Was The FA Too Hasty To ‘Null and Void’ Non-League Over COVID-19?

With the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 virus growing increasingly severe by each passing day (virtually placing people on lockdown in their own homes), the Football Association have taken the decision to nulland void the 2019-20 season for all non-league teams in steps 3 and below, as well as the women’s leagues below The Championship.

Whilst there’s obviously more than football to worry about with this emergency, with nothing else to do but stay inside for most people, it’s not really a surprise there’s been much speculation on the status of the 2019-20 season.

It’s the haste in which the FA have taken the decision to cancel the non-league season that has caught many by surprise – as of yet, there is no firm idea of what will happen with club football at the top levels of the game (the consensus is that the Premier League and The Football League will resume in the summer), which makes the decision to cancel the non-league football season now all the more perplexing.

Why Has The Non-League Season Been Cancelled?

It’s important to acknowledge what a difficult decision the FA faced – there are thousands of clubs that make up the leagues below step 2 of the non-league pyramid and wiping all those results from the records must have been a result of a great amount of deliberation.

But let’s not kid ourselves here; money is the biggest driver in most decisions in football and it’s no coincidence that the part-time leagues were the first to fall. It’s not just the television deals and sponsorships that the professional club garner that make deciding what to do with their seasons more difficult – but also for the fact they’re able to employ vast legal teams to challenge any decision they may find unfavourable.

Also, cancelling the season now provides leagues with the chance to start afresh next season – no having to reschedule fixtures and no having to fit in 2-3 games a week to squeeze everything in. Even if football could resume in the next few months, it’s unlikely that crowds would be allowed back – just like how television provides lifeblood to the Premier League, crowds are the income provider for the non-league game.

Solid enough reasons you might think, so why’s the cancelling been seen as problematic?

The Problem With Cancelling The Football Season

The biggest issue I have with what the FA have done, is that the decision seems to have been made too quickly – the clubs weren’t even consulted and were taken by surprise as much as everyone else was. If you’re making a decision that will affect the status of people, surely you would garner a majority view before you proceed?

The problem with cancelling football at this moment is that we’re in the backend of the season – it would have been easier to cancel it a few weeks or months in, but many clubs only have 10 matches left. A number of them have either already won promotion, are miles clear at the top, locked in promotion battles – or are completely marooned at the bottom of their leagues (somehow, I don’t think they’ll mind the season being cancelled!)

It has to be said – nulling and voiding makes a mockery of their efforts throughout the season; all those games and goals will be wiped off the records. For many clubs, this season could conceivably be the difference in them grabbing the opportunity to progress, building themselves a long-term future – or not. Many have already spent what little money they have to upgrade their facilities to fill the grading requirements of the league above – wiping the records for this season makes it more difficult for them to win promotion next season, leaving them with massive bills to pay (with less income that they would have got at the level above, had they won promotion).

Although I think that ending the season may prove to be the right decision for non-league (we’ve no idea when football may resume at all levels), nulling and voiding was not the right way to go about it. Ending the season as it was or using a points-per-game model is much better than completely wiping the records, surely? I’m of the opinion in their haste to be seen to be doing something, the FA panicked.

The Reaction To The FA Cancelling Non-League

As you might imagine, quite a lot of clubs aren’t best pleased with the decision. South Shields, who are leading the Northern Premier League Premier Division by 12 points, are heading a legal challenge on behalf of clubs who want to challenge the nulling and voiding. The open letter, signed by representatives of 66 clubs, have accused the FA of [taking the decision in] ‘needless and inexplicable haste’, [with] ‘a total lack of substantive dialogue or consultation with affected clubs’ and [having] ‘no consensus’ with the leagues.

I wish them all the best, although sadly, I don’t hold out much hope – it isn’t a coincidence that the status of professional football (which includes many clubs in the National Leagues) is still up in the air. As mentioned, these clubs and leagues have the resources to make more of a challenge if they deem they’re being handed a raw deal. This doesn’t make it right; I think all levels of football should be treated the same because otherwise, what’s the point in us having a competitive pyramid if everyone can't move within it? 

What’s your opinion on the non-league season being cancelled? Was it the right decision? Should the FA have waited or ended the leagues in another way? Leave your comment below or tweet me @pints_pies

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The English Game (Netflix) - Review

Football is in its infancy, an amateur game dominated by the upper class teams who invented its rules.

