The Next 6 Months?

I admire calls for total lockdown. It is the only way to beat the virus and avoid mutations.
However this means absolutely everyone has to lock down - not only tescos workers and builders and take away owners and delivery drivers but policemen, nurses, doctors, firemen, armed forces everyone.

tovid wrote:I admire calls for total lockdown. It is the only way to beat the virus and avoid mutations.
However this means absolutely everyone has to lock down - not only tescos workers and builders and take away owners and delivery drivers but policemen, nurses, doctors, firemen, armed forces everyone.

Unfortunately lockdowns won't beat the virus - it would just slow down its spread (though that would be of huge importance in-itself, especially for the NHS - so I'm by no means suggesting we shouldn't have lockdowns). The same for mutations, which will happen anyway as a naturally occurring process. The positive (?) news though is that viruses tend to mutate into being more contagious but less deadly over time, as any virus that kills its host (especially if it does so relatively quickly) is just reducing its own ability to replicate/spread. This is what appears to be happening currently, with the new strains more contagious and putting more and a broader range of people into hospital, though with a lower percentage of them dying.

The only way to 'beat' the virus is for people to be vaccinated against it and/or to develop immunity. Nothing else will stop it popping back up and down again. Even with widespread immunisation, it'll probably still circulate anyway with occasional outbursts. Unfortunately we may be stuck with Coronavirus ongoing and having to manage rather than defeat it - much like the winter flu (which used to kill a lot more than it does nowadays).

But we digress

Concord, Havant and Slough are declining to play any more games.

As Midsomer-steve said "In my opinion, the ONLY sensible way forward is to TERMINATE the season forthwith."

Apparently Havant are taking a 10 day ‘self isolation break on health and safety grounds’ - clearly losing those two games in a row was too much for them!

Clubs are clearly trying to force the league’s hand in getting the season suspended or cancelled - generally the teams at the top of the tables are very quiet.

Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

comrade powell wrote:Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

Agreed - just watched it myself. I wonder whether the fact that one of their players from Tuesday has symptoms will have implications for us?

I hope it isn't the player the Havant team bus left behind on Tuesday.

Very good point Les - but, hey, the NL board will have made up their minds to 'pull the plug' on the season by the weekend.

comrade powell wrote:Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

Agreed, it's quite moving to watch. We need to terminate the season.

OliverH wrote:

comrade powell wrote:Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

Agreed, it's quite moving to watch. We need to terminate the season.

I thought the line "We've been burying our heads in the sand for too long now" says it all.

Not sure what happens in the end but the next two Saturdays represent some of longest trips. IF the season were to restart these, alongwith Tonbrdge, would leave us with some really long midweek trips.
I suppose the league might reorganise fixtures but not really confident this would be the case.

It is not just this season that needs to be cancelled.

The experts are saying that coronavirus will be with us "possibly for ever" so with people continuing to be infected it is almost certain fixtures will be cancelled next season.

stretching the concept of 'expert' if they have only just realized that.

Beau Nash wrote:It is not just this season that needs to be cancelled.

The experts are saying that coronavirus will be with us "possibly for ever" so with people continuing to be infected it is almost certain fixtures will be cancelled next season.  

It is self-evident that Covid-19 will be with us forever, as are all the other iterations of corona virus, but at the moment it is not wise to carry on, so the season should be cancelled and we regroup after the vaccine has been rolled out across the country and we'll see then how the land lies.

Totally agree, Demon. What I don’t understand is why the NL haven’t put a stop to the top division matches. Presumably because there are no clubs like Concord refusing to play and the majority didn’t show a preference for option 3. So in effect the NL are turning a blind eye to the dangers highlighted by the experts and the show must go on whatever.

They haven't stopped because of Covid. They have stopped because of the lack of money.

comrade powell wrote:Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

Didn't listen to the whole thing but did they say they regret pushing so hard to get our league designated as elite status?

BenE wrote:They haven't stopped because of Covid. They have stopped because of the lack of money.

I think both reasons. Some have finally seen how dangerous it is to play matches with no testing taking place. It’s no surprise that PL clubs facing non league and lowly EFL clubs in the cups have paid for their opens to be tested.

BenE wrote:

comrade powell wrote:Pretty humbling interview with Havant’s CEO and Paul Doswell...

https://youtu.be/V8ej0Nw87I8

Best wishes to all at Havant.

Didn't listen to the whole thing but did they say they regret pushing so hard to get our league designated as elite status?

I don’t recall anything being said. And of course Havant weren’t the only pushers.

Meanwhile Dorking and Ebbsfleet arrange a friendly for Tuesday evening...

It’s mainly about the money. Teams can’t play on without income

I wonder if the reason that the top division carried on playing is that the NL board don't want to upset the EFL and jeopardise the promotion/relegation arrangement? When there was the possibility of Macclesfield coming down (before they folded) I am sure the NL had to give assurances about the league restarting.

With the stance that the DCMS is currently taking it is hard to see how the funding can be resolved unless a third party is brought on board like the National Lottery was to fund the first £10m.  

If the league does pause for a longer period - even if only at our level - perhaps this might be the time to review the 'elite' issue and accept that it doesn't apply to NLS and NLN clubs.

I hope so. And could the decision to pause our level but not the one above be the start of a divide between the two? The simple solution would be to allow the elitists to form League 3 and our levels become the top of the non league pyramid. As we were in the good old days!

pete mac wrote:It’s mainly about the money. Teams can’t play on without income

And they can’t play on if the squad keeps on isolating.

Interesting reading some of the articles in the Non League Paper and the views of some of the clubs. The focus is almost entirely on the funding issue rather than the Covid-19 issues.

Mark Ives, who is the acting general manager of the league is quoted as saying "Whilst we are a competition as an entirety, we are also a competition made up of two different step levels. Both of which are considered, quite correctly, as elite sport and our decision does not impact that elite status. We have analysed the wishes at the moment in time by the differing step levels".

I think it is starting to dawn on some of the teams in the higher division the implications for promotion to the EFL if the NL season does stop - the Notts County manager (they would have a vested interest in this) made the interesting comment that "...we are an extension of the EFL so if the EFL finishes the National League has to strive to finish too." 

Perhaps as Martin says, the time has come for the top division of the National League to become 'League 3' of the EFL.    

Meanwhile, Ollie Bayliss has made a 'Freedom of Information' request to the DCMS asking them to provide copies of all agendas, minutes, summaries of meetings and correspondence between them and the FA or NL on the funding issue between 1st August last year and today. Presumably if they didn't commit to grants they will be happy to produce it to prove this once and for all.

So, it seems there is no immediate prospect of normality returning.  Is there a window of opportunity here to help secure the club's future by channelling all the money we're not spending at matches into the club by other means?
Back in the first lockdown, the funding initiative to ensure City's participation in the playoffs was a roaring success.
Maybe the club should do something similar to assist the way ahead for the next 6 months.  
I, like others I'm sure, have been buying 50/50s, programmes, live streaming and so on in addition to other donations.  But, perhaps a more focused central funding pot would draw in more widespread contributions?