|
Post by avfo on Jan 22, 2021 14:23:58 GMT
Kettering Town owner Ritchie Jeune pulling no punches-
“The statement today still doesn’t answer the question of how clubs are going to fund themselves to the point, you have still clubs that are potentially insolvent due to no fault of their own and that statement doesn’t tell me what I want to know as an owner of a club about what’s going to happen about the funding that was promised.
That statement just tells you that clubs were not going to play this weekend and there was little choice for the league because clubs had already taken the decision. But the crucial fact over funding, whether it is grants or an option for loans, still remains unanswered and that’s the most important question.
Obviously the board meeting today has not been constructive in moving that forward. You have got a situation where games have gone ahead and I am sure clubs have had coach costs, player costs and other running costs and there has been zero income in January. People talk about the money you make for streaming but trust me, at every level it’s a fraction of the gate you’d get. It’s not enough for any club to run itself on. So you’ve had clubs who have had much reduced income who would have expected the money they received in December to be available to them again in January and you are finding out a week before your ‘payday’ that that funding is no longer available to you. What are you supposed to do?
Either owners will have to go in and put the money in in the short term while the league continues to play ‘he said, she said’ or clubs will have to call in administrators. The one thing I have tried to get across to people is that if you take football and the emotion that comes with it out of it, the government suspended some of the insolvency laws and pressures on directors to do things at the start of the pandemic but that stopped in September 2020. So now, as a director, you have legal obligations to run your business in a certain way and if you can’t pay creditors or negotiate with creditors to give you more time then you are insolvent. So you have clubs who are, on paper at this point, insolvent when none of them would have voted to start the league if they thought this was how it would have ended up.
Somebody somewhere, at very best, has been incompetent verging on fraudulent.
It’s an absolute disgrace that the board haven’t resigned en masse. There’s no statement of accountability. It’s all ‘we believed this and that’. Ultimately, this sits with the board of the league who have no shred of paper to back up what they told the clubs was, in effect, cast iron. If that was any other business, that board are getting fired. But football seems to be in this alternate universe where the laws of the land and the rules of governance don’t seem to count. It’s crazy.”
|
|
|
Post by Churton Blue on Jan 22, 2021 14:34:13 GMT
Gutted but understand the reasons. My fear is that National League won't be any further with this in two weeks time and we'll still be in limbo. So shit having weekends without games, I base my weekend around the match and it gives me something to look forward to during these boring and tough times. I know it's not the same but I love watching the games and then ringing my old man and we'll have a rant afterwards. Agree with the post above by exiled.....whatever you think about the standard we're at and the clubs we play against I couldn't be more proud to be a Chester fan.....we've got managers that live and breath the club, players that give everything for the shirt and are so desperate to play for Chester that they took reduced wages or are playing for free, and we have a board that have conducted themselves magnificently through the toughest of times. We've also provided the best platform in the league for viewing games, and we're as strong in the community as we ever have been. It's worth savouring the spirit of this club in times like this because it's easy to take for granted and sometimes you only realise it when we've got mercenaries playing for a last payday or lads that just aren't prepared to give everything for the shirt. This club is chalk and cheese compared to what it was like under Jon McCarthy, so much better for it albeit one division lower. Spot on, and yet we are dictated to by the likes of the clown at Dover. Is there a single representative from NLN or NLS on the board..or is it only open to chairmen from the NL? From memory Barnet, Aldershot and Solihull are on the board. Perhaps AVFO or Churton Blue could fill in the gaps. The fact that none of the lower tier clubs appears to have a voice is the root of the problem. Six reps from NL. They are from Aldershot, Barnet, Dagenham & Redbridge, Dover, Solihull Moors and Yeovil. One rep from NLN Blyth Spartans and one from Hampton & Richmond representing the NLS. Brian Barwick used to be a Director of Hampton & Richmond as was another independent member of the NL Board, Graham Wood. You have a good point. This is what the rules currently stipulate, a 6-1-1 split. As you can see dominated by the south and people associated with Hampton & Richmond. My personal view is very much in agreement with the Kettering owner in that there should be a mass clear out and different representation quotas from each division.