Arthur Kinnaird, the captain of the Old Etonians, has played in more FA Cup Finals than any other player, and won the cup three times.

Until 1879, no working class team had ever reached the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup.

And so begins The English Game, Netflix’s historical drama on the early days of association football and how it moved from the public schools to bfellecome ‘the working class game’ it has been perceived to be ever since. Developed by Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame), the six-part series places its focus on two figures at opposite ends of the social scale; the aforementioned (future Lord) Kinnaird and Fergus Suter; a Scottish player who moves south in the pursuit of fortune.

After codifying a set of rules from the various forms of football played throughout the country, the Football Association quickly recognised that their game needed a ‘Challenge Cup’ to take place for its members. Initially featuring alumni from public schools, the FA Cup opened up to include teams from working class towns and cities to broaden the game’s appeal. Competing was difficult for the working class, however – as their players had shift work for 6 days-a-week, travelling south to meet these well-honed Gentlemen and beat them in a match was a difficult prospect. Then local business owners hit upon the idea of compensating their players for loss time so they could take time off work to practice – something that the Gentlemen objected to, and quickly outlawed the practice…

The story initially focuses on Suter's move to the Lancashire mill town of Darwen, and the football team's Quarter-Final clash against Kinnaird's Old Etonians. Later, the series charts Suter's move to Darwen's rivals 'Blackburn' (a composite team of Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic) – bringing into focus the growing professionalism in the game and the northern clubs' ambition to establish themselves as leaders on the pitch.

Although the series plays fast-and-loose with some historical facts (more about this is an upcoming blog post), the detail in which they go to present a genuine 19^th century spectacle should be admired. Aside from things like the costumes and social etiquette being portrayed to a tee (again, no surprise, what with it involving Julian Fellowes), they didn’t compromise anything to present a realistic portrayal of what the play would have looked like. I particularly enjoyed a reference to Arthur Kinnaird’s ‘handstand’ goal celebration – which I saw at the National Football Museum recently.

Kinnaird (played by Edward Holcroft) is arguably the main driver of the story as his outlook on life changes from someone willing to gain an advantage any way he can, to someone who is willing to lose if it means to play fair – as a proper Gentlemen should. Conversely, Suter (Kevin Guthrie) is the working class hero that seems to be more of a Gentleman – despite him wrestling with guilt at being a professional footballer, whilst his Darwen teammates get nothing. The rest of the plot features Kinnaird and his wife’s attempts to have children, Suter’s REAL reason for moving south, his relationships with the locals, the labour conditions of the era and the attitude of the upper class towards their game being uspured by the working class.

As for the play presented in the series, the most successful tactics of the time seemed to involve a ‘kick and crowd’ style – reminiscent of what rugby union came to be. Working class teams tended to play the ‘combination game’ (a major reason being that they were not as ‘conditioned’ to play the same way as upper class teams was because they couldn’t train anywhere near as much. So the passing lets the ball do the running, solidifying football as a quick, fast-moving, exciting game to watch). This was explained well in the series, as the attitude towards the play of the working class was summed up by one of the Old Etonians who said “All that absurd passing, it’s nonsense”. How times change!

A major criticism I have of the series is that it leant too much on placing upper class characters as villains. Whilst I do not doubt that many of them did hold the attitude that was shown, I doubt that it would have been as widespread as it seemed to be. Another aspect that needed focusing on was the businessmen who bankrolled these teams – they’re portrayed as benevolent champions of the working class when in reality, it was a means to generate money (for most of them).  Having an upper class vs. working class conflict, with clear positions defined on both sides, just feels a bit cartoonish.

Another issue that I’d like to pick up on is a plot point involving Suter’s reason for moving away from Glasgow to make his money – it has no basis in reality and simply acts as a motivation for his character. Even though these events happened some 140 years ago, it felt somewhat disrespectful to (potentially) besmirch the name of a real, historical family just to give a character some depth.

Overall, The English Game is a decent-enough binge-watch but ultimately feels like a missed opportunity to explore the social impact of the game in the depth that it deserves. It feels very-much like a cut-and-shut of the intricacies of early football and the domestics of Downton Abbey – and it could have easily done without the latter. Concentrating solely on the football would have made for a great vehicle for a feature film and I hope one day that we get to see something like it.

