Sam Allardyce fears the the nation’s talented youngsters, not to mention the clubs nurturing them, are being hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. Big Sam had his say in The Non-League Paper with football wrongly seen by so many in turbulent times as a game run by billionaires and only played by millionaires…
With the coronavirus threatening lives and livelihoods, footballers aren’t getting much sympathy at the moment. When people think of football – and I include the government in this – they tend to focus on the millions and billions of pounds splashing around the Premier League.
What they don’t realise is that probably 80 percent of professional players in this country are living week to week and month to month. I know, because I’ve been there. When I managed Blackpool in the mid-nineties, the lads used to run to the bank on a Friday afternoon to see if their wages had gone in. Sometimes they had, sometimes they hadn’t.
It was the same at Preston North End. The wages would always be cobbled together one way or another, but finances were very tight. A shock like this would have sent us under, and that’s exactly the scenario faced by every club from League One down.
A lucky few might have some reserves, or an owner who can foot the bill. If not, your revenue streams will deplete very quickly. And if you’re a semi-professional football club, like many in the National League, it’s even harder. Lads at those levels have a short career. They might earn £500 or £600 per week, and they’ve got to pay mortgages and provide for their families whilst trying to save for retirement. It’s very difficult.
Resources
That’s why there needs to be some form of bailout, and I think everybody needs to help during the coronavirus outbreak. We’ve heard this week about the government measures to help wider society. That must include the lower divisions of football because it’s not just the players. It’s the club staff, the matchday employees, the charitable arms of the business.
I know the EFL has pledged a £50m relief package to help its clubs, made up of interest-free loans and early award payments. That’s very welcome. Just this week, though, Dagenham & Redbridge director Steve Thompson has said that the National League will also need around £20m to survive the crisis.
Will the government pay up? Perhaps. But I’d like to think the Premier League, with all its vast resources, can lend a hand. As a football lover and a fan of the game, we need to be supporting every club at every level to survive. It’s not just about our history and tradition of strong lower leagues. It’s about the value to youngsters throughout the country.
Kids everywhere dream of becoming professional footballers and Non-League clubs are often the first step on that journey. For others, they are the destination itself.
Avenues
If you let those clubs die and they don’t re-emerge from this economic disaster then you are depriving someone of the chance to live their dream. That’s what the Premier League needs to realise.
Even at that level, the money at club level will diminish very quickly, purely due to the size of their players’ wages. But the players themselves could certainly take the hit and survive unpaid for a few weeks. That’s exactly what you’ve seen in Germany, with players at Borussia Monchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund deferring their wages to help the club.
Unfortunately, I can’t believe for one minute that the agents of the players would allow that to happen. Nevertheless, I think all avenues have to be explored and all parties must recognise that we’re in the grip of an unprecedented crisis and must rally to help each other as much as we possibly can.
I do hope Notts have learnt their lesson
Seeing Notts County in the National League is a great shame for me. I managed the Magpies for two-and-a-half wonderful years. We won promotion from the old Division Three and had some great lads like Gary Jones, Ian Richardson and Steve Finnan.
A club of their stature shouldn’t be anywhere near Non-League. But what’s happened is proof once again that any football club is only as good as its owners. If the wrong people take control, problems are inevitable. That is what the EFL has allowed for many years and that’s why you see clubs like Bury, Bolton and so many others get into trouble.
Wrong’uns
Putting the wrong person in charge, even for one season, can be so devastating to a club’s long-term future that it might take ten years to fully recover. Some never come back at all. You need an investor who loves the football club. Who wants to put money in. Who can afford to invest, and not borrow in order to do so.
If you’re not rich enough to do that, you need to be responsible and allow the club to run on its income. A club like Rochdale has done that for years and years, yet still remained competitive. Then you have to rely on long-term policies; supporting a good manager, building a progressive youth system, or a recruitment strategy that allows you to sell players on and creates a steady flow of income.
That’s how small clubs flourish. Under the previous regime, Notts County didn’t do any of that and paid the price. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and can come back stronger.
Make sure you get your copy of The Non-League Paper this week for more great columns and all the latest news on the impact of the coronavirus crisis on society and football’s fightback.
In shops on Sundays and Mondays, it’s always available as a pound-busting digital edition and full replica of the printed paper. Save cash on single issues, even more on longer deals and the pages still rustle too!
Images courtesy of The Non-League Paper
