Athletic Article: League One and Two Seasons to be abandoned next week

[Alty Pieman]

Forgive my ignorance,... but who is paying for the covid testing ? and what happens if clubs have positive cases and cant play ?

Does anyone know what testing for covid has cost EFL for each L2 club ?

 

[The Terminator]

Finally sorted, now the EFL can have meetings about meetings about next season whenever that will now be.

I don't begrudge the fans or the owners of the clubs who've ended up being relegated or missing out on promotion on this PPG system, because they're entitled to be aggrieved and to defend their clubs and interests and to try and find a solution that benefits them, I'd have done the same thing. Our owners haven't said much, but I'm sure they would've done had we been in Stevenages/Tranmeres positions.

Likewise if PPG favoured Stevenage or Tranmere I doubt their owners would've made any fuss.

I would've thought Barrow would now be promoted at least as well.

The Macclesfield situation has to be sorted ASAP though, its unfair on alot of clubs if this now is dragged out.

 

[Trapdoor]

Does anyone know what testing for covid will cost for each L2 club who enter the playoffs ?

Well we've had to do it for the past 3 weeks already. I believe some of the costs of our medical bills were sponsored which helps, but i'm not sure what % of the bill that was.

 

[Trapdoor]

PPG is shit and unfair but it's what the EFL have decided upon so we have to live with it. End of story.

 

[The Terminator]

Well done to the teams promoted though, three good sides from what I saw of them this season.

 

[Bee sting]

Now the EFL have finally made decisions about their Leagues, there is no excuse not to have a meeting this week or next to sort out the Macclesfield affair. Then every club knows exactly where they stand for preparation for when the next season begins. If they leave it until the last minute and Macclesfield decide to appeal(if it goes against them), that would only delay things further.

 

[redjed]

Macclesfield, surely it's not the players, fans or the Macclesfield infrastructure's fault that they have been lumbered with a owner that has lied and cheated to own the club. The blame must fall on the committee or persons responsible for "Fit and Proper", because in the end they have passed him fit!
So, as far I'm concerned the EFL are to blame and should be taking a damned good look at themselves!

 

[Trapdoor]

Hah can't imagine the EFL ever taking a critical look at their behaviour. Clowns straight out of the sepp blatter school of mismanagement.

 

[Agombar stool]

Strange feeling today. We have been announced as Champions of League 2 but I just doesn’t feel like I should celebrate.

Good luck to those teams in the play-offs. No idea when we’ll get back to normality and we’ll be able to watch us again but I’m hoping the current malaise I’m feeling about the game comes back.

It’s been good craic on here and I’ve enjoyed some good chats with fellow league 2 fans and I wish you and your clubs all the best.

Championees etc etc

 

[AdamStag]

Macclesfield, surely it's not the players, fans or the Macclesfield infrastructure's fault that they have been lumbered with a owner that has lied and cheated to own the club. The blame must fall on the committee or persons responsible for "Fit and Proper", because in the end they have passed him fit!
So, as far I'm concerned the EFL are to blame and should be taking a damned good look at themselves!

Spot on, the EFL are a joke, they’ve not handled much well in a long time. Their handling of the bury and Bolton fiasco was tragic, and it seems as if they’re so scared of what happened there they’re determined to fuck macc off.

Rightly or wrongly they’re going to ask macc for evidence on how they’re going to find the season and macc won’t be able to do so, allowing them to fuck macc off and allow them to become the conferences problem.

Maccs problem being then is that the conference will look and them and be like “nah” and fuck then off into the CN or NPL

 

[Blue Lion]

The trouble is that the EFL aren't impartial in this situation. They have a vested interest in keeping Stevenage in the League. After all, it will look bad on them if a perfectly well run club is relegated into a league that won't start, while a basket case stays in L2 and potentially goes bust anyway. It's an easy way out for all concerned if Macc were to be conveniently relegated instead.

But that’s no excuse for how the EFL have totally weaponised the situation against us to get rid of us. Using Lincoln's seemingly more logical proposal we're pretty much out of Stevenage's reach, but using the EFL's own proposal basically any further points deduction will send us down.

And now that the EFL have positioned us nicely on the brink of relegation, they charge us for an offense that’s not actually punishable by a points deduction, release some statements to the media where they suggest that we might lose more points, and now suddenly everyone would be surprised if we don’t end up relegated.

There shouldn’t have even been a discussion about how to apply the points deduction. It’s common sense that you would use Lincoln’s proposal. But the fact that they even allowed it to go to a vote, let alone a vote where their own method is the default choice, opens the door for clubs to effectively gang up on us.