You can watch The English Game on Netflix now.

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Manchester City Women vs. Manchester United Women

Like many people it seems, I was enamoured by this summer’s Women’s World Cup. I watched every England game, gripped by the quick and exciting forward play of The Lionesses  – the strong-running of Lucy Bronze, the midfield-controlling of Jill Scott, the shithousery (and goals) of Ellen White. It was great to watch – so I need to go and see this ‘women playing football spectacle' for myself.

To be honest, I said the same thing four years ago when I stayed up late to watch England’s heartbreaking injury time defeat in the Semi-Final against Japan. But I’m going to do something about it this time – I’m actually going to put some effort in and watch a women’s game in person. Coincidentally, Manchester City are opening their Women’s Super League season against ‘new’ rivals Manchester United – with the match moved to the Etihad Stadium to take advantage of a big crowd. I snapped up a ticket straight away – they were only £7 a pop, after all. 

I’ve long been puzzled as to why it’s taken women’s football so long to establish itself because it’s not like they can’t play. I can only convey my feelings through personal experience; when I was about 8, I played in a team on Saturday mornings on a windswept Wigan school field where even dogs daren’t roam. One week, a girl turned up to play for us – and she was brilliant. Quick and skillful, she caused the opposition lads some real problems down the wing. Being a deep-lying midfielder (before such things were popular – okay I was lazy and didn’t want to run), I just kicked the ball out wide to her and she ran with it, creating several goals. Sadly, she never played for us again (I seem to remember her saying that she wasn’t *usually* allowed? At 8 years old???). 

Anyway, since that brief experience of playing football with a girl, I’ve not been a subscriber to the ‘girls can’t play football’ adage, as they clearly can. Since then, growing up (well, that's debatable – ageing up) and learning more about the game, I was always intrigued by the lack of girls who played football – my child's mind just assumed they didn't want to get dirty.

The reason why women’s football hasn’t established itself (until recent times, at least) was due no in small part to the FA ban on its members clubs from hosting women’s games on their pitches. Despite attracting huge crowds during the First World War, the game was deemed ‘unsuitable’ for females in 1921 by the governing body and a ban was swiftly put out. It took 50 years for it to be lifted and during that time, the men’s game had established itself as England’s leading professional sport. Women had a lot to catch up on.

One of the major criticisms aimed at the women’s game recently (that I’ve seen, anyway) is that it's being promoted ‘beyond its quality as a product’. Whether you think the ‘product’ is any good is a subjective opinion – expecting it to contain the same skill, speed and physicality as the men’s game is ridiculous, in my opinion. It's the same game, yet different. To many, though, women's football simply isn’t ‘as good’ as the men’s game, so isn’t worthy of their attention – but do most people just watch football for the high levels of skill on display? If that was the case, nobody would watch (men's) lower-league games – football does not need to be 'good' to be exciting; being excited is the feeling that we all want to experience when watching games, surely?

I think that the supposed 'over-promotion' of the women’s game can be put down to three points:

• (The obvious one) women’s football needs to catch up after spending half-a-century in the wilderness, so the apparent over-promotion is designed to give an 'artificial boost' to the game.
• The ongoing push for women to achieve equality in society has led to women’s football being marketable. Rightly or wrongly, companies see women's equality as an opportunity to gain brand credibility for a relatively small outlay.
• In competition with the internet and on-demand services, television and media companies are struggling to attain rights to show the world’s most popular sports. The BBC, especially, do not have many major sports to televise beyond football World Cup’s, European Championships, Wimbledon Tennis and Olympics Games. Certainly not enough sport to bring back Grandstand, anyway.

With any popular subject in society these days, it’s the 'not taking the time to understand each other’s points-of-view' that’s the centre of the problem, I feel. I followed social media extremely closely during the World Cup and the number of cheap shots on both sides was something to behold. Comments on every post regarding the tournament were generally ‘don’t care’, ‘it’s shit’, ‘get in the kitchen’, etc.  Understandably (but mistakenly), those on the women's football side nibbled at the bait, sent abuse back and swiftly closed down the avenues for any meaningful conversation.