|
|
|
Post by happyclapper on Jan 22, 2021 14:46:20 GMT
Does this help can staff be furloughed for the 2 weeks or do clubs have to pick up the wage tab My limited knowledge from the last furlough scheme that my employees were on it had to be a minimum of 3 week periods a s blocks of 3 weeks. Have not seen anything that changed that so a 2 week situation won’t help. Only saving will be temporary in the no travel cost to Blyth but IF the season restarts that will be an awful Tuesday night trip probably!! Its more flexible now, a minimum 7 days
|
|
|
Post by catfordbags on Jan 22, 2021 14:58:12 GMT
It's a slight worry that this is what the board wanted - Bin off North & South …. somehow keep their snouts in the trough so any funding forthcoming only gets divvied up between National League prem clubs.
|
|
|
Post by agl on Jan 22, 2021 15:09:08 GMT
It's a slight worry that this is what the board wanted - Bin off North & South …. somehow keep their snouts in the trough so any funding forthcoming only gets divvied up between National League prem clubs. Well two of them, Dover and Barnet, look nailed on already for relegation from the NL. Unless, of course, the season is voided and there is no relegation. The plot thickens. In particular the Dover chairman, Parmenter, is completely discredited by the as yet unpublished independent report by David Bernstein. Isn't it about time this report was leaked ... otherwise I doubt it will ever see the light of day? I'm staggered that the FA or DCMS, hasn't launched a corruption probe, although I guess you could say they are implicated. For a start if the season doesn't finish there is the issue of 10m lottery money now wasted.
|
|
|
Post by cityboy5705 on Jan 22, 2021 15:34:45 GMT
Stupid descion either stop altogether or play on how is two weeks gonna solve it
|
|
|
Post by cityboy5705 on Jan 22, 2021 15:48:29 GMT
Also I felt at the time that it was a waste of ten million lottery money cos I didn't think for a second that the season would finish that money could of gone to the zoo a nightingale hospital a vaccine hub yet it seems wasted
|
|
|
Post by agl on Jan 22, 2021 16:06:04 GMT
Stupid descion either stop altogether or play on how is two weeks gonna solve it It's not...the only hope, unlikely as it is, is that the government makes a U turn and awards the money as a grant. I assume there will be plenty of lobbying going on to this effect.
|
|
|
Post by lincolnexile on Jan 22, 2021 18:47:54 GMT
I really do think that this two week suspension is putting off the inevitable. Let’s face facts, Darlo have played 11 games so they need to play 31 games if the season resumes in 2 weeks. At 2 games a week they’ll need til the end of May to complete the season, and that’s without any further COVID breaks. It’s just not viable to complete this season and PPG is a farce given the inequalities regarding games played. It’ll be season cancelled null and void by the end of next week.
|
|
|
Post by agl on Jan 22, 2021 19:10:01 GMT
I really do think that this two week suspension is putting off the inevitable. Let’s face facts, Darlo have played 11 games so they need to play 31 games if the season resumes in 2 weeks. At 2 games a week they’ll need til the end of May to complete the season, and that’s without any further COVID breaks. It’s just not viable to complete this season and PPG is a farce given the inequalities regarding games played. It’ll be season cancelled null and void by the end of next week. Which suits the chairmen of Dover and Barnet (who will be spared relegation) just fine.
|
|
|
Post by avfo on Jan 22, 2021 19:16:43 GMT
York City, guardians of integrity in football - As a club we feel strongly that the season should have continued. Of course, we understand that individual clubs must represent their own views and interests however, we feel disappointed that this view wasn’t shared by the National League board.We worked tirelessly last summer to protect the integrity of football and allow our division to come to an honourable conclusion and we find ourselves in a similar position this season. We are equally disappointed in the way in which the DCMS funds, made available to compensate the lack of crowds, were unfairly distributed by the National League board to member clubs.* T he recent news unfortunately means that our first game at the LNER Community Stadium, scheduled for the end of the month, will also be postponed. We will share more information when we receive it. Chairman Jason McGill added: “ We fought in the summer to change our division’s status to elite sport, which reflected the wishes of the whole football community to carry on playing. We find ourselves in a similar position again and need unity across all National League divisions to protect the integrity of football.
