borehamwoodfootballclub.co.uk/uncategorized/response-to-league-statement - no doubt there are others...

Please do not speculate but post similar information if you find it.

It has been announced today that the results for steps 3 to 6 will be 'expunged' and there will be no promotion and relegation between these leagues.

The intention though seems to be for the National League and North and South to restart, although with no relegation from North or South. No time scale has been given, but the F A is apparently assisting the National League to sort this out as soon as possible.

The increase in North and South from 22 to 24 clubs has also apparently been put back for a season.

Personally I thought there were two options:
Try and play to a finish, regardless of when it is
Points per game

I don’t agree with the one they’ve taken. To me this is the 2019/20 season, so as long as it finishes in 2020, fair enough. Whatever happens football will restart again so why not continue with the remaining 20% of games? Let’s say it doesn’t start again until August, you could cram in eight games then and have play-offs in September. By which point, the FA Cup and trophy has restarted. You could play the trophy through winter. Let’s face it, social events will still feel like gold dust then so people will go along.

We could be out of all comps by January, so start the 2021/22 season a bit earlier and maybe have the occasional summer game. You could have a season lasting nearly a year - no excuses for any midweek games in November. Then gradually get it all back on track.

Look, I know about all the logistics and player contracts, but this situation is unprecedented. They’ve declared it null and void for those levels because they know no-one has the funds to sue, but if they did it further up they’d be in all sorts of trouble.

On the whole though what’s happening here makes you realise there’s more to life than football and I just want to see the back of this nightmare in general, not because I can’t get to TP for a while.

I think they made the right decision with steps 3 and downwards. I am waiting for the National League to follow suit. We should not be concerned about our own obsessions with football. This is a huge national crisis which will leave the country in an economic mess. Scrap 2019/20 and perhaps season 20/21 can start as scheduled, but I doubt that it will.

I agree, CTWR. If the footballing powers can find a solution to this problem which satisfies everyone, great, but it looks an impossibility to me.

Junior, you've made some valid points there but I'm not convinced there was any alternative to today's decision regarding the lower levels. They had the South Shields chairman on R5 Live tonight - his club lead the Northern Premier and he was complaining that there was no need to rush things. Possibly so, but in view of what is going on worldwide I'm becoming uncomfortable with the shows of self interest by some in football.  

On a lighter note, if our season is declared null and void at least the result at Wealdstone will be expunged from the records...

comrade powell wrote:I agree, CTWR. If the footballing powers can find a solution to this problem which satisfies everyone, great, but it looks an impossibility to me.

Junior, you've made some valid points there but I'm not convinced there was any alternative to today's decision regarding the lower levels. They had the South Shields chairman on R5 Live tonight - his club lead the Northern Premier and he was complaining that there was no need to rush things. Possibly so, but in view of what is going on worldwide I'm becoming uncomfortable with the shows of self interest by some in football.  

On a lighter note, if our season is declared null and void at least the result at Wealdstone will be expunged from the records...

No! Junior will recall it from time to time.

Eh? Why have I been focused on? But if I am mentioning it a lot that would be on radio, so at least we have at least one person listening to me.

stillmanjunior wrote:Eh? Why have I been focused on? But if I am mentioning it a lot that would be on radio, so at least we have at least one person listening to me.

You are the one with the long memory, and you use it on match days.

It is not in any way a criticism.

There does not seem to be any easy solution to the problem, particularly, with the L2 situation caused by the demise of Bury.
  Anyway if anyone else  is trying to fill in some of their day carry on reading this:-

  My own view is that the  National Leagues 19/20 season should be regarded as completed with no promotion or relegation although  bearing in mind the complication regarding the league vacancy  caused by the  Bury situation.  However straight  promotion, play-off  and relegation  positions at the end of the 20/21  season should be based on the average of  a Club’s positions over that  season and the  curtailed 19/20 season.

 For  example if  we were to be placed 4th this season and finish 2nd next  season then our average place would be 3rd. The averaging system would certainly provide Wealdstone with some advantage  to compensate for the loss of automatic promotion they would probably have gained this season.

 As for deciding this seasons final positions an extrapolation,  based on a points per game average to date basis , is a possible solution.  I think, however,  the calculation would  only be fair if it was sophisticated enough to reflect individual clubs  home and away performances.

 As a simple example take a league that has a scheduled season of 36 matches and the season is ended when the top team has 60 points from 30 games and  the second team has 59 from 30.  On a simple points per game basis Team 1  would be champions.

