Despite the non-league season not finishing until this coming weekend at Wembley with the Isuzu FA Trophy and Vase finals the FA on Monday lunchtime released the proposed allocations for the game at all levels down to Step 6.
As always the final say is subject to any appeals from clubs wishing to state a case against their new placement in some instances. Whilst I’m sure every effort is made year after year to either keep sides in close proximity to their local area not everyone can be pleased without an even split of sides relegated and in some cases promoted, by that I mean the great North/South divide.
For the past almost four years the FA have tried to create the perfect pyramid and by looking through the full allocation there aren’t many divisions now that feature an odd number of teams, but why has there been some less than happy people on social media today?
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Well, let’s start with the top end of the pyramid from Steps 1-4. All levels sit exactly the same with an even number of clubs in all divisions which is hardly surprising. There is very little movement also, you wouldn’t expect anything major unless a club disappears completely from the landscape which potentially could happen this week with Southend Utd, fingers crossed it doesn’t and there is no decision needed from the football authorities.
Just below the National League in it’s North and South divisions is where the first issue comes to the fore. Bishops Stortford in Essex near to Stansted Airport won the Isthmian Premier Division in April and expected to be placed in the South division, unfortunately for them the four sides relegated featured three Southern sides whilst of course two are promoted from the North and South, Stortford laterally moved to the North.
It’s certainly far from ideal and while Braintree are 800 yards further up the road the logistics to reach their ground compared to Stortford could appear why they are discounted. However, that’s no help for them and although I’m sure many would say why not run a season with an odd numbers of clubs in each division, is that going to become expected every time that relegation conundrum rears its ugly head?
I’ve said for a long while there should be a football fund whereby the FA could call upon to say, ‘look we understand it’s far from ideal but this fund will cover 50% of your extended travelling costs for the season’.
Sometimes I think it’s forgotten these players are part time and club officials are volunteers who need to take two days off work for an over-extended away game, whilst you can’t take away the issue, it softens the blow as best you can.
Step 3 saw a reprieve for Harrow Borough, after Met Police decided on voluntary relegation a move which takes them away from the Southern League and back to the Isthmian League which geographically for them is much better but in turn that appears to have shunted Marlow over to the Southern League Central at Step 4 with a lot of trips into Hertfordshire.
As you can see not everyone gets the rub of the green! Steps 5 and 6 are still the hardest to bring up to a level number of clubs in each division but it looks like they are almost there to create that perfect pyramid.
Just six divisions out of 33 at both steps are uneven, some caused by imbalance of promotion and relegation from above and below and ground grading issues of those wanting to come up.
However, by the middle of this week we will see if they have to revert to plan B should Southend Utd cease to exist, no doubt they have already drawn up a contingency plan which hopefully is not to be used and that’s before any clubs appeal their new placing, with that in mind it’s no wonder these allocations are done pretty swiftly.
Although most league AGM’s will not happen for another four weeks or so there is still time for some change to proceedings, however if you’ve been refused promotion for ground grading there’s very little chance that’s going to get overturned but in the meantime, the fingers crossed for a resolution on Wednesday for the Essex Shrimpers…….