The BBC then didn’t help matters with clickbaity posts and articles with headlines such as ‘Five Ways Women’s Football Beats Men’s’ – whilst the article itself makes some good points and backs itself up with facts, do they really think click-driven headlines like that will help to educate and change the mind of the football fan who’s already suspecting that the women's game is getting some 'undue coverage'?. No – they’re going to think there’s ‘an agenda’ to over-promote women’s football and ‘do down men because it’s fashionable’. Regardless of whether there’s a trickle of truth in that, I’m with Timmy Thomas on this one – why can’t we live together? Why can’t we enjoy football mutually without resorting to these cheap shots? Why can't we have a reasonable discussion without abuse and blocking? This way, common ground can be sought and when you've got that common ground cleared, you can create a path to walk down together, hand-in-hand to watch the game we all love.

(By the way, fellow Alpha's; this is not me ‘white knighting’ – going out of the way to be all ‘progressive’ to impress women so they’ll like/take pity on me – as I said, I’m perfectly fine with just laying the ball off and letting a woman do all the work).

Speaking of living together, today’s ‘first professional women's Manchester derby’ is being held at the Etihad Stadium – one of a few WSL games to be held at men’s first team grounds on this opening weekend. Clubs are attempting to allow as many people as possible an opportunity to see women’s football for the first time in order to capitalise on the World Cup. Usually, City’s women play at The Academy Stadium – the 7,000-seater stadium across the road from the Etihad that was built for the club’s various youth sides. I’ll be honest here, although I fully understand (and support) the decision to host a big game such as this in a big stadium, I’m slightly disappointed that it’s not being held in The Academy Stadium so I can tick it off the groundhopping list!

It isn't just hosting the bigger games at men's stadiums that's new this season in the WSL; matches will be shown live on BT Sport and at least one a week on the BBC Sport website. This summer also saw the league sign its first overseas television deals – covering Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Highlights will also be made available on the new 'FA Player' – so they're at least getting all the building blocks in place to expand the reach of the league.

The Etihad (or ‘The City of Manchester Stadium’, as it used to be known) is located roughly a mile-and-a-half from the centre of Manchester, so is easy to get to by all forms of transport. On the way into Piccadilly train station, my own train from Wigan is delayed on route by about 40 minutes, so on arrival I’ve got half-an-hour to kick-off. ‘No problem’, thinks I, ‘I’ll get the tram’. On reaching the Metrolink station under Piccadilly, I’m met with a massive queue that snakes around the back of the station – nearly all of them going to the game, from what I can tell.

Despite it being 7 minutes until kick-off by the time I get to board the tram, I somehow manage to still get into the ground and into my seat just before the game starts – I’ve never sat in the Colin Bell Stand before, but if you are and you’re going via the tram, get off at Etihad Campus as it drops you right outside the stand. What immediately hits me about the crowd around the stadium (who are not making a move to actually get in for kick-off!) is that it’s mostly families – not just Mum’s with daughters, as you might automatically expect, but Dad’s with daughters, Dad’s with sons, Mum’s with sons, Mum’s and Dad’s with sons and daughters – the whole Brady Bunch.

The top tiers of the stadium are closed but the rest of the ground looks fairly packed – there’s a mix of City and United supporters dotted around, with the main bulk of United supporters behind one of the goals in the usual away end. As the match starts, it’s immediately noticeable how different the atmosphere is – there’s no thunderous roar on kick-off, it’s mostly children doing the shouting and singing. Yes singing – for some reason, I expected the game to have an atmosphere of the average men’s friendly; bits of shouting, attempts at starting songs, but nothing prolonged and tuneful. Thought I was in the audience for The Voice Kids, at one point.

Both sides start in a cagey fashion; having periods of possession, getting a feel of the ball without creating much. What I do notice is how tactically good the players are; they stick to their positions and individual roles without straying too far and leaving gaps. As I’m surveying my surroundings, I see that there are ads, placed around the stadium, denoting the club as being ‘One City’ – it’s all the same club, rather than two separate entities. With all kinds of families sat around the ground, you’d imagine that this is the sort of ‘crowd’ that women’s football needs to appeal to and attract – this 'One City' promotion clearly aimed to allow them support 'Manchester City', despite the cost of watching top-level men's football becoming increasingly unaffordable for the average family. I just hope that, if it does grow to anywhere near the level of popularity as the men’s game, women’s football continues along these lines and not go down the path of grabbing as much money as it can. The memories that football can give you, when you’re experiencing it with friends and family, is worth more than money – and everyone should have the opportunity experience it.

