New season dates

The fixtures will be released at 1pm on Wednesday 5th July.

First games are on Saturday 5th August and season finishes on Saturday 20th April to fit in playoffs. I think that is one week shorter than last season, so assume at least one extra midweek to fit in 46 games.

22/23 season proper finished on 29/4, nine days later than for next. I wonder why 27/4 was not chosen for the finale as prior to the Covid seasons it was always the last Saturday of the month. Could it possibly be connected to the availability of Wembley for the National League’s big jolly in May?
Anyway as Les points out, yet another midweek game to look forward to (or not).

The National League promotion final is Saturday May 4th (presumably at Wembley) and the North and South finals the day after.

46 league games is far too many!

Add the cup games, replays and possible play-offs...is it any wonder that part-time pros get injured or suffer from burn out?

There needs to be a restructuring of the Conference North and South divisions into 3 divisions - north, south and east with 18 to 20 clubs meaning a maximum of just four new additions to each.

I would like to see a north and south Football League 2 and Conference Premier combined with similar 18 to 20 clubs in each.

To create further interest and maintain revenues there could be a league knock out cup with regional ties.

Beau Nash wrote:46 league games is far too many!

Add the cup games, replays and possible play-offs...is it any wonder that part-time pros get injured or suffer from burn out?

There needs to be a restructuring of the Conference North and South divisions into 3 divisions -  north, south and east with 18 to 20 clubs meaning a maximum of just four new additions to each.

I would like to see a north and south Football League 2 and Conference Premier combined with similar 18 to 20 clubs in each.

To create further interest and maintain revenues there could be a league knock out cup with regional ties.

This is worth considering.

There are too midweek games for the part-time footballers.

I believe CASH is still talking too much.

It is also affecting foottballers' behaviour. eg yesterday's final. The reaction of players suggested they would have to be carried off the pitch. However, they eventually stood up and TROTTED away.

Beau Nash wrote:46 league games is far too many!

Add the cup games, replays and possible play-offs...is it any wonder that part-time pros get injured or suffer from burn out?

There needs to be a restructuring of the Conference North and South divisions into 3 divisions -  north, south and east with 18 to 20 clubs meaning a maximum of just four new additions to each.

I would like to see a north and south Football League 2 and Conference Premier combined with similar 18 to 20 clubs in each.

To create further interest and maintain revenues there could be a league knock out cup with regional ties.

It's the clubs that decide in the end. They agreed a bigger division. More games means more revenue. The mad August and September start has changed, but means more midweek games and inevitably reduced crowds. So how that squares with more revenue I don't know.

As for restructuring, you will find plenty of debate with 1 thing in common, you won't please everyone. EFL will never agree going back to regional leagues, seen as diluting the product. Introducing more regions to non league still has the problem of more travelling the higher you rise. Mousehole to Malvern next year. Truro to anywhere. How do you fix that for aspiring clubs.

What do they do in countries with a bigger land area and hence further travel distances?

Many have regional leagues! In Italy Serie A + B are national, below that is regional. Same in Spain. Germany have an extra level of national down to 3. Liga. Ditto France. Fans in those countries must be amazed that England has five levels of national leagues.
In our crazy EPL teams fly to games barely 100 miles away. One of their arguments is the time it takes to travel on our clogged roads which is true and another argument for more regionalisation.
Our club and many fans are beside themselves with excitement at the prospect of the extra local derbies next season - so perhaps more regionalisation would be a popular move.
I agree with Beau's argument about the ridiculous number of games at our level based on the fact that they're crammed in to too short a period. And one of the reasons for that are the blessed play-offs which lead to us playing our final league fixture in the third week of April next season.
If you must have an extra promotion spot for teams who have not finished in the top two (rather than awarding it to the 3rd placed team who have earnt it on merit) then get 3rd placed to play the team finishing third from bottom in the level above. This is the system used in Germany and avoids the nonsense of a 7th placed team finishing way behind 3rd but gaining promotion over three games rather than 46. And yes, I know that wouldn't be easy with three feeder leagues feeding into NLS and NLN but our pyramid system has never been particularly practical.

They tried having 3rd placed top playing 3rd bottom of league above and it resulted in fewer teams gaining promotion because the higher team had been playing stiffer competition all season and easily saw off the pretenders season after season. The play offs are better and make the season more interesting for more teams for longer but the issue is the number of games in the league programme.
A reduction to 20 teams would make sense all round with a 38 game season.
It is difficult to imagine a justification that holds water for 46 game seaons at this level.

I seem to recall a season when the two thirds played off against each other but don’t think it was repeated. Happy to be corrected. But the lower level teams in Germany frequently win the play off games which are played over two legs. If a team is good enough to play at the level above they should prove it against one of the weakest of its members.
I do agree about the twenty team limit which would hopefully do away with the tiresome midweek matches!
And I’m not sure Luton Roman is correct about the democratic ways of the NL. When on the Board I got the distinct impression that many decisions had been made by the executive before the AGM. And we know that clubs at our level are at the mercy of the 24 NL clubs with their one vote each.

I can't recall where I got this thought from but don't the National League Premier clubs have one vote each, however the North and South have some sort of one block vote?

I think north and south get a combined four votes each.

That’s correct! We are very much the poor relations.