The Loser Takes It All

Season 2019/20 will go down in history as the season that never was for the majority of English non-league football due to the FA’s decision to null and void the season.

Goals scored, points gained, best and worst ever positions all never happened in this season. Sporting merit went out of the proverbial window with the FA’s decision.

When Covid19 first arrived as a real danger to us in the UK and football rather haphazardly stopped it wasn’t known how long the world would be affected. It is understandable that decisions couldn’t be made that quickly.

Ramsbottom United are one of the losers with null & void this season
Ramsbottom United (blue) are one of the losers with null & void in 2019/20

The Welsh FA bided their time and decided sporting merit should count for something and went with the Points Per Game (PPG) option.

Football didn’t really matter while people were dying in their hundreds each day. It isn’t more important than life and death but it is important to millions of us and though fighting the virus and staying safe is the most important thing, fairness in the decisions made on how to conclude the season was too.

If the English FA had decided that all football was declared null and void, then I believe there would be less objection to that decision being solely for step 3 down. The millions that the Premier League could lose is the only reason they are continuing behind closed doors. League’s 1 & 2 have been allowed to use the unweighted points per game (PPG) option as have the National League.


Chelmsley Town (stripes) were fighting relegation when the season ended.

What the FA have done is reward failure by not allowing promotion and relegation to be concluded for the majority of non-league clubs. Almost all businesses have a business continuity plan to cater for unexpected events so they can continue as best they can during crises or major disruption. The FA don’t appear to have such a plan in place and if they don’t change their rules to cater for another “crisis” then we could see yet another season when the poor performing clubs are rewarded. We could see 2020/21 season be disrupted if a second wave of cases materialises and it is for this reason the FA needs to prepare.

The FA need to show some leadership, there needs to be a cut off point for when a season is null and void and when PPG is brought in to decide on positions. It’s in the interests of the sport that null and void seasons no longer happen if a certain percentage of games have been played. At least then everyone in football would know what the outcome of a season would be should a disruption happen again.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Senior Cup Starts With A Trip To The Asterdale.

Image
  Borrowash Victoria & Holbrook Sports Battle For a 2nd Round Spot. The Main Stand at Borrowash Vics. It’s October, the nights are drawing in, Winter is round the corner, so it’s time for the Derbyshire Senior Cup. This season I’m starting at the wonderful Asterdale Bowl, aka The Anderson Electrical Arena, home of Borrowash Victoria, for their 1 st  Round tie against Holbrook Sports. The evening before, the competition started with the other two 1st round ties which saw Gresley Rovers see off Sandiacre Town, 5-0 and South Normanton Athletic travelling to the north of the County to play New Mills. South Normanton winning that one 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Vics & The Brookies are both at step 7, Holbrook in the Central Midlands Alliance South while Borrowash are members of the Nottinghamshire Senior League Premier, and there’s a little story about that. Knowing they were going down to step 7, Vics requested that they be placed in the Central Midlands Allianc...
Read more

Ofton Make An Impact

Image
  A review of Alfreton Town's 2023/24 season. A best ever FA Cup run and second consecutive play-off position was the achievement of Alfreton Town in 2023/24. Success in football is relative, one club’s play-off defeat could be the catalyst for financial ruin, or, as in Alfreton’s case, a slight disappointment alongside a feeling of pride. We speak a lot about over achievement at Ofton and being proud doesn’t mean we’re happy we lost to Boston United, it means we recognise the humungous achievement Billy Heath and Mark Carroll have accomplished at our club, given the resources of some of our opponents. Here’s my review of our 2023/24 campaign.   Alfreton Town 2023/24 Billy had a tougher than expected rebuilding job to do after the retained list was announced as 13 of the players from 2022/23 never played for the club again. It was announced early on that Dayle Southwell was joining Gainsborough Trinity and Connor Teale had gone back to Fleetwood Town following his loan...
Read more

Winter Warmers

Image
Cold Evenings at County Cup Ties. Action from Shirebrook Town v South Normanton. More and more I find myself saying “I’m not the right age for.....” and then insert the latest thing I feel I shouldn’t be doing. Gardening was probably the first, circa 1990. Then there was the time, just a couple of years ago, when I did a cartoon styli slip on an icy car park and fell horizontally on my back. The latest is midweek winter football, as I stand at the side of the pitch taking photos wondering if it’s warmer anywhere else in the ground and thinking “I’m not the right age for this”. Considering this thought has been in my head every time I’ve attended a midweek game in the cold this season I’ve managed 13 midweek games since the beginning of November. I never was very good at taking advice. A few of these cold evening games have been in the Derbyshire Senior Cup, which is a competition I really like. As with all the senior cups throughout the country, it’s played in deepest winter so the...
Read more