The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Studley on 2nd January 2006.
My subject this week is the restructuring of Non-League football. Unless you’re completely new to the joys of football life below the top four divisions of English football, you’ll be aware that, at the end of the 2003-2004 season, the FA co-ordinated a reorganisation of steps 1 to 4 of what is now known as “the National Game”. What we gained was a recognisable pyramid structure with there being two step 2 leagues feeding the Conference (step 1), three step 3 leagues feeding step 2 and four step 4 leagues feeding step 3. The key driving force behind these changes was to try to rationalise the Non-League game such that travelling distances would be reduced for the majority of smaller clubs and to provide a common framework for progression for all clubs irrespective of geography in terms of the facilities required to proceed to the top of the pyramid. Last season was the first one under this new structure and it was widely recognised as being a success with many of the leagues involved having far fewer meaningless fixtures towards the end of the season than was previously the case.
Sounds pretty logical and straight forward so far doesn’t it? Well even these simple improvements were not without controversy. The Ryman (Isthmian) League in particular almost imploded with many of its member clubs finding themselves at odds with their league’s management committee. Have a bit of sympathy for the various league management committees will you? You work hard for the benefit of your member clubs for years (decades in many cases) and along comes some Johnny-come-lately from the FA to tell you that he’s going to take all of your best clubs and move the status of your league down a level! Hardly news to gladden the heart is it? It’s a credit to both the FA and the various league management committees that they managed to reach agreement at all!
So that was steps 1 to 4 sorted out but the FA’s job was far from done. The new structure meant that there were 15 step 5 leagues fighting over 8 promotion places to the four step 4 leagues every season. The prospect of winning your league by a street and then not getting promoted because of a play-off defeat is a difficult one for step 5 clubs to take (it nearly happened to Rushall Olympic at the end of last season!). There has been much debate as to the best way of resolving the problem. The latest turn of events is that the FA have sanctioned one new league at step 4 feeding into the Ryman (Isthmian) League. This would create, for one season only, 30 promotion places for the 15 step 5 leagues and would necessitate a general shuffling of step 4 clubs to accommodate the new entrants. As you might imagine, when the FA invited step 5 clubs to apply for promotion to the new step 4 structure, a huge number of clubs threw their hat into the ring. In the end, 99 applications were received by the FA’s November 30th deadline, plus a further 5 applications that arrived late. 11 of the 99 applications were from Midland Alliance clubs and we understand that Racing Club Warwick is one of the unfortunate clubs whose application arrived late. So overall then, 104 applications were made for a possible 30 promotion places! Given the enthusiasm for promotion, the Unibond league has recently requested a sixth step 4 league. In the unlikely event that their request is immediately granted this would increase the number of promotion places to around 50.
You will understand therefore that the FA has to narrow down the field and must be seen to be as fair as possible whilst doing so. There are essentially two criteria by which this will be done. The first one, thankfully, relates to playing ability. Clubs wishing to be considered for promotion must finish in the top 3 places in their current league. However, then it starts to get more complicated since the FA are also willing to consider clubs finishing below the top 3 due to “geographical considerations”. I’m not entirely sure what this means but, given that the new step 4 league will feed into the Ryman (Isthmian) League, one is left wondering whether members of the current Ryman League Division Two (a step 5 league like the Midland Alliance) may end with a better chance of promotion than clubs in our league.
And the second criteria? Well this is the one that spells bad news for our beloved Racing Club Warwick. Clubs will also be required to achieve a ground grading of at least Category E. Now don’t forget that Racing Club were members of the Southern League as recently as 2003 (when we were effectively at step 3!). You may therefore be under the misapprehension that Townsend Meadow is up to the standard required. Not so! Amongst the detailed requirements of Category E there are several that are a problem for us including:
Ø The ground must be enclosed
by a permanent boundary preventing people from viewing the match from outside
the ground – hedges, shrubs and/or trees are not acceptable!
Ø There must be a working
emergency lighting system in all spectator areas
Ø Toilet facilities: For Gents
there must be 2 urinals and a WC together with 2 WCs for the Ladies – we’re OK
on this point until we learned that facilities provided in the clubhouse are
excluded!
Ø Provision should be made for
separate dressing rooms for male and female match officials (what does “should”
mean here? Is this mandatory or just an FA preference?)
Ø Our floodlighting would also probably need to be upgraded
My quick estimate of these points alone comes to over £30,000, roughly an entire season’s playing budget for a club like ours and, even if we had the money, a lot of money to spend if you might end up finishing outside of the top 3. What’s worse, especially if you’re a ground-hopper like me, is that there are plenty of clubs at step 4 who don’t currently attain these standards in my humble opinion.
I’m sure that some of you reading this will be saying to yourselves that we can wait until we’re sure of a top 3 position and then do the upgrade in the summer with a fall-back ground-share arrangement in place to ensure that we’re ready for the start of 2006-2007. Well think again! Ground-sharing is not permitted as a means of gaining promotion (or to retain membership at a particular step) and a ground-sharing agreement must have been in place for at least one full season prior to promotion. All work needing to be done must be complete by 1st April 2006 at the latest. So what do we do? Plough all available cash into the ground to the detriment of the team, thereby removing any prospect of finishing in the top 3 for this season at least (and ignoring contracted commitments!)? Tricky isn’t it! Any philanthropic Russian billionaires out there with cash to burn? Please?
Keep the faith!
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