A number of years ago, I was invited to attend a Leeds United Home Game with a match day sponsor. It was a privilege to be in the company of Norman Hunter, Paul Reaney and Alan Clarke. When Clarke was asked about a Manager that preceded Don Revie his response was simple: “His indecision was final!”

Government policy sadly seems to be run on similar lines despite their obvious difficulties. This makes running a Football Club extremely difficult.

Last night, there was a meeting of the Northern Premier League Clubs when almost certainly after the votes are counted, it was decided that football in the League will not continue whilst the harsh Tier System is in operation. Of the 224 clubs at steps 3 (ours) and 4, one club is in Tier 1, 148 in Tier 2 (66%) and 75 in Tier 3 (33%). 45 clubs in the Northern Premier League are in Tier 3. Many of you will be aware that where a club is operating within Tier 3, games must be played behind closed doors. This is completely impractical. Not only do we rely on gate receipts to pay players we also depend heavily on the secondary spend i.e. social club, tea hut sales, match day sponsorship and fundraising. Without supporters, clubs cannot survive.

It also became apparent that the £14 million referred to in the press assisting steps 3 and 4 is in the form of loans and not grants. As your Chairman, I could not sanction borrowing money to keep the club going. This is only putting off the evil day! We have been hung out to dry! There is no other way to put it.

Whilst the National League bask in the afterglow of receiving £30,000.00 to £90,000.00 per month for a period of 3 months, the NPL are to receive nothing. The Government has drawn a line under what they perceive as elite and non-elite football and that line ends at the Division above the Northern Premier League. This is notwithstanding the fact that several teams in our League have average home gates in excess of 24 teams of the National League System. In addition, Northern Premier League teams serve their communities proudly, no differently than Stockport County, Southport and Chorley. The Northern Premier League Board are petitioning the FA and Government on a daily basis to attempt to procure the funding essential to many clubs’ survival. As those of you who have seen my previous statements, will know Witton Albion are in a better position than most. However, we are a football club and if we are unable to play football, we, like everybody else, are fighting for our lives!

The Management and Players have been outstanding and have been placed on furlough. To do so, they have had to take a 20% deduction in pay as the furlough scheme only pays 80% of wages. I salute them and thank them for their assistance. Some of those players have no other income and as Christmas hurtles towards us, the lack of money will be sorely felt. The League have agreed to review the situation later on this month, but as time moves on and no league fixtures are played, there is the possibility that either the season will be extended to the 22nd May with finals the following weekend or, if continued delay makes even this date impossible, an alternative form of competition to decide the league might need to be considered. The relevant review date is the 16th December and we will, of course, keep you posted. It has been conceded that as we move into January, the chances of resurrecting the season will be almost nil.

The indecision that I referred to at the start of this statement is never more evident than in the ludicrous insistence that the team compete in the FA Trophy against Bamber Bridge on Tuesday night. Although Gary Martindale has been putting the players through their paces in terms of keeping their levels of fitness up, it is some time since we last played and I again commend the staff for their dedication.

We will be hosting a Training match at 1.30pm on Saturday against Northwich Victoria so that all players can have valuable minutes. Spectators will be permitted to attend at reduced rates as if it was a pre–season friendly. The game will be on a split gate basis. Sadly, the Social Club will be closed.

Continued progress in the FA Trophy competition will determine whether our players keep playing (the next round will be the following week) or be asked, once again to stand down! The indecision is final!

Thanks and stay safe,

John