The Ref Stop

Grass Roots Season Curtailment (?)

Now NL North and South are going null & void, I can't see it being too long before the FA does the same for all other grassroots football. It will probably wait until after the PM's announcement on Monday, so it will know the earliest possible re-start dates makes it impractical to continue any meaningful league fixtures.
A few cup comps may be possible, but that will be it until pre-season next year.

Agree. I've heard a rumour there is an announcement planned and they are just waiting for the government announcement before issuing it.
 
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This NLS NLN thing makes my blood boil. The National League and The FA have allowed football to be unnecessarily played through two months of guaranteed legally binding lockdown, yet they wait until a few days before an unclear roadmap to pull the plug
They knew with certainty what they were facing. Completely irresponsible to allow all that social contact and travel, for nothing
 
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The teams in the Saturday OA league that I cover have already voted to null and void the season
 
I know certainly one League I pick up games on could comfortably finish as most of the 1st month was either winter break or expected Snow anyway.

That surely depends when it is allowed to restart. We know it won't be from 8th March as it has already been leaked as to what is likely then, and from what has been said today there will be three weeks between each easing of restrictions to see the effect on infection rates. Which means it will be the end of March at the absolute earliest.
 
It's very likely that football will restart before pubs and many leisure activities, I'm sure many would like to take that opportunity to do something with their weekends.

The pyramid is going to be null and void but the FA certainly shouldn't be making blanket decisions about grassroots leagues many of which are half way through a ~20 games season. The mental health benefits alone...
 
That surely depends when it is allowed to restart. We know it won't be from 8th March as it has already been leaked as to what is likely then, and from what has been said today there will be three weeks between each easing of restrictions to see the effect on infection rates. Which means it will be the end of March at the absolute earliest.

Looks like its end of March, all being well.

 
Looks like its end of March, all being well.

Mid-to-Late March was the expectation, so no shocks. It sounds like kids may only be able to participate during school attendance, which is a tad disappointing. We'll find out later
Although they don't want to publish dates as such, there's obvious pressure to do so. Interestingly, if the R rate remains roughly unchanged, we could end up with very low case rates hospital admissions and bed occupancy by the end of March, but still remain under quite stringent restrictions. So the timeline of easing measures seems very cautious and may be the subject of Legal challenges
That said, a rapid vaccination programme, coupled with virus in the community, is a breeding ground for nasty immunity ignorant new variants.
On balance, I reckon Boris will adopt a Father Christmas role this time round by opening up the pubs early etc.
 
Mid-to-Late March was the expectation, so no shocks. It sounds like kids may only be able to participate during school attendance, which is a tad disappointing. We'll find out later
Although they don't want to publish dates as such, there's obvious pressure to do so. Interestingly, if the R rate remains roughly unchanged, we could end up with very low case rates hospital admissions and bed occupancy by the end of March, but still remain under quite stringent restrictions. So the timeline of easing measures seems very cautious and may be the subject of Legal challenges
That said, a rapid vaccination programme, coupled with virus in the community, is a breeding ground for nasty immunity ignorant new variants.
On balance, I reckon Boris will adopt a Father Christmas role this time round by opening up the pubs early etc.
I think that is the fear at the moment, mutations. The fear being that the mutations will start to more vigorously attack younger, fitter, hosts who havent had a vaccine, leading to yet another wave and continuation/reimplementation of restrictions.
Time will tell, I don't expect any meaningful football until next season, at this point. Our regional step 6 have already committed to a 2 week build up to resume fixtures, which at current rate is mid April.. Ironically, leaving us in an almost identical position as to where we null and voided the last season.
 
