On Friday, January 15th the Football Association’s Leagues Committee undertook an unprecedented consultation of all 652 Clubs at Steps 5 and 6 of the Non League Pyramid, where the Toolstation Western League sits. The online survey sent to Clubs is part of the FA’s process “to address the conclusion of the 2020/21 season in one form or another”.

Given the current COVID-19 restrictions, the FA believe that there is little prospect of football returning until the start of March at the earliest and even then, it is unknown whether Clubs will be able to admit paying spectators or open bars and tea huts.

The FA have “considered a comprehensive list of options” and this survey presents to Clubs what they believe are the most feasible means of concluding the current season. Essentially these options boil down to voiding this season, rolling it over to be played from August through to May 2022 and A N Other, which could be anything from ploughing ahead with fixtures, applying a Points Per Game finish, or something else.

As part of this consultation the FA have published their “influencing factors” in the construction of the options put to Clubs. The FA don’t anticipate fixtures resuming before 1st March 2021. However, that date is based on a reduction of Government restrictions in February, which seems somewhat optimistic in the current climate. The FA recognise that even if it is possible to resume playing competitive fixtures by 1st March, there is no guarantee that it will be possible to complete all fixtures by the end of May.

Critically for Clubs, the FA has agreed that the 2020/21 season will only continue when it is financially viable, meaning that all Clubs will not only be able to admit paying spectators but also open clubhouses. This means that for football to restart, Boris needs to open the pubs again.

For those Clubs keen to push on at the earliest opportunity, the FA survey requests confirmation of how the season will be determined if not all games can be played. This includes whether the number of games played is sufficient for final standings to be determined on a PPG basis, allowing for promotion and relegation to take place.

The other main issue influencing the FA’s thinking appears to centre around player contracts, which are much more widespread at Steps 3 and 4 than at Steps 5 and 6. The fear is that Clubs might be saddled with a financial commitment for a further 12 months, if the conclusion of this season is delayed from May 2021 to May 2022. However, as with any contract scheduled to end at a specific date, even Lionel Messi failed to argue that the Coronavirus was sufficient reason to extend the agreed terms beyond the drop dead date. The fact that contracts won’t be honoured beyond May is more likely to cause greater problems for Clubs with players acting as free agents, able to sign new deals with whomever they want. The potential for large scale movement of players risks questioning the “sporting integrity” of playing one season over two.

Ominously, concern around player contracts has made its way into the FA’s “influencing factors”, as the preference of the Step 3 & 4 Leagues is to conclude by 31st May 2021. The fact that the FA believe “it would be best to have a coordinated approach across Steps 3 to 6”, suggests the outcome of this exercise may already have been decided.

To add a little more colour to proceedings a group of Clubs have put forward a proposal that would see some teams promoted using PPG from the last two seasons’ results, enabling the FA’s proposed restructuring of the pyramid. Given that the FA weren’t in the habit of asking for Club views prior to the pandemic, the prospect of creating the footballing equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, resurrecting the corpse of the 2019/20 season and attaching it to the body parts of the current campaign, is unlikely to meet with any great enthusiasm at Wembley.

The FA are right in saying that the critical issue for football’s return is the admittance of spectators and the reopening of clubhouses. With that in mind, a resumption of matches in late March, let alone at the start on the month, is unlikely. Most Clubs at the Western League level, let alone higher, still need to play three quarters of their fixtures, rendering a competitive completion of this season by the end of May an impossibility.

A Points Per Game completion will certainly suit some Clubs, but as it won’t suit most, along with the preference already firmly stated by the Trident Leagues at Steps 3 and 4, makes the prospect of another voided season increasingly more likely. Yet we have lost so much as a society to the Coronavirus. Why doesn’t football, our National Game, be the one thing to take a stand by finishing the current season when it can, rather than allowing another campaign to be lost to the virus?

Sporting integrity would have been served if the FA had agreed the criteria for ending this season before it began, yet they chose not to do so. Sporting integrity is not served by voiding a season that volunteers worked so hard to start. The sporting integrity of points per game is much harder to argue when it doesn’t suit your final outcome than when it does.

The other critical issue for non-league football is the economic legacy created by how this season ends. Will payer contracts be carried over or end on May 31st? Will sponsorship deals be carried over or will Clubs adopt the Oliver Twist approach to asking their benefactors if they “can have some more”. These are very real considerations that should govern not only Clubs decision making, but that at the FA.

Not for the first time, football needs to be saved from itself. Clubs need to finish what they’ve started. The fixture list needs to be honoured, presenting Clubs, particularly at the bottom of the pyramid, with the opportunity to manage whatever the winter weather and the Coronavirus has to throw at them in twelve months time. The fact that the FA have included the option to “complete the ‘2020/21’ season between August 2021 – May 2022” is reminiscent of the decision taken by David Cameron to hold the Brexit Referendum – and we all know how that played out.

Marcus Brody