Maidstone United co-owner Terry Casey still aiming to complete National League season as clubs await news on terms of government loans

By: Craig Tucker ctucker@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 06:46, 20 January 2021

Updated: 06:50, 20 January 2021

Maidstone co-owner Terry Casey remains committed to completing the football season despite uncertainty over funding.

It emerged this week that government money to help National League clubs through the second half of the season would come in loans rather than grants.

Maidstone United co-owner Terry Casey Picture: Steve Terrell

That’s led to suggestions the campaign will be scrapped if clubs decide they can’t continue under those circumstances, with a meeting set to take place today.

Casey blames the National League board for the mess, saying their distribution of the £10million National Lottery bail-out money “embarrassed” the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

However, he’s not ready to write off the season just yet.

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He said: “To be honest, we want to carry on, we want to see it out.

“I know what football does for people’s morale, generally speaking.

“People still want to follow their team, they want to keep an eye on what’s going on and to call a halt now seems quite cruel and unfair really.

“A lot of these players have families, they don’t earn a lot, and to just chop them and put them on the unemployment line would be a tragedy.

“I can’t speak for the other clubs but, on a personal note, I would like the season to carry on.

“I think we’re over the worst in terms of the pandemic in our area.

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“Things are getting better with the vaccination and infections are coming down.

“I think we’ve hit rock-bottom and from now on we should stick with the season and let the vaccinations do their work.”

Casey hopes to learn more about the DCMS loan proposals at the league meeting.

He also harbours hope Maidstone might qualify for a grant to make up for the money they were denied when the National League board rejected government instructions to award bail-out money based on lost gate revenue.

Casey said: “I think the DCMS are going to do loans, that’s what I hear, but I’m not entirely sure, and then it’s up to the clubs whether they want to go into debt.

“It’s a bit difficult to speculate at the moment because we don’t know the terms of the loan.

“It could be a loan of 100 years’ duration, or low interest, we just don’t know the shape of the loan.

Maidstone United's Gallagher Stadium Picture: Keith Gillard

“They are talking in exceptional circumstances of giving clubs grants.

“Well, the optimist in me says maybe they’re going to redress the balance of where we lost out on all that money over the first three months of the season.

“That may be the exceptional circumstances they’re talking about but that might be highly optimistic.

“We just despair really because all bar one of those board members voted themselves about half a million pounds in extra money and they can do what they like, they can say they’re not prepared to take loans and shut the season down.

“We’re all feeling very bitter about the way the well-run clubs, the well-supported clubs, have been treated by the board members and the National League and the FA.

“The DCMS were embarrassed by the way the FA and the National League distributed that first tranche of £10m of lottery money.

“We know that because we’ve got somebody on the board who’s a friendly person and he lost out on money as well, and the DCMS were embarrassed by it.

“People on the board were saying they were conflicted so they couldn’t be involved in it but, quite frankly, they had a huge part to play in giving themselves half a million pounds extra. That's where the bitterness comes in.

“The mistrust goes very deep here. I don’t know exactly what the DCMS have said but we’ve done everything we can to try and draw their attention to the injustice and unfairness.

“Helen Grant (Maidstone MP) has been terrific trying to support us, as has Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford MP), but once a decision is made it’s very difficult to get people to change their mind.

“We’re stuck in this rut of mismanagement and it makes people feel very bitter.”

Whatever happens, Casey has assured fans they will still have a club to support.

“The club’s in no danger whatsoever,” he said. “It’s a properly run club.

“If the season stops, whenever it restarts we’ll be there on day one.

“In what form I don’t know but we’ll be there for the duration.”