Another fine mess, Stanley?

THE Football League has distributed a discussion document to its member clubs ahead of its summer conference and AGM next month.

Clubs are being asked to consider the reorganisation of the domestic league system into five divisions of 20 teams from the 2019/20 season.

Under the proposal, The Football League would become a four division competition below the Premier League, including a new League Three, with 100 clubs competing across the professional game. In addition, the League Cup and League Trophy will be retained with the latter potentially having a revised format including a group structure of three games before becoming a knockout competition thereafter.

At this point, the Board of The Football League is offering no recommendation other than asking clubs to give the matter their full consideration, taking into account the following:

Football League clubs should be in a financially no worse, or preferably better, position as a result of any changes.

Promotion to/relegation from the Premier League must be retained at three places.

There would be no relegation out of The Football League in season 2018/19.

Football League clubs must support the final proposal.

The proposal stems from English football’s collective concerns about the fixture calendar and enjoys the ‘in principle’ support of executives from the Premier League and FA. The Premier League is due to take a report to their clubs at their summer meeting, while the FA executive needs to consult with its board.

The congested fixture list remains one of the English game’s biggest concerns with insufficient dates available in each season to sensibly accommodate both League and Cup fixtures without significant clashes.

The League’s proposal seeks to achieve a new, innovative approach to the fixture calendar and will need ‘whole game’ support as this concern is not unique to The Football League and is shared for differing reasons by both the Premier League and FA.

If implemented, the proposal would reduce the number of midweek matches from next season’s nine in the Championship, seven in League One and six in League Two to just one in the Championship, League Two and the new League Three and none in League One in 2019/20.

At the end of the previous season there would be no relegation from the lowest division although the practicalities of promotion and relegation between the remaining divisions is yet to be determined.

The Premier League reduced the number of teams from 22 to 20 in its division in 1995 by relegating four teams and promoting only two.

In considering these matters, the football authorities have identified their main objectives as reducing the number of matches played (fixture congestion) while retaining or increasing current revenues while also prioritising bank holiday weekends for games.

This, of course, has an additional knock-on effect for domestic national teams. It has been suggested that England’s lack of recent success on a global scale has been caused by the star players’ end-of-season exhaustion!

However, not everyone is happy. The clubs currently plying their trade below the professional divisions, in the National League, are ‘very concerned’ at the potential consequences to them.

Brian Barwick, the current chairman, has requested a meeting to discuss ‘the horror’ expressed by some of his members, some of whom believe that the new proposals demonstrate that the orchestrators are out of touch with grassroots football.

The argument against the recent proposals stems from the anticipated reduction in revenue that would come from a lower number of games while they believe that the FA Cup, an opportunity for so many to gain high-profile fixtures against top-tier teams, will be devalued to a midweek competition.

While some do believe that additional TV and advertising revenues can be generated from the new format, there are doubts that this will be allowed to cascade to sides below Championship level.

Even some teams, particularly those currently financially challenged, fear losing four home games that provide valuable income.

Accrington Stanley – who are they? Many of the younger generation will have never heard of the club that resigned from the league in 1962 due to financial difficulties while those slightly older Brits may only recall the name from a national milk advertisement. There is a genuine concern that other clubs may follow a similar path.

It took many years for the club to climb back and they only narrowly missed out on promotion this season from League Two, the fourth tier of English football.

The population of Accrington is about 35,000 and there are two much bigger clubs within six miles of the east Lancashire town - Burnley, who have just been promoted to the Premier League, and Blackburn Rovers.

Manchester and Liverpool are within an hour’s drive.

Accrington FC were original members of the league in 1888. That club folded after five years and Stanley, named after the Stanley Street area of Accrington, joined the league in the 1920s.

Stanley played in the lowest level of English football until 1962 when they went bust. In 1989 a television advert for milk poked fun at the club when two young boys were discussing their dreams of becoming footballers. One told the other that if he did not drink his milk he would end up playing for Accrington Stanley.

“Accrington Stanley? Who are they?” said the boy. The advert ran for six years. Another who poked fun at the club was a local singer who named himself Stanley Accrington.

Stanley started again in 1970 at a new home, the Crown Ground. They rose from local and regional leagues all the way back to the Football League in 2006.

That said, after this season’s heartache, they might welcome the planned changes as six teams will receive a promotion that is currently difficult to achieve. It could be the making of clubs that embrace the changes.

But what about the fans? After all, football is so financially lucrative due to its popularity. While there are the faithful few who will travel the length-and-breadth of the country come rain, sleet or snow, it is hoped that fewer games will mean more make the effort to attend games at a weekend.

There is also the prospect of a winter break, one subject on which former adversaries, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, were in agreement over. However, the Christmas period has always been popular amongst English fans which would mean deferring this until January, which may eat into a European campaign.

Of the current 72 football league clubs 90 per cent (65 clubs) must support the proposal at their AGM in June 2017. The Premier League and the Football Association have backed this ‘in principle’.

Any final decisions on this proposal would not need to be made by Football League clubs until their AGM in June 2017 enabling full consultation with clubs and stakeholders, including fans.

If these proposals are adopted it will make for a fascinating season the year before. Four teams will ultimately have to be lost from the Championship (meaning up to seven are relegated) with the impact felt even greater lower down.

One intriguing debate surrounding the proposals is whether the two Scottish giants, Celtic and Rangers, could make the transition south of the border.

In 2009 Premier League clubs voted against their inclusion but who knows the future? The ‘Old Firm’ in a new league is an interesting thought – but in which division would they enter?