[Devongone]

I want Amantchi in the team and nobody seems to be turning a hair that we are letting our most capable centre forward go in Fondop-Talom? But yes that's one of the problems with an Ernie Moss Stand - his name not the man himself.

[spireitematt]

I've been reading how we could get back in the Football League. There are proposals to merge L2 and the National League Divisions into 'L2 North' and 'L2 South'. It would mean less travel, more fans at games, would bring in more revenue for clubs and have more local derbies. Financially in the current Coronavirus crisis it could see clubs through. Otherwise if clubs go bust then the Premier League B teams will be trying to get into the league and no one wants that do they?

Would it make more sense to merge L1 and L2? and to merge National League with National League North/South?

[St Charles Owl]

I've been reading how we could get back in the Football League. There are proposals to merge L2 and the National League Divisions into 'L2 North' and 'L2 South'. It would mean less travel, more fans at games, would bring in more revenue for clubs and have more local derbies. Financially in the current Coronavirus crisis it could see clubs through. Otherwise if clubs go bust then the Premier League B teams will be trying to get into the league and no one wants that do they?

Would it make more sense to merge L1 and L2? and to merge National League with National League North/South?

I am amazed that this hasn't been considered more seriously for L1 and L2. The revenue benefits are obvious with regards to far less travel and likely more local games with higher attendances. Carlisle v Exeter is a fixture that should not exist outside of the top 2 divisions!!!

My only question on this is who decides who is north and who is south? I am not old enough to remember how it used to work but if say the bottom 3 in the Championship are all in the Manchester area - say Bolton, Blackburn and Preston, where do they go and who would get promoted from the lower South league?? I have always wondered how that works!!

[Devongone]

My own ideal scenario would be five divisions. The Premier, The Championship, The Dogfight, The Regionals (North and South), all with twenty teams each. Normally that would have meant eight teams coming up from National League football, but Bury have turned that into nine at the moment.

Barrow is an ideal example of a club who would be suited to the Regionals. They were kicked out of the EFL for coming third bottom, largely because the other clubs didn't like going to Barrow (okay even the people who live in Barrow don't like going to Barrow ……..). As St Charles says unless you are at a higher level of sport, and thus well-financed, travelling from Southend or Plymouth to Barrow is a journey and a half, especially when the fixture computer is not given flags to avoid arranging such games on a Tuesday night.

The National League itself currently mimics the EFL, so in our division Torquay might be expected to face Barrow away on a cold, wet Tuesday night in front of 1,400 specked potatoes. Nonsense, especially when you remember not every club in the National League is even full time, so some poor sod has to clock off early from work to catch the team coach to Barrow, get home in the early hours and clock on again atop of a couple of hours shut-eye and probably be expected to stay late to make up for the day before.

The trouble with merger proposals when you take them down to National North and South level is that you risk mixing together long-standing professional clubs with long-standing part-time and beloved amateur (-ish) clubs, whose aims, financial structures and facilities are really radically different.

The other problem which besets the whole of any such change is exactly the one St Charles pinpoints. Who decides North and South. Does Gloucester sound very North to you (a club with no ground that these proposals could encompass)? The crux of the problem is that we are a very divided country. The bulk of the money is down south. You could get a cluster of clubs in London's commuter belt able to get good-enough facilities, the huge population in the London area and ease of transport would mean they had a ready supply of players who had just missed out with big club's academies, together they could make a team well capable of Regional South at least as a vanity project for one rich hedge-funder living in that area.

But yes in the end small clubs regularly travelling the length of the country is nonsense. If they come together in a one-off play-off that's great, but surely we want small clubs to be able to build their finances, not dissipate them on financing pointless long-distance travel.

I heard Aldershot's Chairman and owner on Radio 4 Today and he was very gloomy over the prospects for survival of small clubs if they were forced to play behind closed doors. He thought mothballing clubs completely might give them more chance of survival. I must say I tend to agree, from the standpoint of a functioning society if we can't have events like sport with crowds and theatre then how will we ever get them back. Where will football clubs and theatres come from? They won't spontaneously regenerate like Dr Who will they? If we'd be able to say that no more than 50 people a week under the age of 50 would
die of it, would we for 2600 death over the year, have closed the country down? People don't tend to head out from Care Homes and Hospitals to watch football matches. Football crowds will be the young and asymptomatic in general. Would it be beyond the wit of clubs to designate one stand for the over-60s and those with pre-exisiting health conditions and allow them to social-distance within that area. The rest of the crowd, could just be a crowd.

[spireitematt]

This does not look good. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/52755173

It had already been a tough few years for Chesterfield, who were in League One as recently as 2017 but now find themselves in the fifth tier.

Owner Dave Allen has put in £700,000 to plug the financial gap at the club since January, with £100,000 lost in function room sales since 23 March.

"It's not been great anyway before all this happened," said Chesterfield company secretary Ashley Carson.

He told BBC Radio Sheffield: "It's hitting us at every angle and the future at the moment is very bleak.

"I think our balance is sat on around £15,000 and that's all we've got in the bank."

[Devongone]

I don't see what difference that makes to be honest. Our £8 million debt has made our financial results an illusion for years. The virus does however give owners like Mr Allen an excuse to pull the plug. Rolls Royce has used the virus as a pretext to carry out the rationalisation it has been looking to make for years.

I doubt Mr Allen wants to lose £8 Million, but if he is never likely to get it back, it is a painful expense which might even grow. If he really has around £35 million then peace of mind in his declining years might be cheap at the price.

Huddersfield's bloke says he thinks 60 clubs could go the wall. The only reason for us not going to the wall would be Mr Allen. But men who've made millions don't tend to keep throwing good money after bad.