Yorkshire Amateur still have a “glimmer of hope” that their promotion dream could still come true, according to joint manager Craig Ogilvie.
Subject to ratification from the FA Council, the season for Steps 3 to 6 clubs has been “curtailed” without any further matches being played.
However, because the FA have not gone down the road of null and void and have said they plan to potentially restructure the system, promotion for the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division leaders remains a possibility.
Ogilvie, who expected the 2020/21 campaign to be consigned to the dustbin, says he relieved the Ammers could still have a chance of promotion to the NPL for the first time in the club’s history.
“The longer the lockdown has gone on I did think they were going to null and void it,” Ogilvie told Non League Yorkshire.
“Like everyone else when I read it I read the first paragraph and thought ‘it is done with, it is null and void because that’s how it came across.
“It was only when you started to dissect it that you thought ‘why does it say curtail and not null and void like it did last time’?
“I suppose it does give us a glimmer of hope that the hard work people have put in this season isn’t going to get wasted.
“What will happen we don’t know? But obviously they are going to use this season’s records for something so it is a case of watch this space.
“Moving forward from a selfish point of view I do hope that they go ahead with the restructuring so we can apply to try and go up if we can.”
A lot of the cause for the recent uncertainty goes back to before the campaign started when the FA’s and relevant league’s failed to put in place rules regarding what would happen if the 2020/21 season could not be finished.
The NCEL, for instance, asked their clubs a month into the campaign for their views.
Ogilvie has been a long-term critic of the FA and NCEL’s nuclear plans.
He believes the FA and the leagues have to get their house in order with agreed apocalypse scenarios before next season starts, as in his eyes people may walk away from the game.
“I just hope next season there is a bit more clarity at the beginning over plan b options if something does happen again,” he said.
“I said this to you a while ago, but not to have any plans before we had kicked a ball was madness in my personal opinion.
“When there is no clarity as to what happens and you give people options mid-season or after ten games people will naturally look after their own club.
“If you’ve had a really good start, of course you’re going to push for PPG for instance. If you’re at the bottom you’re not.
“Regardless of what happens with any restructuring, I just plead with them for some clarity on plan b options.
“I’m having conversations with players and I’m even having conversations with myself about over is it worth doing all this for no money and during all my spare time if we’re not going to gain anything from it in the end.
“We’re in February 2021 and since 2019 there’s been basically nothing in terms of results.
“It makes you wonder whether it is worth the risk again? Like everyone else I go all in with it. You’re at training until late, you’re getting there early for games and not getting home until late, especially if it is an away game.
“They are long days without any reward back. I think if there had been clarity from the start I think there would have been less people miffed by what’s going on.”
Regardless of what happens in the FA meeting rooms, Ogilvie wants to see Non League clubs playing again in some form in April if the Government stick to their 29th March reopening date.
“From a mental wellbeing point of view let’s get friendlies or mini tournaments going as soon as we can,” he said.
“I’d be all for that. Just to get people out of the house again. All the lads in our WhatsApp group are all keen to meet up again.
“The key thing for me is we need to get people out and about communicating face to face again.”
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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. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
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