Harrogate Railway manager Mick O’Connell envisages Non League clubs could face real problems hiring training facilities if football is permitted to continue during the winter months.
Because of Covid-19, some schools are refusing to take external bookings for their 3G pitches as they want to keep site usage to a minimum.
it is already an issue some clubs are facing and it will become a bigger one when the poor weather and if Covid-19 cases continue to rise, but football is still allowed to function.
“It is going to be nigh on impossible (to get training facilities for some),” O’Connell told Non League Yorkshire.
“We have our own facilities to train on at the minute, but in the winter you’re going to be trying to get on a 3G somewhere which is fully-booked.
“If you do get booked in, one team leaves and another comes in so you can’t socially-distance because everyone is stood around waiting to go on.
“If the pitches are in a school they might not even be open. I know there is a few schools around here who won’t let anyone use their 3G pitch, or even grass pitches for that matter. You can’t use indoor so what do you do?
“It is going to be a huge problem for some clubs. We can’t train on our own pitch during the winter and we’ve got no floodlights on the back pitch so it is going to be a tough one.
“We’ve block-booked a place in Harrogate for the winter, but it is a school and if there is some cases they might not let anyone in and shut it off.
“The whole thing is up in the air and it is not black and white enough. There’s no answers and every day is different.”
O’Connell’s comments cannot be disregarded given all his previous predictions about the dangers of holding a full 38-league game campaign during the pandemic are proving to be correct.
Back in July, the Railway manager said he didn’t think it was worthwhile given the expected local downs, players having to self-isolate, the danger of spreading the virus across various areas and bad weather. He isn’t the only manager to express these feelings as Staveley Miners Welfare chief Brett Marshall and Steeton boss Roy Mason have been among the vocal critics.
“Looking at it now and the way things are transpiring, (the season) probably (should have) not (started),” he said.
“I don’t know what the outcome is going to be? We have two lads who are schoolteachers who can’t play as they’re self-isolating. I think we’re going to have a lot more of this. Everything is up in the air.
“Everything we said in the summer is coming true, but it falls on deaf ears when you speak about the FA or local FA’s.
“The Government has put Leeds in local lockdown and they’re telling people they can’t travel, but (the FA and leagues) they are expecting clubs to play games and travel all over the place.
“It is not ideal and people at the club don’t want to be travelling here, there and everywhere and putting themselves in a position.
“I’ve said it a million times, but Skegness should be a complete no-no with everything going on.
“The positive has been that the games being played are bringing revenue into clubs, but what we don’t want is stop-start-stop-start. We either play or we don’t.
“To stop for two or three weeks and to expect start again, it is a momentum killer and it is like you’re starting pre-season again.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.