 

[AdamStag]

The trouble is that the EFL aren't impartial in this situation. They have a vested interest in keeping Stevenage in the League. After all, it will look bad on them if a perfectly well run club is relegated into a league that won't start, while a basket case stays in L2 and potentially goes bust anyway. It's an easy way out for all concerned if Macc were to be conveniently relegated instead.

But that’s no excuse for how the EFL have totally weaponised the situation against us to get rid of us. Using Lincoln's seemingly more logical proposal we're pretty much out of Stevenage's reach, but using the EFL's own proposal basically any further points deduction will send us down.

And now that the EFL have positioned us nicely on the brink of relegation, they charge us for an offense that’s not actually punishable by a points deduction, release some statements to the media where they suggest that we might lose more points, and now suddenly everyone would be surprised if we don’t end up relegated.

There shouldn’t have even been a discussion about how to apply the points deduction. It’s common sense that you would use Lincoln’s proposal. But the fact that they even allowed it to go to a vote, let alone a vote where their own method is the default choice, opens the door for clubs to effectively gang up on us.

For what it’s worth I genuinely hope you stop up. It’s not Macclesfields of the fans fault you’ve got a crap owner. I know how it feels to go down purely down to an owner, been there done that and it sucks (admittedly we’d never been into the conference before)

That a club of Maccs size is in the league in itself is a decent achievement, the way the EFL have treated you (as you detail above) is poor at best.

The only issue I have is that are you actually going to be able to survive until next season, whenever that might be!?

 

[Blue Lion]

The only issue I have is that are you actually going to be able to survive until next season, whenever that might be!?

Not under the current ownership that's for sure. There's every chance that we'll go pop over the summer and Stevenage will stay up regardless of the EFL's agenda. They sure as hell won't want a repeat of the Bury saga.

A takeover is our only way out. The glimmer of hope is that we seemingly don't have massive debts.

 

[AdamStag]

Not under the current ownership that's for sure. There's every chance that we'll go pop over the summer and Stevenage will stay up regardless of the EFL's agenda. They sure as hell won't want a repeat of the Bury saga.

A takeover is our only way out. The glimmer of hope is that we seemingly don't have massive debts.

I think that is a genuine concern, whereas I don’t think anyone wants you to go down and the way the EFL have treated you had earned you much sympathy from lower league fans I can understand why they wouldn’t want another bury.

Sadly, you could well be them mark 2. Not that I’d want to be the person having to make a choice but maybe if things do go sour a return to the conference is more appealing than the route bury are taking.

Hopefully you stay as you are, but it’s a poor time for all down here

 

[Brox]

I have sympathy for tranmere as they’d been in the cup, had bad weather and were on some type of form before the season ended.

Stevenage had lost their last 9 in a row.

Whereas I’ve every sympathy from a financial perspective, if there were ever a team who deserved to go down, Stevenage would be them

I also find the argument of “we don’t know when we’ll play next” argument baseless too. The Stevenage chairman knows as well as we all do that there will be little difference between when the league 2 season and the conference seasons kick off.

Ya seriously reckon that league 2 clubs are going to be up for kicking off in August when there’s no fans? The argument about streaming league games but not conference ones doesn’t wash either as the revenue from it would be negligible from a financial perspective.

Personally I don’t see any type of lower league football until October

I think there may be an infastructre issue with regards to the streaming in the National League. I seem to remember a few years ago all EFL clubs had to put in some sort of fibre optic network that allowed them to deliver HD match coverage instantly. This network is used by Sky etc and also used to deliver match streaming I think.

Not saying it's impossible to implement a solution at National League level but if it's not in place and crowds aren't allowed to attend games I believe there is a possibility the National League will have to wait until fans can attend before kicking off. The Football League could in theory kick off with HD streaming available through the iFollow service which would allow clubs to generate some income on matchdays rather than none.

You could be right though, difficult to know at this point.

 

[LS Bantam]

Does anyone know what testing for covid has cost EFL for each L2 club ?

£150k a club was the cost per club should we have carried on.

 

[Kenneth E End]

On Maccesfield, I have a feeling there will be full on expulsion, because this is the third transgression this season - they've already had 11 points deducted. And that would be the right decision; some divisions wouldn't even give you a second chance.

 

[Kenneth E End]

So where to next? Pre-season potentially starting in the next 1-2 months for another 9-10 month season. How are clubs going to stump up the £40k testing costs anyway? How are non league clubs going to manage it - hence the question mark over the 24th place relegation?

 

[valefan16]

So where to next? Pre-season potentially starting in the next 1-2 months for another 9-10 month season. How are clubs going to stump up the £40k testing costs anyway? How are non league clubs going to manage it - hence the question mark over the 24th place relegation?

