Season 2019/2020 Conclusion?

I believe there's a Bury phoenix club starting up but they'll play several levels below ours.

The National League issued the following statement earlier today:

"National League Clubs were asked to support an ordinary resolution on 9 April to end the Playing Season for all fixtures scheduled up to and including 25 April 2020.
With almost 90% of responses returned it is evident a clear majority of Clubs are in favour, including a majority of Clubs in each of the National League, National League North and National League South divisions.

In the knowledge that the ordinary resolution has passed, the League’s Board has chosen to communicate the decision now and before the last few responses are received, which will not change the outcome, to enable Clubs to make business decisions with greater clarity as soon as possible. Clubs yet to respond still have an opportunity to do so, and the League wishes to include as many preferences as possible before the final voting result is declared.

National League Chief Executive Officer, Michael Tattersall, commented, “At a time when the entire country is wrestling with the devastating impact of Covid-19, the cancellation of the remaining normal season matches brings a degree of certainty to our Clubs coping with the business implications of the virus.”

In consideration of the very serious and unprecedented national public health emergency caused by the coronavirus, National League, National League North and National League South football activities have been suspended since 16 March. The options concerning the sporting outcomes of the 2019/20 season remain under careful and timely consideration, and further updates will be given in due course."

Will be interesting to see how long it takes to reach a decision on what to do with season 19/20 since it was nearly six weeks ago that we played at Hungerford and everyone I spoke to agreed that would be the last game.

This statement resolves nothing on the promotion / relegation issues or not?

The decision from the Premier League will have to be made first, then the Football League and finally the National League.

IF "lockdown" is modified in May to allow games to be played then there could be a resolution...

I reckon it would be difficult to come to any decisions about promotion or relegation until the Football League have decided what they are doing. I see it as extremely unlikely that the Football League would accept two teams from the Conference, especially in the absence of any play offs. However, there is a possibility that they accept one team (without sending any teams to the Conference) if they decide to move a team up from League Two to League One. On the other hand, it is also possible that they do not accept any teams from the Conference, either because they stick with 23 teams in League One, or because they don't accept the result of an incomplete season in the Conference.

So, if the Football League do not accept any teams from the Conference, and given that no teams will be eligible for promotion from the three feeder league, I imagine it is pretty likely that the three divisions of the Conference will start next season with the same teams as last season (meaning no promotion or relegation). Alternatively, if one team is accepted by the Football League, then there is a possibility that Wealdstone (with the best points per game across Conference North and South) would be moved up to the Conference (leaving Conference South with 21 teams). Either way, I think the Conference will be reticent to relegate any teams from an incomplete season, so unlikely that any other teams would have any chance of moving up.

With social distancing to last for a considerable time according to the medics, will NL have any appetite let alone financial and logistical capacity for playing behind closed doors? As each day goes by it seems clear there will be no sport in front of fans for many months.

Yesterday evening it was being mooted that the three National League divisions might not restart until January. The basis for this seems to be the view that as part of the easing of the 'lockdown' the government might restrict the number of people allowed to gather in one place and that this would be less than the number attending NL games (even at Concord!). Not sure how clubs would survive with no income for eight months.

I also saw that Dale Vince at Forest Green has suggested that there should be a salary cap in non-league football - no doubt the irony of that is lost on him.

If it's not until January, why not play out the rest of this season with the fixtures we have remaining? Maybe have a few weeks of friendlies first as a lot of teams will have a brand new squad. Play the remaining league season across February and March, throw in the odd cup game and have the play-offs around Easter, whenever that is next year.

That's just me vomiting an idea really without much substance. As Les says, if all clubs in our division, and others, survive until then it'll be a miracle.

That suggestion, Junior,  is a good one but it’s no longer an option of course and there’s no guarantee that football will restart even next Spring.

The Premier League continues to talk of restarting this season in the coming months but apparently its clubs are starting at last to see that this is unlikely. I’m not holding my breath but there’s one solution to a longstanding problem which is staring top level football in the face. The 22/23 season was always going to be a nightmare to organise because of the winter World Cup cutting it in half. Aim to play the next two seasons from January to October! If there’s time to finish 20/21 before Christmas fine, otherwise null and void it.

Well, I suppose that is now it. Yesterday was the final day without football due to the lockdown. From next Saturday we will be without football because it is the close season, and even if City had qualified for the play offs, they don't tend to be on Saturdays anyway (I can only recall the game at Chelmsford and the home game against Dorchester being on Saturdays).
Having said that, it is starting to look quite doubtful that football will be able to resume in August, so lost Saturdays may not be over yet. However, as there is talk of playing Premier League games behind closed doors with about 300 present (match day staff, broadcasters, media and so forth), that may set a precedent that allows other football to take place with Conference South sized crowds (perhaps make the games all ticket to ensure that numbers stay within whatever the government guidelines that allow Premier League games to go ahead are).

