As Premier League football stumbles forward with its own Project Restart, the rest of the pyramid lies paralysed by the Coronavirus pandemic. At a time when there is still a significant debate around when schools can safely reopen, it feels somewhat frivolous to debate when football at any level, can return.

Yet for some, football has become the totem for when ‘normal’ life will return in the wake of Covid-19.

Logically, we can’t see football grounds being opened before other parts of the leisure industry and for non-league football in particular, Clubhouses won’t realistically be opened before pubs. The Government have dangled the prospect of some ‘leisure’ businesses opening as early as July. Yet at a time when families are still unable to extend their social bubble, it feels highly unlikely that lockdown restrictions would be lifted at such a pace, as to facilitate a return to football in the next six weeks. The July date is also significant as it marks the traditional start of Clubs pre-season preparations. So, with football unlikely to start in July, this will inevitably push back an August kick off to the League campaign.

The FA has asked the Non-Leagues to work on the basis of a ‘normal’ start to the season, although they are also “planning for monthly restarts up until early 2021. At which point we enter the worst case scenario for no 2020-21 season.” If this were to be the case, it is likely that it would reopen the can of worms caused by the cessation of the 2019/20 season, which prompted 151 Clubs to write to the FA, opposing the decision to make the season null & void.

At that time, the FA’s decision was predicated on the belief that prolonging the 20/19 campaign would cause problems getting the 20/21 season underway. Yet, now the FA have acknowledged that the potential exists for the voiding of next season, it brings back to the table the argument raised by many from the start of this crisis that its better to void a season that hasn’t happened, rather than one that has.

With the FA’s decision ratified by their Full Council, the chance of the games governing body performing such a spectacular U-turn is not terrific. But these are unprecedented times and supporters might feel that the FA shouldn’t ‘make the perfect the enemy of the good’, particularly if it delivers “the fairest method on how to decide the sporting outcomes for the season”, to borrow a phrase from The FA’s head of National League System, Laurence Jones, in his explanation for ending the 19/20 campaign.

In practise, it is likely to take around 30 weeks to complete a season, with the most optimistic conclusion achievable in 26 weeks, with no Cup games. Both timescales will prove particularly challenging at the base of the pyramid, where bad weather decimated last season’s fixture schedule over the winter months.

The FA have called for a “flexible approach to the commencement of the 20/21 season as a result of Covid-19 and the social distancing measures”. However, flexibility from the FA was in short supply prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, when the governing body remained resolute in their belief that all games needed to be completed by 25 April.

Coronavirus provides the game with an opportunity to reflect on how well its structures have enabled it to deal with this crisis. The Premier League and Championship have the resources to not only continue playing behind closed doors, but to fend off any possible interference by the FA. The National League behaviours like a virtual League 3, more aligned with the EFL than the FA’s Alliance of Step 1 to 4 Leagues. When push came to shove, the only Leagues that seemingly did come under the FA’s control were at Steps 3 to 7.

There is still time for us to learn lessons from this sorry saga, ominously we have no idea just how much time we might have. But the structure of the pyramid and its relationship with the FA have been shown to be out of step with the games Governing body. In terms of fixtures, if the FA genuinely believe that it’s not practical or logistical for non-league Clubs to “play up to two matches per week” when they wish to void a season, they can no longer suggest that the same Clubs play three or more games a week, in order for them to meet an administrative deadline of the FA’s own making. This is the ‘new normal’ that fans, Clubs, Leagues and the FA need to get use to from now on.

From Ian Nockolds