Dolly Blues can only sit and wait for outcome of National League's vote on whether to scrap season

Lancaster City and the rest of clubs at steps three to six in non-league will await news on the future of the National League season with bated breath.
Lancaster City boss Mark FellLancaster City boss Mark Fell
Lancaster City boss Mark Fell

Clubs at steps one and two – bracketed with the Premier League and the EFL as elite – are set to vote on whether to scrap the 2020-21 campaign.

Already around a third of the way through, the National League North and South seasons have been suspended for the past two weeks due to a dispute over funding to help the clubs negate the fact that they have no matchday income due to the ban on fans being allowed inside grounds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Initially handed a £10m Government bailout to help them through the first three months of the season, several clubs have baulked at news that a new £11m rescue package will be distributed as loans rather than as grants.

The likelihood is that the majority of clubs across the three divisions in the National League will vote to have the campaign declared as null and void, meaning no promotion or relegation.

That will have a knock-on effect on the rest of football underneath that level.

With no hope of winning promotion to the National League, there would be little point in re-starting the NPL Premier Division season, which has been in cold storage since the beginning of November.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last week, hopes had been raised that the campaign in steps three to six could reconvene at some point after the Government announced that money would be available in the form of grants to clubs.

The Northern Premier League has officially suspended the present season until March 6 with the country under lockdown measures.

“We will be bound by what the National League do,” said Lancaster boss Mark Fell.

“History will tell you that the Northern Premier League will follow suit and obviously it will have such a big impact in terms of promotion and relegation that they will have to do that.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I said last week that there is a cloud of uncertainty and we are not much further on.

“I think it will take a week or two for the National League to decide what they are going to do and then we will have to wait for that.

“They have said 28 days to decide but I don’t know why that is because a lot of the clubs have already come out and said how they are going to vote publicly.

“I am sure it could be done within a week.

“But there are so many variables, that is one.

“The other variables are this financial package which we can apply for but it’s not to get us through the season, it’s to help us stay afloat.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Then obviously you have got the variables of lockdown and the Government and when we potentially come out of that.

“There is a glimmer of hope with the plan for schools to go back on March 8, so there might be an idea in terms of the lifting of restrictions but again it is just a waiting game for us.

“We are the ones who have no input or influence on what happens.”