FOOTBALL’s South West Peninsula League Board is set to meet today (Thursday) to discuss how the remainder of the season might be concluded, writes Nigel Walrond.

It seems very doubtful that any more league fixtures will be arranged in the SWPL this campaign, with the possibility of cup competitions being held to give clubs some matches in March through to May.

The SWPL is in a better situation than most, in terms of how many matches have been completed so far, but they have still got 482 games to fit in, and with the season due to finish at the end of May, they will find it extremely difficult to play all of those fixtures.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that, if Devon and Cornwall are moved into Tier Three after lockdown, some clubs will still not be able to stage games as they will not be able to open their clubhouses and will find it financially not viable as a result.

There is also the further problem that some games might continue to be postponed due to further COVID outbreaks at clubs. Saturday, February 27 seems like the earliest possible date that matches could resume, with the Government not planning to review the current national lockdown situation until February 15.

But what to do with regards to the current season?

One option is that it is declared null and void, as happened in 2020-21.

Another option is picking up next season where this season has left off, bearing in mind there might be another disrupted fixture list in 2021-22, with the likelihood that some COVID restrictions might be in place next winter.

The FA could come up with a formula where leagues are decided after say, 66% or 75% of fixtures are played, or after every team has played each other once. However, that would prove a nightmare for league secretaries to arrange where teams have yet to play each other at all. Who would get the home game? Two examples where impossible decisions would have to be made are in Premier East, where title chasers Torpoint and Millbrook are yet to meet, and Premier West, where Saltash United and Helston Athletic are still to lock horns this campaign.

League secretary Phil Hiscox told me: “There is nothing in the FA standardised rules that allows a league to pick and choose which fixtures to play and which fixtures not to play, and it is an unfair pressure to tell clubs or league officers to choose which games to play.

“We are waiting on the FA to complete a survey of clubs, but they haven’t sent the draft questions to the leagues for approval yet.

“Another thing that is moving on is that other leagues, and clubs in our league, are making the point that they want a bit of certainty.

“The FA briefing to leagues sent on Friday confirmed that no extension of the season into June is being looked at, so the last date for playing this season, in any competition, remains May 31, which this year falls on a Bank Holiday.

“I have deliberately drafted the remaining fixtures to show people what they would be faced with if we carry on trying to complete the league season.”

Hiscox added: “The reality is everything now hinges on two organisations of which we have got no control of.

“The first is the Government, secondly, the FA."

Hiscox has written a blog giving his own personal view on the situation.

“The facts of a March re-start are as clear as can be – 482 games to fit into a maximum of 13 Saturdays (allowing to play right to the end of May), means on average every team playing twice a week for 13 straight weeks, and those who are behind on average already it could be more like three times a week – and that assumes the weather is okay, Cups are not included, pitch availability (and some share with cricket, meaning only eight of the 13 Saturdays can be used for hosting games),” he wrote.

“Then we are faced with pressures on clubs and players – can they, indeed should they even, be presented with such a fixture schedule?

“Can the club volunteers, many will still be waiting for vaccine as the under- 70’s are not included in the mid-February roll out, enable football?, and lastly, are there even enough match officials to cover all those games in a 13-week period?

“The reality is therefore that the season cannot finish in its traditional and – yes I will say it – under the agreed league rules.

“People can talk about points per game, playing each other once, mathematical formulas etc, etc – but no team will ACTUALLY win a league on the historically established system that has been used since the 1880’s.

“So where do we go from here? In reality all we can do is postpone masses of league games that we know cannot be played in lock-down, there is no room to re-arrange them in the normal way, and only higher powers can dictate a way forward – but even they cannot be King Canute, holding back a virus that threatens far more than football – real lives matter more.

“Community-focused clubs are at their lowest ebb, the survival of them to live to fight another day, to be there for the communities after the pandemic, is the biggest fight the football authorities have on their hands. That’s far more important than finding a way to push through a mathematical formula to conclude the season!”

In a separate interview with the BBC, Hiscox said: “Before Christmas, when we were in Tier Three, I watched a game in Devon at a historic club that has been going for over 100 years in various formats.

“The home team were using the clubhouse as one dressing room, the away team were using the two dressing rooms.

“The tea hut was closed. The clubhouse was closed.

“The 80-year-old secretary of the club had not been to a game all season because he is shielding. It is basically a soulless experience.

“You speak to the volunteers and several of them say it just isn’t what we want for local sport.

“If you are a volunteer you are not enjoying it. If you are a spectator it is not the same.

“In my experience, there are one or two people at each of these clubs who keep them alive.

“Without the volunteers these clubs won’t survive and some of them are vulnerable and frightened.”