United were the better side in the first half – their best chance falling to Jane Ross; stood on the penalty spot, she receives the ball from the left, shoots first-time and somehow, Ellie Roebuck (in for the injured England No1 Karen Bardsley), sticks a hand out and deflects it wide. The 19-year-old is called into action again just before half-time; another ball in from the left sees it bobble around in the 6-yard area, United’s Jessica Sigworth is unable to get a decent connection which allows Roebuck to pounce upon it.

What has struck me about the atmosphere so far is that it’s friendly – no venom spat from the stands at the players, no abuse for the referee, no swearing whatsoever. I’m not sure how to feel – on one hand, hearing all of that at a football game makes me embarrassed (and often angry at the utter rubbish some people say), on the other, I can’t deny that it all adds to an intimidating atmosphere that may help to give your side an edge.

Half-time allows me an opportunity to leaf through the programme; a very interesting landscaped-A5 effort for £3. There’s an intriguing read about the first ‘competitive’ meeting of Manchester City Women and the previous incarnation of Manchester United Women in September 1990. With both sides being amateurs, they played on a field in the grounds of Manchester University in front of a crowd of around 150, City edging a thrilling game, 4-3 (is there any other way to describe a 4-3?!). Whilst the City side would go on to morph into the leading side they are today, Manchester United disbanded their women’s side in 2005 – only bringing the team back last season when they easily won The FA Women’s Championship. The re-establishment of this fixture has undoubtedly created much interest going forwards; it just needs time to grow as its own ‘rivalry’, and not as simply a mirror of the men’s fixture. (I just hope it’ll be a 'friendly rivalry' – I don’t want to see H&M-wearing teenage girls throwing shade at each other, like the Stone Island-wearing teenage boys do near men’s football grounds). 

City start the second half more urgently – ensuring they’re quicker to the ball and moving it at a faster pace. It becomes apparent that they’re technically the better side – and they’re immediately rewarded for their approach. Two minutes of the second half have been played as City probe around their opponents penalty area, United clearing away a loose ball – but it’s cut out on the left by Caroline Weir who proceeds to take another touch to bring herself inside, before firing the ball from almost 30 yards – and into the corner of the net. It was a strike worthy of any seen at this stadium in recent times and it’s quite rightly met with exuberant, youthful cheers from the H&M Ultras.

The attendance is announced as being over 31,000 – a record crowd for a regular women's league fixture, producing the biggest cheer of the day (bar the goal, of course!). In the week (as well as in the programme), the club said that they were expecting 20-25,000 to turn up (perhaps this explains the queues for the tram earlier?!), so it’s great to see those expectations exceeded.

As the game grows older and City frustrated at United’s well-organised defence, the threat of them being hit by a sucker punch, whilst searching for that clinching goal, is always hanging over them – and it nearly happened. United midfielder, Jackie Groenen does well to nip a long ball away from City’s centre-back, Gemma Bonner, and as the Dutch international reaches the penalty area, bearing down on Roebuck, she loses control of the ball – it falls to City right-back Aoife Mannion to clear, which she does – right onto Groenen’s foot! Fortunately for Mannion, Groenen couldn’t control the ball, it hit her foot and rolled back off the post and into Roebuck’s grateful mitts.

It was United’s best chance of the second-half – and their last. City did enough in the end, but United
did themselves credit, considering this was the first match at this level for many of their players. With some big players to come back for City – including new signing Ellen White, I’d expect them to start converting their quick, attacking play into goals before long. The crowd are appreciative, many staying to applaud them off.

I enjoyed the occasion, even if the game wasn’t high on chances – I’ve seen much worse in the last year alone. I’ll definitely be back at a women’s game soon, if only to tick off some more grounds! In the end, from my vantage point (and poor eyesight, to be fair) it just seemed like light-blue shirts were playing red shirts. And that's all that matters – men, women, boys, girls, it's still football we're watching, it’s still the game we all love – so let's work together to make it better for us all.

Manchester City Women 1

Manchester United Women 0

Attendance: 31,213

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