 Further analysis, however,  shows that Team 1 has won all its  16  home  games and gained 48 points from them  but  has only won 12 points  from the  14 away games whilst Team 2 has 35 points from 14 home games and 24 from 16 away games.
On these averages Team 1 would be assumed to gain 6 more points from its 2 home games and 4 points   from the 4  away games. Therefore an
additional 10  to be added to its actual 60  giving a final total of  70 points.  

 Team 2 however could be assumed to gain another 10 points from its 4 home games and another 3 points from its 2 remaining away games. This would mean an extra 13 points to be added to its current actual of 59 and give a final total of 72.  

Anyway  the above shows that, like many others,  I have too much time on my hands. I think whatever happens let us all hope we stay well and  are able to. In the future, watch Bath City playing in some competition however it is organised.

I think even those with selective memories won’t forget it to be fair! Just one of those games which sticks with you particularly as if was recent. And it was so out of place from what we normally see.

When we get back to action I’m sure we will dish out more comprehensive thrashings than be on the receiving end of them. And I’ll be sharing another happy memory through BCIR tomorrow

Looking forward to it!

An upside is that Truro aren't coming up.

Peter's suggestion of a sort of averaging of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons is an interesting one. I may be wrong but I seem to recall that the 20 teams who formed the APL in 1979 were decided on the basis of their placings in the previous two seasons so it isn't without precedent.

I think the various opinions on how this season should be resolved - both on here and on social media generally - show how difficult an issue it is.

Well regardless of all the possible scenarios.
Truro City not coming up.
Chipp'n'pin and Hungerford staying up.
They are all good news in an an increasingly worrying period of uncertainty facing us all.
Keep safe.

LB wrote:Peter's suggestion of a sort of averaging of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons is an interesting one. I may be wrong but I seem to recall that the 20 teams who formed the APL in 1979 were decided on the basis of their placings in the previous two seasons so it isn't without precedent.

Yes as always you’re spot on. Having won the title in the first of those seasons I remember that we only needed to finish around 18th in the second to secure our place in the APL.

One impact of the decision to not expand to 24 teams  next season is that for season tickets.

The price we are selling them for assumes we will have 23 home matches next season.
Although not yet bought mine  I am happy to pay the current price and assume all those who have purchased, already, feel the same way.

One thought though is if there were to be a future reduction in price to reflect the revised league set-up then we regard the extra paid as a donation say to the pledge. An advantage would be that no VAT would apply to that element so the full amount of that additional element would go to Bath City.

In cricket they have various ways to decide a match if it cannot be concluded naturally. Like having one over each.

Maybe our league should conclude this season with a mass penalty shoot out. Every team has the same number of efforts as they have games left against say Willi Caballero in goal. Score = win miss = defeat.

There would be no spectators and it could be televised.

Maybe not with our record on pens though.

More:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/mar/30/64-non-league-clubs-lobby-fa-over-plan-to-void-seasons-results

National League suspend season indefinitely.

https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/national-league-statement-competition-suspended-in-61718

Will be interesting to see what they decide to do. I had a quick look at our table to see what would happen if they went for PPG - well you have to do something when you can't go out! - and it makes very little difference. The top seven would be exactly the same, but Concord, Tonbridge and Billericay would move up a couple of places simply by virtue of having played fewer games.

Sorry, I must be getting even more stupid the older I get!
What does that mean......the league is suspended indefinitely......is sounds like they are saying it will resume again at some point in time in the indefinite future, or am I just being daft.
Clearly this lockdown is going to last for months, so how the hell can we just start the season again in September, or October, or whenever?
Playing squads will be totally different. Some clubs regretfully will possibly have folded.

Following on from LB's calculations I calculated what would be the outcome if the PPG was broken down on a home and away basis. I only looked at us and Weymouth because we are both on same points.  Well it would result in us finishing ahead of Weymouth.

I see this forum has kept very quiet on what will happen with the 'Guess the Gate' competition. That is surely more important ;-)

Steve Whites Missus wrote:I see this forum has kept very quiet on what will happen with the 'Guess the Gate' competition.  That is surely more important ;-)

I agree ! I am going to update the points from the last match tomorrow, but I am hanging fire on declaring the winner until I know what is happening. I know it is all nail-biting stuff but we will just have to curb our excitement and wait and see.

kermit wrote:Sorry, I must be getting even more stupid the older I get!
What does that mean......the league is suspended indefinitely......is sounds like they are saying it will resume again at some point in time in the indefinite future, or am I just being daft.
Clearly this lockdown is going to last for months, so how the hell can we just start the season again in September, or October, or whenever?
Playing squads will be totally different. Some clubs regretfully will possibly have folded.

Yes it is almost like they know they won't but can't face up to not finishing the season. Still it might still happen.