NL Clubs meeting this afternoon

[Elite_Pie]

Ollie Bayliss
@Ollie_Bayliss
·
31m
At present, the National League expects clubs to fulfill fixtures.

There's significant risk for any club refusing to play at this stage.

If they are deemed to have breached rule 8.39, they could be punished with expulsion, a 3 points deduction or a fine.

So why didn't they step in and order Yeovil to play us or forfeit the points?

[Mapperleypie]

I can see plenty of teams having 'covid in the camp' this weekend. Why would you want to run the risk of injury and pay player bonuses and match day running costs for what looks like it will turn out to be nothing but a glorified friendly.

[upthemaggies]

Ollie Bayliss
@Ollie_Bayliss

Havant & Waterlooville says it's "not safe to play in this current climate".
The club says it won’t play their next 3 fixtures (Concord, Dorking & Braintree)
The Board has decided that the club will put itself into a ‘10 day self-isolation break’.

[Elite_Pie]

Ollie Bayliss
@Ollie_Bayliss

Havant & Waterlooville says it's "not safe to play in this current climate".
The club says it won’t play their next 3 fixtures (Concord, Dorking & Braintree)
The Board has decided that the club will put itself into a ‘10 day self-isolation break’.

Interesting to see what the NL make of this, also interesting because we're due to play them in 16 days time.

[upthemaggies]

Slough Town in a letter to the National League: "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."

[upthemaggies]

So it's now beginning to be reported that three NL South clubs are refusing to play on Saturday: Concord Rangers, Slough Town and Havant & W. The first two are just above the one relegation place, Havant are just outside the play-offs and have played 5 less games than a couple of teams above them, so they would have a lot of catching up to do if they refuse to play the next three.

[upthemaggies]

Dorking Wanderers suggested yesterday having an "opt out" for clubs who didn't want to carry on, allowing the rest to continue.

[upthemaggies]

Jon Dunham (Northamptonshire Telegraph)
The National League have lost control and really don't know what to do about it. Fair play to clubs taking a stand. Finances, testing, you name it, it's not there. If the National League want their divisions to be 'elite' then they should start acting like it

Alan Parry-Jones (Chester fan)
The problem is that nobody trusts the National League Board after their incompetent allocation of the Lottery funding to Member Clubs in October. They have dug themselves a deeper hole now by their vague options going forward with limited back up information available.

[Elite_Pie]

Jon Dunham (Northamptonshire Telegraph)
The National League have lost control and really don't know what to do about it. Fair play to clubs taking a stand. Finances, testing, you name it, it's not there. If the National League want their divisions to be 'elite' then they should start acting like it

Alan Parry-Jones (Chester fan)
The problem is that nobody trusts the National League Board after their incompetent allocation of the Lottery funding to Member Clubs in October. They have dug themselves a deeper hole now by their vague options going forward with limited back up information available.

They are both correct. Whatever the outcome, I can see it being forced by the clubs rather than a decision from the top.

[Ayeayeskipper]

Interesting to see what the NL make of this, also interesting because we're due to play them in 16 days time.

We could see what Yeovil are up to that day.