We are an ambitious club who want to be successful and make our supporters proud and we will fight and lobby to continue the season to completion.” * www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/19022484.york-city-can-survive-season-without-fans-says-chairman-jason-mcgill/
|
|
|
Post by Moltisanti on Jan 22, 2021 19:16:45 GMT
Gutted but understand the reasons. My fear is that National League won't be any further with this in two weeks time and we'll still be in limbo. So shit having weekends without games, I base my weekend around the match and it gives me something to look forward to during these boring and tough times. I know it's not the same but I love watching the games and then ringing my old man and we'll have a rant afterwards. Agree with the post above by exiled.....whatever you think about the standard we're at and the clubs we play against I couldn't be more proud to be a Chester fan.....we've got managers that live and breath the club, players that give everything for the shirt and are so desperate to play for Chester that they took reduced wages or are playing for free, and we have a board that have conducted themselves magnificently through the toughest of times. We've also provided the best platform in the league for viewing games, and we're as strong in the community as we ever have been. It's worth savouring the spirit of this club in times like this because it's easy to take for granted and sometimes you only realise it when we've got mercenaries playing for a last payday or lads that just aren't prepared to give everything for the shirt. This club is chalk and cheese compared to what it was like under Jon McCarthy, so much better for it albeit one division lower. Spot on Si. 👏🏻
|
|
|
Post by Anders on Jan 22, 2021 19:17:21 GMT
The DCMS are so proud to keep reminding us of how well they did in brokering the deal for the first tranche of money (encouraging us to start effectively) I do wonder what they thought would happen when we got to this point knowing full well they weren't going to support us onwards.
Don't get me started on the National League, it's surely coming to a head with them as their incompetence (& perhaps more) has been evident for years. Is that berk Colin Peake still involved with them?
|
|
|
Post by devadiva on Jan 22, 2021 19:22:10 GMT
York City, guardians of integrity in football - As a club we feel strongly that the season should have continued. Of course, we understand that individual clubs must represent their own views and interests however, we feel disappointed that this view wasn’t shared by the National League board.We worked tirelessly last summer to protect the integrity of football and allow our division to come to an honourable conclusion and we find ourselves in a similar position this season. We are equally disappointed in the way in which the DCMS funds, made available to compensate the lack of crowds, were unfairly distributed by the National League board to member clubs. The recent news unfortunately means that our first game at the LNER Community Stadium, scheduled for the end of the month, will also be postponed. We will share more information when we receive it. Chairman Jason McGill added: “ We fought in the summer to change our division’s status to elite sport, which reflected the wishes of the whole football community to carry on playing. We find ourselves in a similar position again and need unity across all National League divisions to protect the integrity of football.
We are an ambitious club who want to be successful and make our supporters proud and we will fight and lobby to continue the season to completion.” No great surprise...neither is the fact that the 12 NLN clubs that want to end the season are largely in the bottom half of the league.
|
|
|
Post by rainhillblue9 on Jan 22, 2021 19:38:52 GMT
You know what gets me about all oft this, the 11 million funding needed to keep our leagues going would hardly buy you a half decent striker in the Premier league.
|
|
|
Post by Harry Lime on Jan 22, 2021 20:08:22 GMT
You know what gets me about all oft this, the 11 million funding needed to keep our leagues going would hardly buy you a half decent striker in the Premier league. West Ham just sold Haller for £22m. Maybe we should re-sign Hobson and sell him to Ajax. Problem solved!
|
|
|
Post by devadiva on Jan 22, 2021 20:13:55 GMT
V interesting (and impressive) interview about all of this (inc the 2 week suspension) featuring Andrew Morris and Anthony Johnson on the Friday Night Football Show thread.
|
|
|
Post by dmcnally on Jan 22, 2021 21:32:27 GMT
Option 2 off the table. It’s now a u-turn by DCMS or season over.
|
|
|
Post by avfo on Jan 22, 2021 22:49:47 GMT
Option 2 off the table. It’s now a u-turn by DCMS or season over. No u-turn likely. DCMS state any application for grants rather than loans would be assessed on case by case basis, involving applications from individual clubs not leagues- /photo/1
|
|
|
Post by Lobster on Jan 23, 2021 0:10:07 GMT
The DCMS can screw themselves as well as far as I'm concerned. What's £11m in the great scheme of things? If they don't care about non-league football enough to protect it, what's the point in them? And who's to say they won't change the agreement of the loan like they have done with student loans? Worst government ever.
