The Next 6 Months?

Note that the other owners are also supporters.

But my main point is that I am disappointed that our club has said little about the upcoming season and the probable massive loss of income unlike some other clubs. If there is a need to withdraw from the competitions then I would expect us to make that decision.

The interviews with Paul Williams and Nick Blofeld make it clear the efforts and challenges that the club has undergone in sustaining the club and ensuring that it can continue to Xmas. Like other clubs we wait on the financial help that hopefully will be confirmed at least in principle so we can make a start on Saturday in the Cup.

Only loosely connected to this topic but I am intrigued how the league table, that is shown on the main site, has been produced. Normally before season start we are top on Alphabetic order but what algorithm puts us near the bottom and Slough top.

Nice spot Peter, the City website table is no longer available.

This one - https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league-south/league-table -  is being used for deciding promotion / relegation should the league be cancelled.

Peter Newman wrote:Only loosely connected to this topic but I am intrigued how the league table, that is  shown on the main site, has been produced. Normally before season start we are top on Alphabetic order but what algorithm puts us near the bottom and Slough top.

I did notice the seemingly random order of the table when I added it but have no idea why it's like that. The North table is equally random.

I stopped using FCTables last season as they had our table wrong (and never corrected it) and started doing them manually, but that is really tedious.

The FWP tables are better but no longer allow you to automatically pull them through to the website.

I note that Wealdstone will be showing a live stream of their game on Saturday from their club house!! With the curtains drawn so that no-one can watch football directly...

https://twitter.com/Ollie_Bayliss/status/1310941792603377664

OliverH wrote:I note that Wealdstone will be showing a live stream of their game on Saturday from their club house!! With the curtains drawn so that no-one can watch football directly...

https://twitter.com/Ollie_Bayliss/status/1310941792603377664

Apparently Dartford are doing the same for their game v Slough.

For those of you who may have missed it, the F A has come up with this latest gem today for Saturday's cup games:
Elite club v Elite club - no fans
Elite club v non Elite club - no fans
Non Elite club v Elite club - home fans only
Non Elite club v Non Elite club - home and away fans

And just to prove that we are entering some sort of parallel universe, Sky are interviewing of all people Dale Vince on the financial problems facing non league clubs!

Some of the replies to the tweet show the absurdity of the "rules".  
Expect the government  to announce changes to the rules at midday on Saturday.

I see the Telegraph sports website is reporting a government funding package for National league clubs.

I love this - https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/september/non-league-team-far-from-casual-about-baffling-ticket-ruling-for-fa-cup-clash - the virus will decide which club a fan supports.

Peter Newman wrote:I see the Telegraph sports website is reporting a government funding package for National league clubs.

I saw this earlier. The Telegraph said that the package was to keep the National League clubs afloat and "...prevent them withdrawing from the F A Cup". Would be interesting to know whether the crowd requirements released earlier had been instrumental in the possible withdrawal , or whether it was more the contract issue.

Probably doesn't do to get too excited until we see the details of the package.

Beau Nash wrote:I love this - https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/september/non-league-team-far-from-casual-about-baffling-ticket-ruling-for-fa-cup-clash - the virus will decide which club a fan supports.  

Does that mean that
a)  if you have enough money to buy yourself a Corinthian Casuals scarf and
b)  you are brave enough to cram yourself into the home end and
c)  you don't jump up and down when Droitwich score a goal
that you can still be a Droitwich fan and get into the match ?  

The new rules are just getting ludicrous   . For the life of me, I cannot figure out why, at our level it is deemed ok to cram yourself into a busy pub but you are not allowed to stand in the fresh air at a suitable distance from other people to watch a match   .

I am getting more confused with the continual changing of rules/regulations/laws/guidance that are announced.
It seems that Boris Johnson and his cronies are making them more complex than those relating to offside and handball.

I see that the ‘rescue package’ is apparently worth £20 million - will be interesting to see how it is allocated as works out to less than £300k per club if divided equally (which I doubt).

Will also be interesting to see who makes the decision on how it is allocated.

Who knows, we might actually get a statement from the league today! Hopefully they won't pocket most of the money like they did with the £200k they got from the PL towards the playoffs.

Going back to the 'let fans in' argument, I see that there were over 400 at Truro last night for their game against Taunton and over 200 at one of the Western League games.

Holding statement from the Club...

https://www.bathcityfc.com/bath-city-fc-statement/

Midsomer-chris wrote:

Beau Nash wrote:I love this - https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/september/non-league-team-far-from-casual-about-baffling-ticket-ruling-for-fa-cup-clash - the virus will decide which club a fan supports.  

Does that mean that
a)  if you have enough money to buy yourself a Corinthian Casuals scarf and
b)  you are brave enough to cram yourself into the home end and
c)  you don't jump up and down when Droitwich score a goal
that you can still be a Droitwich fan and get into the match ?  

The new rules are just getting ludicrous   . For the life of me, I cannot figure out why, at our level it is deemed ok to cram yourself into a busy pub but you are not allowed to stand in the fresh air at a suitable distance from other people to watch a match   .

I think Dulwich and Corinthian Casuals wear the same colours n'all. No idea how it can be policed.

Frankly I'd rather go the whole season without witnessing a second of us playing than watching the game in a pub. Watching football in a pub full of fans is a torture for me, but I guess it would attract a few people. Of course it's ludicrous but don't think people should pack pubs to prove how silly the rules are.

City are on BBC Points West today.

One bulletin had Nick talking, I missed the detail; the second showed Twerton Park with some of the players warming up.

If anyone can find the links...

kermit wrote:
Unfortunately I can see us still debating this on Friday night.

It does seem that we have reached Friday night and there is no firm news (unless I have missed it) about the 'rescue package', although it looks as if the games involving NL teams tomorrow are going ahead (unless the weather has its say of course).

It would take an awful lot of rain to cause a problem to the pitch at this time of year but more noteworthy is the length of the rain spells we get. For most of my life if it rained for more than four hours it was remarkable but now it is becoming commonplace to rain all day.
Clear evidence of climate change.

tovid wrote:It would take an awful lot of rain to cause a problem to the pitch at this time of year but more noteworthy is the length of the rain spells we get. For most of my life if it rained for more than four hours it was remarkable but now it is becoming commonplace to rain all day.
Clear evidence of climate change.

We had 1.9" of rain in Combe Down yesterday, with notable amounts the previous two days (0.93" & 0.48").

The saver may be having had less than 1" for the rest of September.

Oliver Dowden has tweeted this afternoon that National League clubs will receive £10m in funding from the National Lottery. No mention of what has happened to the Government's £20m 'rescue package' but I think we can guess.

That equates to just over £150k if shared equally to the 66 clubs, sufficient to fund expenditure to the end of November  but not enough to complete the season.

The official announcement - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-million-lifeline-from-the-national-lottery-for-national-league-football-announced-by-culture-secretary - from which I assume the government is relying on supporters being allowed back into grounds sometime soon allowing revenue streams to be generated in the usual ways.

10m is first tranche and hasn't it been well documented that it will be based on average crowds?