I do have my doubts about this 'behind closed doors' idea. I don't see how you will stop fans from congregating outside of the grounds, especially if their club is about to win a championship or promotion or reach the play-offs. I don't imagine that the 'social distancing' rules will be changing greatly for a while so will be interesting to see what happens.

It appears any expectations of a return to "normality" are very remote... "As the lockdown is eased, some physical distancing will be needed. The reopening of businesses and institutions will be phased. Restrictions on movement may be required from time to time and there may also be a need to limit crowding on public transport, including through staggering working hours."...It would be reasonable to expect the crowd limiting to include all sport and entertainment events.

https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-huge-effort-by-all-the-people-needed-in-next-phase-of-epic-struggle-137316?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2029%202020%20-%201607315406&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2029%202020%20-%201607315406+CID_b1cc312bb19bf189da20ee9c200dc270&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Coronavirus%20huge%20effort%20by%20all%20the%20people%20needed%20in%20next%20phase%20of%20epic%20struggle

It may be prudent to plan to conclude this season in 2021 thereby cancelling season 2020/2021.

I think whether or when the season returns is the least of our problems. For a city dependent on tourism those conditions are ominous.

NL matches played behind closed doors seems like the worst possible outcome - we would be paying for players with no income. If we don't restart until January or later, at least we don't have a playing budget. If we can find the right use for Charlie's (e.g. maternity clinic like at WBA, testing centre etc) our financial position might even improve...

Brutally honest appraisal from Boreham Wood.


https://www.borehamwoodfootballclub.co.uk/uncategorized/boreham-wood-fc-update-by-chairman-danny-hunter-3/

Yes, and thought-provoking.
I notice that this is published in the sports pages of at least one of todays National papers - The Morning Star.

Agree with "Danny".

If a vaccine can be developed before March 2021 then football could restart where it stopped this season with an addition of knock out cup competitions similar to the FA Cup and FA Trophy.

The UK Government needs to continue with the “lockdown” as is for the foreseeable future ensuring every UK citizen has food, water and other essential services maintained.  All costs for this minimum activity can easily be met by a tax on the better off sections of society.

All other economic activity,  all contractual obligations should be frozen;  no new debts, no profits or losses for anyone.

tovid wrote:I think whether or when the season returns is the least of our problems. For a city dependent on tourism those conditions are ominous.

You're right to point out that Bath will suffer from the likely impact all of this has on tourism. But the one silver lining is that the city isn't as reliant on tourism as it has been in times past. The local economy has diversified quite a bit over the last decade. So whilst a hit for tourism is definitely not good news for Bath, it should hopefully not be the hammer blow it would have been previously. Fingers crossed on that anyway

That is interesting.
I would have imagined the opposite to be true since the MOD went and all the big industry like Herman Miller etc.

tovid wrote:That is interesting.
I would have imagined the opposite to be true since the MOD went and all the big industry like Herman Miller etc.

Bath has a lot of small service sector businesses now though. Lots of firm of less than 20 employees working in financial services, legal services, creative industries, IT, publishing etc. A lot of people want to live in Bath for the quality of life, and often have to bring or create their own work to be able to do so. Plus we've a decent number of home grown businesses too (e.g. uni spin-outs or incubated businesses, like storm Consultancy). Bristol and Bath combined have the UK's second highest concentration of tech firms outside of London. And whilst the old-style big employers like Herman Miller are mostly gone, there are newer ones with sizeable workforces in their place (e.g. both unis, Rotork, BMT).

Unemployment in the city is very low and probably at what economists would call' full employment'. A lack of high quality 'Grade A' office space is holding further investment back in the city at the moment.

So we'll still feel the pain of tourism being written-off for 2020. But it won't screw Bath up entirely like it probably would've up until the 1990s.

That is quite encouraging.

At the risk of putting this thread back on track...

I was reading yesterday that there is a meeting of the FA today at which the National League is apparently going to ask for the season to be extended with a view to the play-offs still taking place. Presumably that will still be dependent ultimately on what happens in the PL and EFL.

I suspect most are long past caring what happens. Any play-offs would presumably be behind closed doors anyway?

As they're so intent on mimicking the Football League in every way they can I hope it extends to the weighted PPG formula the Football League are supposedly applying to their divisions, this would see us climb above Weymouth into that all important 3rd place and straight into the Playoff Semis.

Dave wrote:As they're so intent on mimicking the Football League in every way they can I hope it extends to the weighted PPG formula the Football League are supposedly applying to their divisions, this would see us climb above Weymouth into that all important 3rd place and straight into the Playoff Semis.

Pretty sure the EFL is proposing unweighted PPG. If the playoffs do go ahead at some point in the future not sure how reflective they will be of what happened during the season as I suspect a lot of players will have moved on. A bit like 2weirdtown I am not too sure that I am that bothered anymore.