|
|
|
Post by Anders on Jan 23, 2021 0:16:50 GMT
The DCMS can screw themselves as well as far as I'm concerned. What's £11m in the great scheme of things? If they don't care about non-league football enough to protect it, what's the point in them? And who's to say they won't change the agreement of the loan like they have done with student loans? Worst government ever. The DCMS and the National League might be pointing fingers at each other, but make no mistake, they're both equally to blame for this shambles in different ways.
|
|
|
Post by midfieldgeneral on Jan 23, 2021 7:39:12 GMT
No real option but to suspend the season. Misled by the government and shafted by the National League
|
|
|
Post by Harry Lime on Jan 23, 2021 8:37:25 GMT
Or did the NL just mislead their clubs in order to get the season started, in the belief we'd be ok by January. If clubs had known the full picture back in September they wouldn't have started the season.
Did DCMS make it clear regarding further funding, or was it left open? The NL have no evidence to back up their claims.
On the subject of individual club grants. What is stopping us from applying anyway? We are different from most clubs in that we are community owned. We'll be down £100k that was raised by the community. Surely we should be applying, if we haven't already.
|
|
|
Post by yossergolf on Jan 23, 2021 8:52:47 GMT
There are no words to describe the complete and utter mess that has been created by the mid management by the league officials. For the league to now split their rules between the divisions shows were they will go with this long term. NLN and NLS will end up being dropped by the National league and end up as “Premier” clubs of the leagues below, with a restructuring of this leagues. Can you imagine the outcry if the football league suspended leagues 1 and 2 but left the championship playing. In all of this those who deserve our full respect and thanks are the following: 1. The Chester FC board - communications and stance in this has been superb 2. The volunteers who have continued to work at and for the club 3. The Management and Players who have been professional throughout this whole period There maybe others I have missed and apologise if I have but from me a massive thankyou for what you have achieved from the start of this outbreak nearly 12 months ago. Whatever happens going forward Chester has and always will be my club
|
|
|
Post by geoff on Jan 23, 2021 9:04:32 GMT
I agree Harry - we are in a unique position and we should make an application now.
|
|
|
Post by superman on Jan 23, 2021 9:15:50 GMT
Little point in us getting a grant if no one else does. End the season now, null and void as not enough games played. To be frank, the concept that level 6 football is elite is fanciful.
|
|
|
Post by exiled on Jan 23, 2021 9:41:21 GMT
There are no words to describe the complete and utter mess that has been created by the mid management by the league officials. For the league to now split their rules between the divisions shows were they will go with this long term. NLN and NLS will end up being dropped by the National league and end up as “Premier” clubs of the leagues below, with a restructuring of this leagues. Can you imagine the outcry if the football league suspended leagues 1 and 2 but left the championship playing. In all of this those who deserve our full respect and thanks are the following: 1. The Chester FC board - communications and stance in this has been superb 2. The volunteers who have continued to work at and for the club 3. The Management and Players who have been professional throughout this whole period There maybe others I have missed and apologise if I have but from me a massive thankyou for what you have achieved from the start of this outbreak nearly 12 months ago. Whatever happens going forward Chester has and always will be my club As a club and in the unlikely event of the season continuing after the 2 week break, were probably one of the few clubs that could demonstrate why the funding should be paid to us in the form of a grant rather than a loan.(not used to pay overdrafts or other loans etc) or even inflated wages, depending on what the criteria for the grant might be. The National league are at fault for not obtaining the full details for further funding and just assumed that it would come in the form of Grant's. Did they even ask? Also this is non league. The NL board need to accept that they cant run like the football league, they dont have the same funding or resources the football league get, and neither do its clubs. IMO they've completely lost touch with what it takes to run a non league club, which is surprising as some of the board members are involved with clubs. Also agree with yossergolf's post.
