More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
The chair of the Southern Counties East Football League feels their whole purpose has been null and voided.
Denise Richmond has spoken about her frustration over the FA’s decision to end their season without promotion or relegation, ignoring their preference for positions to be decided on average points per game.
On Thursday the FA Council ratified the League Committee’s decision to end the 2019/20 season at steps three to seven of non-league football.
A statement from the SCEFL the following day said that “success should be rewarded” and that their hope was for the season to be completed on a points per game basis, enabling teams to be promoted or relegated.
Ms Richmond said: “The decision to end the season was the right one but my frustration, and a lot of the clubs’ frustration, is the outcome of that.
“What it feels like is that we are not rewarding success and we are not rewarding hard work. We have clubs who have applied to come into the league and clubs in promotable positions at step seven (the Kent County League) who have invested a lot of money.
“As a level of football, steps five and six, we are here to facilitate football, a league for clubs to get promoted out of and for clubs to take a step back and to consolidate and by null and voiding the season it completely killed that, for me.
“At this level of football that is our whole purpose. We bring clubs on and help them get their facilities right and give them the right recommendations to do that and it is not just a season, it feels that our whole purpose has been null and voided.
“It feels like a bit of a waste, we haven’t been able to do our job have we? We haven’t been able to bring clubs on or get them promoted.”
The decision made by the FA - taken without any vote from leagues at step five or six - denies both Corinthian and Beckenham the chance of promotion into the Isthmian League on PPG and the likes of Kennington in Division 1 to move a step forward.
In the Kent County League, Staplehurst Monarchs United had worked hard off the field to ensure their ground would be up to standards in the SCEFL and on the field they led the way too, topping the Premier Division. They have been denied the chance of progress as well.
The league are looking at ways to help their clubs financially, having already waivered the £250 annual membership fee for charter standard clubs. It’s only £50 for the small amount of clubs who don’t have the charter standard and an incentive for them to make sure they do.
They hope to ascertain the financial levels of their member clubs by means of a survey, something leagues elsewhere have done.
Ms Richmond said: “We have not had any clubs coming to us, so far, about any suggestion that [they could be in trouble].
“The North West Counties League did a survey to their clubs to find out more information and I think we will try and do the same, to understand better what position the clubs are in.”
The league must now wait to see what happens at the top level before they can plan ahead. They have written to the FA to see if they can, if needed, defer their general meeting in June.
Plans for a new season are way off, however. The SCEFL season usually starts the week before the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup in early August. At this moment, there is no definite answer as to what is happening with the current one so for now, it's a waiting game.