Hard to say, the main worry is a second wave which I think would be more likely in the winter months which could stop everything again. I imagine we will restart in September possibly with no fans for a month or two but we will see. Long time until September so the situation may be that the virus is nominal.

 

[Huntsman94]

Aren't they talking about fans potentially starting to gradually come back in September? Regardless you'd like to think things will move on fairly quickly from the playoffs and hopefully pre season is starting mid/end of July with and end of August/early September start date.

As for the cost of the testing, surely the PFA will fund it for all clubs? There is no better time than now to start digging into the fund they've got that has been alluded to by quite a few Owners

 

[Kenneth E End]

Aren't they talking about fans potentially starting to gradually come back in September? Regardless you'd like to think things will move on fairly quickly from the playoffs and hopefully pre season is starting mid/end of July with and end of August/early September start date.

As for the cost of the testing, surely the PFA will fund it for all clubs? There is no better time than now to start digging into the fund they've got that has been alluded to by quite a few Owners

The PFA arent going to shell out £3.5m a month to pay for all of the testing for every single club.

 

[North_Cheshire_Alex]

A lot of people said wining promotion under these circumstances would feel like an anti-climax, my current hangover would beg to differ. The promotion has sparked a lot of people back into life, after nearly 3 months of this strange world we now find ourselves in receiving some great news from our old life was just what the doctor ordered, Alex fans from all 4 corners of the globe were buzzing on social media last night, as I am sure the fans of the other promoted clubs were. Good luck to all the clubs in the play offs, I do have a particular favorite in Exeter due to having mates down their but nothing against the other 3 clubs at all. Well done to the Vale on the stance Carol took, very noble and hopefully our rivalry can continue in a higher division in the not to distant future, good luck also to Macclesfield as that team does not deserve relegation, I just get the feeling the EFL are gunning for you though.

 

[Kenneth E End]

On a technical point, in my eyes, the Macclesfield chairman is correct to say they should've had their 11 point deduction after their PPG calculation.

 

[chipmunx]

A lot of people said wining promotion under these circumstances would feel like an anti-climax, my current hangover would beg to differ. The promotion has sparked a lot of people back into life, after nearly 3 months of this strange world we now find ourselves in receiving some great news from our old life was just what the doctor ordered, Alex fans from all 4 corners of the globe were buzzing on social media last night, as I am sure the fans of the other promoted clubs were. Good luck to all the clubs in the play offs, I do have a particular favorite in Exeter due to having mates down their but nothing against the other 3 clubs at all. Well done to the Vale on the stance Carol took, very noble and hopefully our rivalry can continue in a higher division in the not to distant future, good luck also to Macclesfield as that team does not deserve relegation, I just get the feeling the EFL are gunning for you though.

Hopefully us Barrow fans will have the same celebrations by the end of the week....

 

[Indian Dan]

If you read the government’s latest statement about reopening non essential retail outlets, pubs and restaurants they have actually now left out any reference to ‘2m distancing’ - replacing it with a rather vague ‘wider spacing’.

 

[Trapdoor]

Seasonal flu kills thousands each year. Time to get over ourselves and stop taking the political bullshit so seriously.

 

[Laker]

Seasonal flu kills thousands each year. Time to get over ourselves and stop taking the political bullshit so seriously.

I think you’re right but a vaccination/shielding for the vulnerable should come first and I think getting that number down further is needed. The flu kills 17,000 per year (according to google) so that’s around 1,500 per month. We’re currently running at 150 per day on Coronavirus so 4,500 per month. It’s too many to accept with “just live with it”.

 

[Indian Dan]

I’ll guarantee there’ll be no second lockdown no matter if the cases rise. No country can afford it.

I’m in the vulnerable group but I’m prepared to take my chances. Bollocks to shutting myself away for ever.

 

[Laker]

I’ll guarantee there’ll be no second lockdown no matter if the cases rise. No country can afford it.

I’m in the vulnerable group but I’m prepared to take my chances. Bollocks to shutting myself away for ever.

I agree with that mentality but if a vaccination is only 3 months away (possible from what I’ve heard) then wouldn’t it be worth waiting until then at least so those 4,500 deaths per month are significantly reduced?

I’m all for the economy opening and I’m as gagging for sport and a pint as the next man, but I’d rather save a few thousand people if possible.

 

[valefan16]

I’ll guarantee there’ll be no second lockdown no matter if the cases rise. No country can afford it.

I’m in the vulnerable group but I’m prepared to take my chances. Bollocks to shutting myself away for ever.

No chance it would be regional and focused on hospitals/care homes being closed down. No one would have a job left!