The 2020 season was curtailed, arising from the Covid-19 lockdown, after our trip to Maidenhead on 14th March. At the time of writing, (May 17th), the season has been declared null and void although issues of promotion and relegation, (if any), remain in the air. We are awaiting the decision of the Premier League, who are possessed with finishing the season and keeping their hands on TV money. It has been a singularly unsavoury episode at a time when frankly there are more important things to think about. Maybe by the time this is published things will be clearer.

Whatever the case I believe that this will lead to a re-basing and restructuring of the English game. Even before the pandemic there were signs coming out of UEFA that the European Champions League, (which as an aside is not solely for champions nor a league), is potentially to restrict entry to an invitation only basis from 2024. So, there will be no more Leicester’s coming from nowhere to win the League and then play in the ECL. It will be the selected big boys only. There is only one conclusion – it is the first step on the road to a European league.

At the same time clubs further down the hierarchy are struggling to find the next penny to stay in business. Andy Holt, the Chairman of Accrington Stanley, is a real voice of reason in this debate and well worth listening to. The day before writing this he tweeted:

Anyone that puts sporting integrity and football in the same sentence is deluded. They’d shoot their grandmothers for 3 points. Clubs are blowing their brains in, losing fortunes. In the name of sporting integrity. Clubs are selling stadia and warping ffp rules in the name of sporting integrity. Clubs are suing each other in the name of sporting integrity. Clubs are threatening to sue @EFL in the name of sporting integrity. Clubs go behind each other’s backs to nick players in the name of sporting integrity.  If you’re looking for sporting integrity, you need to look everywhere else with a fine tooth comb… …and when you find none, take a look at football. ***EXPECT TO BE DISAPPOINTED*** It’s about MONEY. It’s a FINANCIAL WAR, not a SPORTING BATTLE. Further up, it gets WORSE

He then went on to the future and there’s so much common sense here.

We need to emerge from this #Covid_19 disaster with a new sense of pride, unified in our desire to make a better future.  We need to resolve that no owner be allowed to destroy a community club ever again.  We need collective VISION and INTEGRITY.

He’s spot on ‘Vision’ and ‘Integrity’ are not only needed but absolutely fundamental. The game has been swamped with cash in the last three decades, but there is precious little evidence that much of it has been used to underpin what is supposed to be the national game. Sky have had the rights for nearly 30 years, and latterly BT have come into it as well. Just where has all this cash gone? Dividends to foreign owners; the swamping of the English game by absolutely nondescript foreign players who offer little, but take eye watering pay. The creation of franchise outfits. We all thought the creation of MK Dons was a disgrace, (as indeed it was), but what has happened at the top level is equally, if not more, pernicious.

So I can see a real opportunity to restructure the English game when some semblance of normality returns. But it will demand change, and not only that an appetite for and a willingness for that change. I’d wave goodbye to the big boys; let them form their European league, and good riddance to those who have, in my opinion, destroyed the English game. I’d then restructure the remaining clubs in the EFL; introduce regional football by joining League 2 and the National League together in say League 2 North and South, with 2 up from each of them into League 1. Similarly it’s be 2 down from each in to National League North and South.

The whole system would have to be underpinned by effective governance; the introduction of a meaningful and effective ‘fit and proper’ persons test for ownership; and a financial control structure which absolutely precludes cash being introduced into clubs by ground selling and nefarious sponsorship deals which enable rich owners to bypass FFP rules. I would end the complete iniquity of parachute payments. All they provide for is a ‘yo-yo’ situation and unfair competition. To remove these would undoubtedly make clubs operate in a far more financially responsible manner. No gambling on paying big wages, secure in the knowledge that if relegation does happen the financial impact is cushioned, and giving an unfair advantage in terms of competition in the lower division.

The evidence of the last few years is sufficient to know that English football has been in the wrong hands. Now is the time and opportunity to return it to the community, with League clubs being the pinnacle locally, but supplemented by an infrastructure which supports the game down to the grassroots, and schools and junior football too.

But that is for the future. 2020 for me extended to 7 games before the closedown. County were well placed for a run to the play-offs, being 7th when the lockdown came. It promised to be an exciting end to the season, and with all-ticket games at Barrow and Chesterfield to come, it was a chance for me to get back to some away games. We had played at Dorking; Maidenhead; Ebbsfleet; Hartlepool; Halifax; and Dagenham. I’d missed those after falling victim to some bug or other. Dorking and Maidenhead would have been new territory for me.But I did manage to get to Wincham Park, Northwich for a Cheshire Cup game, (and remember those games count under My Rules!). That was ground number 180 on my travels over the years.

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HOME

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COMPETITION	P	W	D	L	F	A	Ave Crowd
TIER 5	5	1	2	2	3	6	4,656
FA TROPHY	1	0	0	1	0	4	1,121
TOTAL	6	1	2	3	3	10	4,067

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For more information on the home games I saw in the 2020 check HERE .  There’s a page for the year, with a brief commentary , together with any other County related stuff that I thought may be of interest.

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AWAY

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COMPETITION	P	W	D	L	F	A	Ave Crowd
CHESHIRE SENIOR CUP	1	0	0	1	0	1	202

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For more information on the single away game I saw in the 2020 check HERE .  There’s a page for the year, with a brief commentary , together with any other County related stuff that I thought may be of interest.

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ALL GAMES

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COMPETITION	P	W	D	L	F	A	Ave Crowd
TIER 5	5	1	2	2	3	6	4,656
FA TROPHY	1	0	0	1	0	4	1,121
CHESHIRE SENIOR CUP	1	0	0	1	0	2	202
TOTAL	7	1	2	4	3	12	3,515

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WHERE THE GAMES WERE

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Ground		Opponents	P	W	D	L
Edgeley Park			6	1	2	3
Wincham Park		Northwich Victoria	1	0	0	1