Football-starved fans and cash-strapped clubs are staking their claim for supporters to be allowed back in The Non-League Paper as pressure mounts for the current blanket ban at matches to be lifted.
The #LetFansIn campaign was gathering momentum on social media as The NLP went to press this weekend and the calls for commonsense to prevail are covered in a series of exclusive interviews and reports as clubs at Steps 5 and 6 get ready to kick off at the start of September in the early rounds of the FA Cup.
Leading voices in the campaign led by Dorking Wanderers owner and manager Marc White are weighing up a legal challenge while demanding urgent action from the Football Association to press Non-League’s case with clubs fighting for their survival when people are gathering in their hundreds and thousands elsewhere to engage in other sporting and leisure activities.
Northern Premier League chairman Mark Harris declares his competition and both the Isthmian League and Southern League are “all absolutely rock-solid” in a shared belief that “no crowds equals no games” while another backer, Andy Walsh from the Football Supporters’ Association, states the organisation’s case for writing to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to demand an urgent review of the controversial guidelines.
Sunday’s NLP: LET ‘EM IN!
Fans campaign set to take legal route#LetFansIn pic.twitter.com/co4JJS7vN8
— The Non-League Paper (@NonLeaguePaper) August 15, 2020
Elsewhere among 32-pages of the latest Non-League news, big interviews and exclusive features and columnists, catch up on Saturday’s friendly-fire action after The NLP’s reporters and photographers got masked up to be admitted to the behind-closed-doors fixtures that have brought the debate into the Government’s coronavirus restrictions into such sharp focus.
As the countdown continues to the start of next season, with or without fans, Burton Albion’s legendary skipper and super stalwart Darren Stride is recognised as a ‘Non-League Icon’ and Torquay United manager Gary Johnson pays tribute to late great Graham Taylor as his top boss in our ‘Greatest Gaffer’ summer series.
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Images courtesy of The Non-League Paper & @NonLeaguePaper/Twitter