Athersley Rec manager Shane Kelsey believes the Tier 3 lockdown rules have created an unsustainable financial situation for many clubs.
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division side Athersley are operating under the Tier 3 rules which affect the whole of South Yorkshire and are expected to hit West Yorkshire later this week.
Clubs in Tier 3 cannot open clubhouses and spectators from outside very high areas must not travel to games so vital revenue streams are heavily strained so Kelsey is backing a short break to assess the impact of Tier 3 rules and while Covid-19 infections are rising.
“We are on this two week break ourselves (because of fixture changes), but you see it each day, ‘game postponed, game postponed’,” Kelsey told Non League Yorkshire.
“It would be a sensible decision in my eyes to have a couple of weeks break while the virus is spreading rapidly in a number of areas the NCEL covers and to also get our heads around the Tier 3 rules. Would a two-week break be really that bad?
“The Tier 3 thing is taking a lot of the financial aid away from how a lot of teams operate because it involves shutting bars and restricting movement of fans who come through the door. Takings are going to be seriously diminished and you’re going to start putting clubs in serious jeopardy, especially at this level.
“A team who is going to bring a big following to push a gate up and put an extra 60 or 70 folk through the turnstile what you don’t normally have; pulling that away now is really putting a strain on clubs.
“It is affecting training for me. Because of where we are, are we stopping players from out of South Yorkshire coming? What do lads from Wakefield and Doncaster feel about it? Because we haven’t got a game for a bit I’ve told them not to come until there is clear guidance. So just the Barnsley lads have been training together.
“Our reserves game on Saturday was the perfect chance for me to get players who have been missing recently some minutes, but it got called off at the last minute because of Tier 3.
“Then you look at it and if the reserves does get started again and you can’t open your bar or have fans in, you’re just footing the bill all the time for the cost of referees.
“Tier 3 could definitely go on a long time and it wouldn’t surprise me if it goes on beyond Christmas, but I’ve stopped guessing now because things change every month.”
Kelsey also criticised the decision to allow Step 5 and 6 clubs to continue travelling as it is classed as ‘work’ and reiterated his belief that the season should finish in either June or July.
“It is stupid teams travelling here, there and everywhere,” he said.
“I manage a building site and the day Liverpool went into Tier 3 lockdown, an asbestos analyst turned up on the job and had travelled all the way from Liverpool. But it was for work.
“The Government for me has got it woefully wrong and it is the same for football. How can you do something and then make it exempt for football?
“I want to play football, but there’s too many grey areas which are open to interpretation. There’s one rule, but with 75 different variates.
“It needs to be solid one rule for all. I’m either all or nothing. I’ve got to that stage. You can’t call NCEL football work. Are we elite football? No. It is not work. Do people have other jobs? Yes. Is their other job their main source of income? Yes. Is football a hobby? Yes. Yes nine out of ten clubs do pay, but normally it is enough to cover expenses.
“With all what is going off, people don’t know whether they are coming or going. Whilst I want it to be like it was pre-Covid, the sensible side to me sees the vulnerable people, the over 70s who volunteer for a lot of these clubs and I see the bigger picture. They are vulnerable and at risk from it so what harm is a two-week break?
“We can play into the summer. Even if the FA says ‘oh no it has to be like this or that for the fixtures’, I don’t care what they say. Players at this level will be quite happy to play right into the summer and just have a two-week break and get back for the August start date.
“I don’t see an issue with that. Nine out of ten clubs would agree. Look at the bigger picture. What is a missed pre-season? It is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
For now, Kelsey is plotting to kick-start Athersley’s campaign during November after a very difficult run of fixtures.
Kelsey knew the Rec would face a tough start, but he admits there is cause for optimism.
“I’m a realist and you look at the fixtures we have played and people look and see eight games, eight losses, minus 32 goals,” he said.
“Break it down and look at who we have played and what positions were they in when the league got stopped last season. We’ve played the team who were top, the team who were second, the team who were third, the team who fifth and then your Mansfield’s, your Handsworth’s and your Barton’s and look where they are now.
“The other thing people don’t see is that we have got games on. We’ve had players unavailable due to Covid and luckily they weren’t around the squad when they got it. They got it from going on holiday.
“You look at the Bridlington game it looks like a hiding. I went there with minimal players available to me and two have dropped out on the day so I was playing with kids. That game I had nine players unavailable. I took a patched-up 13 and my assistant Ryan Eastwood had to play. I had to go on the bench.
“I’ve had to play players out of the position and you look at it now and I’m glad Liversedge won in the Vase as that called our game with them off on Saturday. We don’t play them again for a bit because it would have been really tough.
“For our next game against Knaresborough, as daft as it sounds, I probably have nine players back available. Lee Garside, Jack Waldron, Danny Blacker, Muhamet Gashi, Marcel Chipamunga, Jimbob (Jamie Thompson), Red Bates, that’s seven players back and all make your team stronger. Way way stronger.
“You look and say ‘bloody hell, that gives us a better chance with all those available to me’. There’s a lot to be positive and optimistic about. People look at results and say ‘same old Athersley’. Those teams who have already played aren’t our fight. You can go out and compete, but nine times out of ten there’ll beat you.
“We’re starting again from the bottom. We played Liversedge and we were 4-0 down at half-time and you look at their bench and they have players who are not even named as substitutes like Ross Daly, John Cyrus, Mark Simpson. Those three players walk into any side in our league and they’re not even named as substitutes.
“We know the teams who we have to try and pick up points against and if we pick up two wins on the trot in the current standings, that propels us halfway up the table. We’re not even cut adrift.”
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.
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