|
|
|
Post by tonya on Jan 23, 2021 9:46:03 GMT
NLS clubs - Slough reply to NL General Manager Mark Ives- Dear Mark, We have this evening given consideration to the 3 options presented to us today. We would support OPTION 3, which is, as you know what we have been suggesting for some time now. Neither Option 1 or 2 make any sense from a business perspective and we are not prepared to put our club into a long term financially unsustainable position by taking loans or a grant which is repayable (which is in effect what Option 2 is). Given the need for a speedy decision on the part of the clubs, we would expect that a similarly quick decision will be taken by the board and any suspension to be in place before Saturday. By playing fixtures on Saturday, clubs will have to pay their players an additional week and in our case, incur the biggest travel cost of the season. As soon as the decision is made to suspend, we can move our players to furlough, thus avoiding further costs, If the decision is to suspend, it MUST be made immediately. As a club we will go as far as to say that we do not propose to travel to Eastbourne on Saturday to fulfil a fixture which could be meaningless, incur unnecessary costs and put our players at risk.We will have a separate discussion regarding Saturday with the Fixtures team and also with Eastbourne, but our position is clear. The issue can be avoided, by making your decision prior to the weekend.Tonbridge Wells - It was a unanimous decision by the Board of Tonbridge Angels to recommend option 3 and the NL were thus informed at nine o’ clock yesterday evening. Said Angels Chairman Dave Netherstreet : “With no real certainty as to when restrictions will be eased or lifted completely, to commit to unknown levels of debt whether direct or indirect seems to us a dangerous and foolhardy path down which to proceed. We want our supporters to be able to return to a thriving community club once this terrible pandemic is over.”
Representations are being made by the club to the Government via local MP, Tom Tugendhat, regarding the funding of the NL. A decision from the NL is expected by tomorrow (22nd January). Havant + Waterlooville - Following a meeting of the HWFC board this morning, the Club have decided to impose a 10 day self isolation break on Health and Safety grounds. This means we will not be playing against Concord, Dorking or Braintree. CEO Stuart Munro and manager Paul Doswell (worth listening to if you have the time) - Thanks AVFO hard to argue with the stance they are taking it’s a complete mess. They certainly make the point well that given the inability of clubs at our level to adequately provide conditions to protect clubs staff, be it players,managers there is no option but to end the season.
|
|
|
Post by chesterken on Jan 23, 2021 11:28:48 GMT
I’m amazed the Premier league has managed to avoid any flack considering we are indirect and in the case of the National league direct feeds into the football league via promotion, it would have been a drop in the ocean to them even in these difficult times to bale out non league at this level and even below. Even if the decision was made to close down all of non league it could have been done with a package of aid which would mean all the teams could restart next season if safe to do so instead of possibly the worst case scenario in which most of the lower non league will just disappear never to be seen again.
|
|
|
Post by Lobster on Jan 23, 2021 12:08:53 GMT
York City, guardians of integrity in football - As a club we feel strongly that the season should have continued. Of course, we understand that individual clubs must represent their own views and interests however, we feel disappointed that this view wasn’t shared by the National League board.We worked tirelessly last summer to protect the integrity of football and allow our division to come to an honourable conclusion and we find ourselves in a similar position this season. We are equally disappointed in the way in which the DCMS funds, made available to compensate the lack of crowds, were unfairly distributed by the National League board to member clubs. The recent news unfortunately means that our first game at the LNER Community Stadium, scheduled for the end of the month, will also be postponed. We will share more information when we receive it. Chairman Jason McGill added: “ We fought in the summer to change our division’s status to elite sport, which reflected the wishes of the whole football community to carry on playing. We find ourselves in a similar position again and need unity across all National League divisions to protect the integrity of football.
We are an ambitious club who want to be successful and make our supporters proud and we will fight and lobby to continue the season to completion.” No great surprise...neither is the fact that the 12 NLN clubs that want to end the season are largely in the bottom half of the league. Thing is, I find it hard to blame any club for acting in their own interests. York are alright because of the Godwell money, and I imagine Chorley will be because of the Cup run. Meanwhile, the clubs in the bottom half just want the season over, and we're somewhere in the middle. When the NL doesn't take a lead, everyone just looks after themselves.
|
|