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Crazy Money
Views: 2264
I see that there was a lot of online abuse directed at Salford City after their promotion victory on Saturday along the lines of ?They?re a plastic club?, They?ll go the same way as Rushden and Diamond?.
Interestingly and perhaps frighteningly in the Daily Mirror?s Monday report of the Salford match there was the following quote from Gary Neville:-
He added: ?I know a lot of clubs who have money and are not successful. The aim was always to be as aggressive as possible to get into the Football League. It was a simple economic argument from day one.
?If you want to get out of the National League, a budget of £700,000 or £800,000 won?t get you out, and it will cost you two or three times as much to get out the longer you are down there.
?It?s cheaper to spend more and go up. It?s simple economics and we have the ability to do that. The dream would be to reach League One and see what we do from there.?
Considering the above, I was wondering if we are now seeing the atrophy of the National League, as it seems the only sides that will get promoted to the EFL are the rejuvenated ex-Football League sides. Considering that Salford beat another biggish money club Fylde in the promotion play-off final will we ever see one of the traditional non-league clubs promoted to the EFL?
The EFL sides demoted to the National League already enjoy a financial advantage by way of the hefty parachute payments they receive that provide a competitive advantage. Additionally, my perception is that the traditional EFL sides demoted to the Conference National seem to find it easier to attract new money into the club.
Effectively, the Conference National is three separate completions ? one for the ex-EFL clubs with the financial clout to secure promotion, one for the ambitious traditional non-league clubs with biggish but insufficient funds to mount a realistic promotion challenge and lastly one for the traditional non-league clubs that are too good for the Conference North/South but will never stand a chance of promotion to the EFL, even if they wanted it.
I would be interested to hear what others think.
Re: Crazy Money
Views: 8379
Talking things crazy! If the latest tweet regarding the announcement of the league allocations is accurate, it only goes to under-score the complete disrgeard the FA have for interested parties. Underpinned by commercialism and a business-like attitude these decisions only re-iterate how knee jerk reactionary they are and how their entire existance is one of self-promotion. Why the constant desire to revolutionise everything?
I recall the season of three points for an away win, 2 for a home win. That was fun. When a few years back they created a 46 game league - I proposed, on this very board, tongue in cheek, it would last about two years - It lasted two years!
With regards to their notion of a perfect pyramid - I propose the only way they could appreciate a perfect pyramid is if they all messed off on holiday to Giza!
We live in hope!
Automatic promotion/relegation with the Football League came into being when I watched Conference football. It made life almost impossible for non-league sides as many ex-league stayed full-time. Often in an abject state, they re-juvenated - It did many, (the expection being Newport County), the world of good. My take on the pyramid would split the National League, North/South. Contentous perhaps, but a league game between Dover and Gateshead is the very thing I thought non-league football was trying to eradicate. In reality, the authorities probably see the top league in a Premier League guise whilst I maintain the likes of Alfreton Town and the like being able to compete is radically diminished, The footballing considerations are left out of the equations because money talks. I think its making life harder.
Re: Crazy Money
Views: 1949
I don?t actually recall the season when there were 3 points for an away win and only 2 for a home win. Please remind me! I do recall the bizarre kick-in season instead of throw-inns. It helped Hendon no end - 1994-95 if I recall correctly. On the present issues, it is becoming evermore evident that the FA?s decision to remove the Isthmian League as a Greater London based league after Dave Anderson?s last season in charge was misguided. The sheer density of clubs in and around a London speaks for itself.
Re: Crazy Money
Views: 2010
You won't remember 2 points for a home win, 3 points for an away win as far as the Isthmian League is concerned.
It was an innovation (?) of the Football Conference, and applied to that league only for just three seasons starting with the 1983-84 season. From 1986-87 the Conference joined most other senior leagues in awarding 3 points for any win.
Re: Crazy Money
Views: 1849
It was incorporated into the mix to promote attacking football - It didn't! As eluded to somewhere below it instigated Championship wins by the likes of Wealdstone and Scarborough. 'Sterile' a tad unfair - Should be directed at those making this stuff up! The Stones won the league with 12 losses and a GD of +10! Scarborough, won a deluge of games by the odd goal having shut up shop. Teams with a robust, strong back line, the likes of Wainwright at Wealdstone a prime example, the centre-halfs at Scarborough being key. It worries me that the FA promote these continual changes, they back-fire and then later are somehow re-introduced!
The 46 league game campaign - the notion of 7th placed teams in the play-offs. It's all a false impression to maintain a fake interest. I wrote on here, 50 campaigns of Ryman play-offs, only once had a side finnishing 5th actually managed to go up! I think there's a trend developing, in-some-as the Premier League characteristics are filtering down into our realm. I worry the continual cosmetic changes reflect and only go to enhance what amounts to the footballing equivilent of the latest heroin fix. Clubs are becoming increasingly knee-jerk reactionary as are the managers. See what tomorrow brings - given the track record and the trends in situe - I worry for the non-league environment going forward. The word crazy is right in fore-front of my take on affairs.
League Constitutions
Views: 2026
The FA continue to out-do themselves. Rumours - admittedly unsubstantiated, but from reasonable sources - were doing the rounds that they would be released yesterday. I'm sure I wasn't alone in checking various places to see if they had, in fact, been released.
Had the piece about them being released in the NLP not come from the Bostik League website I wouldn't have tweeted it. You're absolutely right Rob around everything you say in your first paragraph. The parties affected are an afterthought. Just as they were last summer with the restructuring and play-off fiasco, just as they were with the Stratford Town / Kings Lynn play-off fiasco. The FA are accountable to no-one - their silence on providing dates themselves speaks absolute volumes about how much they care (ha-ha!) about the Non-League game.
I find the NLP's complicity in this madcap idea quite sad - albeit not altogether suprising. For a publication that certainly used to laud itself as being for the fans (I haven't purchased a copy since they ran near advertorials on a weekly basis for Mr Tamplin) they have come up very wide of the mark.
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