National League

7 matches tonight. 6 postponed.

On a positive, Dover’s game went ahead so they have made it to 11.

It should be renamed the National Southern League as there are so few away games for us to go to next season.
Excluding southern exciles of course.

Talk about bad luck....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55531899

The Tinpot League (shudder at the thought of future involvement)

Quoted from promotion plaice

Talk about bad luck....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55531899

We’d get fined for that

I see the National League North & South are consulting clubs about what they want to do. Groundswell of opinion seems to be for abandoning the season.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I see the National League North & South are consulting clubs about what they want to do. Groundswell of opinion seems to be for abandoning the season.

god, we could do with some good news like that


ps 3 out of 7 of Tuesday's conference fixtures have already been postponed

Quoted from forza ivano

god, we could do with some good news like that


ps 3 out of 7 of Tuesday's conference fixtures have already been postponed

And most of them are busy wasting their time playing (or not playing in some cases) FA Trophy matches today.

only 1 out of 2 national league games goes ahead, and half of the fa trophy games have been postponed

Surely still playing the Trophy this year shows the ineptitude and ignorance of the FA?

Without Covid there would be a mass of games off this weekend though.

7 National League matches tomorrow night. 4 already called off due to "other".

Quoted from GollyGTFC

7 National League matches tomorrow night. 4 already called off due to "other".

Dover have only played 12 games, with a further 34 remaining. It's genuinely hard to see how that division is going to be completed anything like on schedule, if at all.

Quoted from Poojah

Dover have only played 12 games, with a further 34 remaining. It's genuinely hard to see how that division is going to be completed anything like on schedule, if at all.

Plenty of teams managed a huge pile up in 2013. Guernsey was the worst case I remember

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/20/greatest-fixture-pile-ups-history-redux

Not just saying this because of our position.

But cancelling non-league would mean no relegation from league 2, but promotions and relegation from other leagues can go ahead... makes sense to me

Selfishly I really hope this happens. Would get us out of this awful position we are in. Would be a massive bullet dodge cos even without COVID, Holloway would have fcuked us

Quoted from Jarmo.Is.God

Not just saying this because of our position.

But cancelling non-league would mean no relegation from league 2, but promotions and relegation from other leagues can go ahead... makes sense to me

Seems good to me. I don't know how but can somebody get a petition up to null and void the national leagues.

Quoted from GrimRob

Plenty of teams managed a huge pile up in 2013. Guernsey was the worst case I remember

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/20/greatest-fixture-pile-ups-history-redux

The difference is though that it's not just one team facing a pile-up and unlike with the weather, which generally picks up in March time, we're still going to face postponements due to positive testing for a while yet.

Accommodating a pile up of fixtures for one or two teams is manageable if difficult.  When it's the whole league that's facing a pile-up that is only going to get worse, I can't see how it can be done.  The only realistic options are to a) have a lengthy mid-season break or b) write it off.

Option A just kicks the can down the road.  You delay this season, then the next season is delayed and so on.  That's not even taking into account that you might restart it in April but be faced with another delay in May.

It's crap, but scrap the season now.  By August we should (everything crossed!) be in a far better position to have a disruption free season, hopefully with fans back.

I'd imagine by August mass gatherings will be allowed and we can't start the season under normal circumstances with proper crowds and postponements due to self-isolation won't be happening anymore.

I do think I wouldn't be so keen on abandonment if we weren't threatened with relegation. Having said that, take Dover for example, they have to fit 34 games into just over 4 months, that's Saturday-Tuesday for the rest of the season already, and that's assuming no more postponements for any reason. It just seems it's too much of a stretch for them with COVID and crap pitches.

If I look at it objectively, I can't see, without a long extension, how that season finishes and with a long extension it means delaying next season as well. Surely they'll have to abandon it and just start afresh next August? I certainly hope so.

Imagine trying to rearrange Dover's fixtures.

Play Team A next Saturday — sorry, Team A are fulfilling one of their own postponed fixtures from earlier in the season. How about Team B? They've got an FA Trophy game. Team C? They've got a regular fixture that day.

Ok, is Team D available? Yes!

Finally the day comes, Dover v Team D... and it's postponed because of frozen pitch. Or covid.

And that's just Dover. Imagine looking at it from the other team's point of view - 'We need to squeeze the Dover fixture in somehow, but they're never available because they're always playing some other team!!!'

The longer the season goes and the more games are postponed I see less and less chance of a season being completed.

It’s hard to see now without any more postponements.

If the National League is voided does that mean there will be no relegation from League Two?

Quoted from Grantham_Mariner

If the National League is voided does that mean there will be no relegation from League Two?

Yes, as void would result in no promotion.

If its completed using PPG for example then that would have promotion and relegation to and from. However with so few games completed that is almost impossible for them to do.

All depends if they can get games in, with covid and the all ready crammed fixtures I doubt it.

Quoted from Poojah

Dover have only played 12 games, with a further 34 remaining. It's genuinely hard to see how that division is going to be completed anything like on schedule, if at all.

And their first game against Macclesfield (bye) is this Saturday, so they have a blank weekend.

Quoted from GrimRob

Plenty of teams managed a huge pile up in 2013. Guernsey was the worst case I remember

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/20/greatest-fixture-pile-ups-history-redux

The weather got better at the end of March 2013. When is COVID going to get better to the point that matches won't be postponed?

There's a lot of mental energy being wasted on what if's and maybes here. Until we hear differently we have to amass points and get ourselves out of the sh*t.

Think the government Grant's for the national league only ran until December and reports suggest  the next tranche could he loans not grants. Several clubs have issued a joint statement on this and suggested that they could even refuse to play if it turns out to be a loan.

Looks like the reasons for suspension are starting to mount.

I’m afraid every club,  our league or National will have their own agenda regarding continuation,cancelling or a PPG format. I just think the EFL and National league should have stated before the start of the season what would happen in certain circumstances, that way clubs, supporters etc would know what set of rules/ criteria they were working to.

I know that slightly further down the pyramid clubs were looking to just play each team once and then have the league finish on that. We're going to need to get the points to stay in the league.

Those ‘grants’ are in fact loans.



https://twitter.com/ollie_bayliss/status/1351230437310558212?s=21

PSG I honestly think that's disgraceful, I would bet that many of those clubs would never have agreed to start the season if that had been made clear in August.

In fact I think it's a downright betrayal.

It's not about whether they can complete the season, it's whether they can get to a point where PPG can be used to determine the table (probably around 2/3rds of fixtures completed).  That's why our position is even more perilous than it would be in normality: we might not have the rest of our fixtures to turn it around.  2/3rds of the season is about 31 games, we've played 24.  

Quoted from psgmariner

Those ‘grants’ are in fact loans.

Are they benign ones?

Quoted from MarinerDevil

It's not about whether they can complete the season, it's whether they can get to a point where PPG can be used to determine the table (probably around 2/3rds of fixtures completed).  That's why our position is even more perilous than it would be in normality: we might not have the rest of our fixtures to turn it around.  2/3rds of the season is about 31 games, we've played 24.  

If the football league played 46 games would they be obliged to accept someone "promoted" from a lower league who had only played 31 or so games?

There is some wriggle room:

If any of the foregoing conditions are not met by one or both of the clubs eligible to apply for promotion, the number of Clubs required to retire from League Two may, in the Board’s absolute discretion, be reduced accordingly and no other Clubs from The National League shall be eligible to join The League for the ensuing Season.

There are various conditions but I would argue that a "champion" cannot be for anything less than 46 games, and likewise the play-offs.

https://www.efl.com/-more/governance/efl-rules--regulations/section-3---the-league/