Ian Nockolds catches up with Chairman of the Western League, John Pool in the latest podcast transcript. What does he think about the latest announcement that no further league matches will take place this season?

Ian Nockolds: “Well, I’m delighted to welcome back to the Toolstation Western League podcast the Chairman of the Toolstation Western League, John Pool. John, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us again. The FA has now recommended that steps three to six of the national league system should be curtailed with immediate effect, with no further league matches taking place this season. Now, this decision needs to be ratified by FA Council, but it does feel like a second null and void to me.”

John Pool: “On the Wednesday night, the clarification was sought, ’what was the difference between null and void, and curtailment?’ And that is really where I think things became somewhat clearer and it was, yet again, back around the restructuring process. By allowing the season to be curtailed, it allowed them to be able to pause the statistics from this last season, but that was where curtailment became the prime reason for the terminology.

“Null and void would have meant, quite simply, that they would have had to expunge all records. Mark Frost, who was chairing the meetings, stated that a feasibility study was going to be undertaken to see whether there was any merit in going forward with a restructuring process. He did make the point that it will be applicable to only steps four to six. It makes sense that you could not go ahead with the restructuring process unless step four was included.”

IN: “So, we know, then, that there will be no more league matches this season. But, in terms of next season, the future of our Western League clubs is still potentially open for discussion by the Football Association. So, if they are undertaking a feasibility study into the restructuring, does that mean that we could still see clubs move from our First Division into our Premier Division, potentially from our Premier Division into the Southern League and possibly other leagues?”

JP: “I think if they go ahead with the restructuring, I think that is inevitable. There’s a real determination, in my view, and I think it’s a view that we all share from the Western League Board, its that they desperately want to get this other step five division up and running in the Thames Valley area. And they also want to be looking at the other division in what I think is the North and the Midlands at step four.

“They aren’t going to be satisfied until such time that they can get that moving. The effect that that’s going to have is, looking from the outside in, the Hellenic League probably are going to take the biggest hit by having to offer clubs up to this new Thames Valley Super League. Therefore, it would mean that the clubs could be vulnerable from a Western League perspective in being taken into the Hellenic League, as would be the Combined Counties to the Hellenic League.

“So, that’s about as much as I can say in terms of the effect that it would have on the Western League clubs. I have spoken to the Hellenic League to ask if they’ve got any plans – they say they haven’t. But you’d have to draw your own conclusions as regards to the position that some of our clubs find themselves in the footprint that’s been created for the Western League and the Hellenic League.”

IN: “In the conversations that you’ve had with the FA, John, has there been any indication of whether this restructuring exercise will be made compulsory for clubs?”

JP: “One question was posed about compulsory promotion, and the answer that came back is nobody would be made to take promotion. They did add the rider that nobody would be relegated. That was a statement that came from them, there will be no clubs relegated. I can’t really say, Ian, to be quite honest, because everything appears to be quite vague at the moment with regards to this restructuring process. We know what the plans are, they’ve laid that out. But whether they’re going to use the present situation and apply different terms and conditions? I can’t really answer that to be quite honest, because I don’t know what their thinking is. I don’t see any reason why they should, if they want to push on with it, but to go and say that they won’t force any club to go up, I mean, if they said to one of the Western League clubs, ’laterally you’ve got to move,’ does that give them the right to say ’no, we aren’t going to’? I don’t know.”

IN: “Hopefully, that’s one of the questions that the FA’s feasibility study will clear up. So, it might well be something that we return to in further interviews. But if we pick up on one of the topics from previous interviews, we discussed the consultation exercise that the FA undertook with clubs in January, and I know that that was part of their decision to curtail the season along with other factors. Has there been any indication about what the overall results were for that exercise, but I suppose more important for us, what our member clubs said as part of that exercise?”

JP: “In terms of the overall position of step five, null and void came through 53% in favour. With regards to the Western League, null and void went 61%, leaving the rest split between the August restart and then there were other options that were put forward. All different proposals that were being talked about at the time. We’ve never ever been in a position to be able to have access to how the club’s voted, it was between the clubs and the FA.”

IN: “Moving forward, then, I’m sure that you were like me, listening to the Prime Minister make the announcement about how we were going to come out of lockdown. And of course, one of the most eye-catching announcements as part of that was the revelation that outdoor sport would recommence on March 29th. Now, I know plenty of people in the game are trying to work out exactly what that means. So, I did a bit of digging myself into the Government’s statement, it’s a 68-page document, but it does make one interesting reference to outdoor sports. It says that formally organised outdoor sports for adults and under-eighteens can restart and will not be subject to the gatherings limits, but should be compliant with guidance issued by national governing bodies. So, my reading of that, John, is that we’re back to square one waiting on guidance from the FA, not just in terms of when spectators can enter and the social distancing that we, as fans, might need to adhere to, but actually also, we’re waiting to hear for players when they can start training and when they can use things like changing rooms again. Is that your reading of where we are in terms of restarting football?”

