South Yorkshire has been placed under the Government’s Tier 3 lockdown rules.
The rules will come into force at 0.01pm on Saturday and will affect the four local authority areas – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
How the rules will Non League clubs playing fixtures in those areas will be fully outlaid at some stage will undoubtedly become clearer.
Greater Manchester and Liverpool clubs were told:
- Elite, step 3-6 & youth teams/players CAN travel into/out of the area.
- Grassroots adult clubs/players (Step 7 and below, Sunday League etc) CANNOT travel into/out of the area and grassroots fans are discouraged from watching local games.
- Non League fans shouldn’t travel into/out of the area to go and watch games.
But some local councils in Liverpool have told Non League clubs not to play such as Prescot Cables.
In theory the sides in the NPL and NCEL should be able to continue playing, but the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior League could be affected if say clubs from Barnsley cannot travel to Sheffield.
The other issue is sustainability. Clubs affected cannot open their bars and gates are likely to reduce in some cases too so there is a lot questions to that need answering if clubs are going to get through this latest period of uncertainty on the financial front.