I think that is the fear at the moment, mutations. The fear being that the mutations will start to more vigorously attack younger, fitter, hosts who havent had a vaccine, leading to yet another wave and continuation/reimplementation of restrictions.
Time will tell, I don't expect any meaningful football until next season, at this point. Our regional step 6 have already committed to a 2 week build up to resume fixtures, which at current rate is mid April.. Ironically, leaving us in an almost identical position as to where we null and voided the last season.
Yes, Steps 3 to 6 were doomed a good while back. Step 2 travelled all over the country for months before accepting certainty we had back in December. You couldn't make it up
The only two questions that remain for me is that of Youth Football and 'true grass-roots' stuff like Sunday League. The FA and CFA's have a simple decision to make; a) allow these Leagues to play some organised Cup games and such like, or b) commit those teams to playing unregulated Friendlies for months on end
I listen to some learn-ed podcasts and it does sound like all decisions are being based on next season being fine & dandy. Whilst the challenges are likely to be lessened, it's really naive to think there won't be significant disruption to paying spectators and hospitality in the least. New variants sound very likely and could require a three month lag time on vaccination top-up and three month roll-out. Uncertain times remain IMO
 
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Yes, Steps 3 to 6 were doomed a good while back. Step 2 travelled all over the country for months before accepting certainty we had back in December. You couldn't make it up
The only two questions that remain for me is that of Youth Football and 'true grass-roots' stuff like Sunday League. The FA and CFA's have a simple decision to make; a) allow these Leagues to play some organised Cup games and such like, or b) commit those teams to playing unregulated Friendlies for months on end
I'd expect cup competitions.
Would be very easy to take a 20 team league, 4 groups of 5, play each other once, 2 go through, quarters, semis, final which will take you to around normal league finish time if have mid week fixtures too.
 
Looks like its end of March, all being well.
So, to get up and running, the first matches could be Easter Saturday (5th April). Clubs won't have been able to train until 29th, so no chance of matches mid-week. That would 5 / 6 weeks to get games in - effectively 11 match days to play the necessary games. That depends on clubs getting pitches and players for the matches - but this would fit into @JamesL scheme.

The other unknown is when will cricket start, as a lots of grassroots football share the same facilities. Would cricket want to play with no bar facilities?
 
So, to get up and running, the first matches could be Easter Saturday (5th April). Clubs won't have been able to train until 29th, so no chance of matches mid-week. That would 5 / 6 weeks to get games in - effectively 11 match days to play the necessary games. That depends on clubs getting pitches and players for the matches - but this would fit into @JamesL scheme.

The other unknown is when will cricket start, as a lots of grassroots football share the same facilities. Would cricket want to play with no bar facilities?

we did last year and it was fine!
 
Yes, Steps 3 to 6 were doomed a good while back. Step 2 travelled all over the country for months before accepting certainty we had back in December. You couldn't make it up
The only two questions that remain for me is that of Youth Football and 'true grass-roots' stuff like Sunday League. The FA and CFA's have a simple decision to make; a) allow these Leagues to play some organised Cup games and such like, or b) commit those teams to playing unregulated Friendlies for months on end
I listen to some learn-ed podcasts and it does sound like all decisions are being based on next season being fine & dandy. Whilst the challenges are likely to be lessened, it's really naive to think there won't be significant disruption to paying spectators and hospitality in the least. New variants sound very likely and could require a three month lag time on vaccination top-up and three month roll-out. Uncertain times remain IMO
One of our rare disagreements - what are 'unregulated friendlies' and how can clubs 'commit' to them?

Friendlies surely, just like they've always been - clubs just sort them out themselves and get a ref they know or they approach County FA for a 'proper' ref?

The additional option is to get their League fixture secretary to arrange the friendlies and/or the referee.
 
One of our rare disagreements - what are 'unregulated friendlies' and how can clubs 'commit' to them?

Friendlies surely, just like they've always been - clubs just sort them out themselves and get a ref they know or they approach County FA for a 'proper' ref?

The additional option is to get their League fixture secretary to arrange the friendlies and/or the referee.
I just mean that 'friendlies' are generally less well organized and will not readily comply with such things as 'contact tracing' and so on
 
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