JP: “Exactly where we are. Apart from what everybody’s been made aware of, in terms of the press releases, we’re void of information as well. The one thing that wasn’t said was whether they were continuing to have meetings with the DCMS. The reason I say that is because there’s the potential for them to be able to negotiate, possibly, with regards to the opening of club houses and taking spectators back in, but at the moment, the national guidance is that from levels three to six, we are where we are. So your interpretation of it is exactly the same as ours.”

IN: “There are clubs out there that are keen to organise friendlies, and I know that there are plenty of people who’d like to see tournaments put in place over the final weeks of the season. Have the Western League board had any thoughts along those lines?”

JP: “Yes, we did, I say we, I mean, a couple of colleagues did a lot of work on this. And we came up with various options and we put together what we consider to be an extremely good format. But the problem we have is, again, referencing clubhouses and spectators. There’s no clarification on when fans are coming in or not. Against which we have clubs still in the FA Vase and the intention is to continue with the Les Phillips Cup, so that we can get that completed. Therefore, it was felt that, at this point in time, for us to launch any other competitions, would probably mean that some clubs would choose not to participate, it just didn’t appear to be what would be considered the best solution.”

IN: “So, hopefully, Western League sides will still be playing in the FA vase and I think it is fantastic news that we’re actually able to talk about finishing something – we haven’t been able to finish something for two seasons. If we can finish that Les Phillips Cup, that’s fantastic. But for those other clubs that do want to play, I suppose the message really is that once we’ve actually got that clarity from the Football Association, then clubs will be able to see a way back to playing local friendly matches again.”

JP: “Yes, as long as everything is sanctioned. Clubs just need to be a little bit careful with what they’re doing, because obviously there’s insurance issues and everything else, liability issues. Everybody wants to play football again and for us to be trying to launch any competition that is not going to get complete support, it would seem a bit pointless when, as I just stated, we’ve got clubs that are already going to be participating, albeit not everybody I appreciate, in competitions anyway. And there’s nothing stopping any of these clubs from getting together and organising their own competitions. You have to bear in mind that the conditions, the Government legislation is going to prevail at this point in time.”

IN: “I think we’ll finish then by looking forward, not just to the opportunities that we hope exist for play to continue in the next few weeks. But perhaps the bigger question is what we’re going to be faced with next season. We’ve talked about the restructuring, and I appreciate very little is known about that. I’m sure that you’ll return to the podcast to talk about that in the future. Was there any indication given as to what might happen if we have any more Covid interruptions next winter?”

JP: “You’d expect me to say yes, wouldn’t you! If I could take you back to the previous week, not last Wednesday’s, but the previous meeting. They started that meeting off by asking two questions. One was, how would you want to see the season concluding, that was the present season, and how would you want to see the new season started? The second question, I think, got one response from one league. The only sensible statement that’s gone forward was somebody suggested that there should be an emergency set of plans drawn up, which will be applicable to any situation similar to, heaven forbid, an outbreak like we’ve just experienced now. One could only assume that they won’t get caught out again. They’d got themselves in this position, simply because they didn’t do that after the last experience. I can’t believe that they would put themselves in that position again. But in answer to your question, are there any contingencies? I think there’s an assumption that everything will be alright in August. I mean, that’s not been said to be fair, but I think that that might be the view, that they would consider come August, everything would be back to normal. But that still doesn’t eliminate the fact that they should be putting something in place in the event of. At the moment, the answer is no. No contingencies in place.”

IN: “John, thanks very much, again, for your time. I don’t like to finish on a negative note, because we know that the situation in this country is improving every day, and we can only hope that we get back to normality, as the Prime Minister wants on schedule. I suppose, the greatest positives that we have to reflect upon, is that we still hope to see our clubs in competitive action in the Vase and to get that Les Phillips Cup completed. I think if we can do that, then that will be a celebration for our league.”

JP: “I agree with that. I think every time you invite me to come on, there’s so much negativity, there’s so many questions that sit out there all the time. We’re trying to beaver away to try to get to a point where any decisions that we make, are based against factual information, but trying to get information, and you have to appreciate sometimes it may be difficult for the FA as well, it’s been very, very difficult and still continues to be very difficult. This is the first bit of clarity we had that we aren’t going to play anymore league games, but it certainly hasn’t given us all the answers.”