Curtailment of this season - what if? any rules as yet?

[jon b]

Yes, I'm taking it as read that none of us want the current season curtailed but are wondering if, in the event of it happening either this campaign or in future, we can come up with something better than last season's ad hoc reaction to the wheels coming off.

However, I think we're all also aware that if 2020/21 went the same way as 2019/20 we'd be staring into the abyss.

 

[leohoenig]

In addition to #3, #5 and #14? Only to observe the apparent irony that one of the biggest and most emotive challenges football faced in its approach to settling 19/20 - namely the fact that the process hadn't clearly been defined at the start of the season - still doesn't look like it has, at least in the NLS. Unless "null and void" is now intentionally the default position. Subject to whatever the VNL decides. But then one of the most vociferous critics, the NWCL, has been unusually quiet (afaik). And so on....

So I see nothing wrong in people being curious about how this is playing out....if indeed anything is playing out!

#3 was a genuine comment, #5 could be said to be, although it seems a little contradictory. By #14 you are attacking other posters rather than adding to the debate

 

[Hoddy1.]

#14 & #16.

 

[noprogs]

The Essex Olympian have passed a league rule that states, less than 50% games played (by all clubs) N & V, 50-75% (all clubs) PPG , more than 75% - league table to stand as final.

Good on them. At least someone has the foresight to set out the various options in advance.
Ideally it might have been better that the FA had adopted this (or, if they like, their own alternative) to be applied unilaterally, rather than letting each league do their own thing.
OK, the EOL, is maybe a lower level than needing as much input from the FA, but at least there is some flexibility in the planning here.

 

[leohoenig]

#14 & #16.

Yes, #16 should have been, and now has been deleted

 

[BDA_85]

Good on them. At least someone has the foresight to set out the various options in advance.

How watertight are these options? Leagues can create their own ways of resolving a curtailed season, but like what happened in 19/20 when leagues asked member clubs for their opinions it fell on deaf ears and a unilateral approach was taken.
Using 2 local leagues to me as an example. If SSML decided that a curtailed season would see clubs relegated from SSML2 to a feeder league and the Beds County League decided not to promote anyone then would these leagues run with more/less teams?

 

[Brightside]

The Essex Olympian have passed a league rule that states, less than 50% games played (by all clubs) N & V, 50-75% (all clubs) PPG , more than 75% - league table to stand as final.

Although I welcome this announcement, does it mean that a team who has played 75% of their games and 5 games in hand will finish behind a team 1 point ahead?

 

[paulh66]

#3 was a genuine comment, #5 could be said to be, although it seems a little contradictory. By #14 you are attacking other posters rather than adding to the debate

Let's be clear, at no point have I attacked any other poster - unlike #12 and #15. #14 is clearly alluding to, and offering a suggestion in response to, "I question why" and "I can't say I understand it" per the preceding two posters. The OP is a perfectly legitimate topic of discussion and the relevance of questionable veiled responses (one of which we now know was made out of boredom) deserved to be challenged.

Anyway, the topic has clearly been exhausted for now but the possibility, and various implications, of further disruption to, and potential curtailment of, the season will inevitably keep cropping up. I doubt very much that'll be because posters are taking "perverse pleasure" in the prospect.

 

[paulh66]

How watertight are these options? Leagues can create their own ways of resolving a curtailed season, but like what happened in 19/20 when leagues asked member clubs for their opinions it fell on deaf ears and a unilateral approach was taken.

Below the NLS I think the leagues can still decide for themselves, But within the NLS there has to be a uniform approach across the board as there are multiple leagues at multiple steps operating in a common system (though the VNL now seems to have more autonomy as a kind of halfway house between NLS and EFL).

The FALC's solution to 19/20 reflected the collective or majority will of the NLS leagues, and rightly so. Whether, in doing so, the individual leagues adequately reflected the will of their clubs, or should have consulted in any more depth with them, is a separate matter.

 

[MiddxSaint]

Any club top of the table knowing PPG is being used might find any excuse to not play their remaining games so they can stay top. Play more games and any draws or defeats would reduce the PPG and slide them down the table.
The decision on PPG should not be made until the season is over.

 

[Bigaitch]

Any club top of the table knowing PPG is being used might find any excuse to not play their remaining games so they can stay top. Play more games and any draws or defeats would reduce the PPG and slide them down the table.
The decision on PPG should not be made until the season is over.

That's a very good point...

 

[Wheelbarrow]

Any club top of the table knowing PPG is being used might find any excuse to not play their remaining games so they can stay top.

Failure to fulfil a fixture. Game awarded 0-3 to opposition. Problem solved.

 

[Kirby Knitters]

Failure to fulfil a fixture. Game awarded 0-3 to opposition. Problem solved.

Easier said than done in the current climate but surely no club would use this to gain advantage.

 

[miswell]

I think with the news we might hear this evening the season could come to an early close. We're already seeing some games behind closed doors or postponed due to local Covid measures. Bars will now be table service only so I can't see how clubs can operate their bars going forward, will many be able to do table service? No bars is a large loss to clubs income as we all know. Add to that elite football won't have any fans for the foreseeable future.

If the season stops very early then the obvious solution is null and void and start next season whenever we can. I don't think there's an option to pause and restart as there won't be enough time unless the season continues through the summer and straight in to 21/22.

I'm not on a downer and I certainly don't take pleasure in what might happen. It just feels that as we move in to Autumn/Winter we're going to see a lot more tightening on restrictions.

 

[Kirby Knitters]

But who knows what is around the corner? We could null and voiding for the next couple of years which is in the interests of nobody . I suppose at some point we could always scratch this season and finish off last years!

 

[Roader]

Easier said than done in the current climate but surely no club would use this to gain advantage.

I have no doubt a small minority of clubs would.

 

[WhiteBallProject]

I think the health and safety of the nation must be the priority for everyone especially as the profile of the average non league fan is the same as the group most likely to suffer physically from another huge surge in cases. Saying that it will be a crying shame if the Non league season is curtailed. I am saying that from a very selfish viewpoint as our season at Ilkeston Town has started so promisingly! (Yes I know we have been here before but this time just maybe...)

 

[Sarumio Whites]

But who knows what is around the corner? We could null and voiding for the next couple of years which is in the interests of nobody . I suppose at some point we could always scratch this season and finish off last years!

In my mind this is what should have happened. It seems it was very naive and short sighted to believe this new season would be covid free and that a full 30-42 league game campaign (plus cups) could be completed unhindered.

They should have completed 19/20 in various windows of opportunity over the next few months (Remember....most sides only had 10-12 games left...some even less than that at Step 7 and below), scratched the 20/21 season and pray that by August 2021, we are free of the virus and start the new season with confidence and positivity, instead of what we have now - clubs in the 10th tier of English football, playing in 20 team divisions, wondering just how exactly they are going to manage to play their 38 league games this season, with all the local lockdowns, uncertainty, Covid cancellations....and you just know it'll be sod's law we have a harsh winter on top of all that!

 

[kivo]

I said months ago it would have made sense to use August-December to finish off the 19/20 season, and January-May have a shortened 20/21 season where teams play each other once.

 

[sunny nunny]

Here's a question that's been raised on my clubs forum . If the national league can't start which is now looking a real possibility there not likely to agree to promotion and relegation . Where does that leave clubs at our level ( step 3 ) and what's the point of us trying to play out the season with nowhere to go . .