When you pick up the papers there seem to be a relentless wave of bad news about the sustainability of non-league football.
The existence of a number of our famous old clubs is once again in doubt. In the Conference North alone, the financial alarm bells are ringing at Worcester City and Workington. This, after hard hit clubs like FC Halifax Town and Chester, are only just returning to the Conference National after enforced relegations due to their former incarnations going bust.
Blame is quick to be pointed at the club’s management team and directors. The media talk is often about club financial mismanagement, overspending on player wages, irresponsible ground contracts, or failure to sell enough season tickets.
Whilst financial mismanagement is - and always will be - the major contributor to club failure I think more attention needs to be given, by both clubs and the football authorities, to some of the bigger, broader, risks that face the whole of our national grassroots game.
At this point I’m going to use two words that often polarise discussion – climate change.
However, I don’t want to start an environmental debate about the causes, severity, or responsibilities for climate change, I simply want to look at two related points that I think every grassroots supporter should be concerned with.
First, the wet summer weather and cold winters may be an ongoing feature of the British climate.
Second, fuel and energy prices are likely to increase further.
There is plenty of science that considers my first point to be a distinct possibility. Melting ice caps have altered ocean currents which in turn affects the jet stream. The jet stream is why our British climate has historically been milder than other countries on the same latitude as it delivers warm weather from the south. The change to the jet stream mean it now arrives further south, over the UK, and with it brings colder wetter summers and colder winters.
So what does this mean for our great game? Well, the impact of last summer’s rain and subsequent winter snow was devastating for so many clubs in the Football Conference. Postponements became typical. Games were being postponed as early as August, while certain grounds became unplayable; Gateshead, FC Halifax Town, and Harrogate Town all had to rearrange home fixtures to other stadiums. As a consequence clubs lost revenue through alternate venue hire costs, while all teams suffered as fixture congestion reduced attendances when games were eventually played during the midweek.
Clubs that are operating on tight budgets can find that their finances could quickly turn sour when prolonged postponements occur – a one off bad season might be bearable – but three or four consecutive seasons of unplayable conditions will see many more of our cherished clubs forced out of existence.
My second point relates to the continuing rise in fuel and energy. Despite the recession, fuel costs continue to rise and rarely go down. There are many factors that have contributed to this. International demand has sent oil prices soaring as the economies of China, Brazil, Russia, and India continue to grow exponentially while, despite the promise of shale gas and oil, supply is unable to keep up. If you look at Government fossil fuel price projections to 2020 then you see that their moderate assumptions are that fuel, electricity and gas prices will continue to rise in real terms through to the end of the decade.
So what does this mean for the grassroots game? The recent development of the football pyramid is at odds with increasing fuel costs. Over the last decade the system has been revised to reduce the number of regional leagues. Even at the first tier of regionalisation the geographic spread is so wide that in Conference North teams such as Bishop’s Stortford face Workington - a near 600 mile round trip. It hardly needs stating that the current set up means that it has become far more expensive for teams and fans to follow their teams when they travel away. Of course as fossil fuel prices soar, it also becomes more expensive to stage matches - particularly floodlit midweek matches - as electricity and gas bills go up. Of course as postponements increase there will be many more rearranged midweek fixtures.
Naturally these issues are beyond the control or influence of the football authorities and clubs. However more should be done to prepare and adapt our great game for these challenges. Some clubs and individuals in the game have already taken steps. For example, Forest Green Rovers, Ipswich Town, and even Manchester United have developed climate change strategies to cut their energy costs. There is even a campaigning organisation in the field, ‘Sustainability in Sport’ (http://www.sustainabilityinsport.com/ ) which champions greater environmental sustainability in our national game. This has been set up by former Manchester United player Gary Neville.
Despite this if you put in the words “climate change” into thefa.com search engine you get no results – which appears indicative of the football authorities approach. This is completely at odds with most large UK businesses who recognise the challenges and understand the need to have a plan to survive and thrive.
Climate change promises postponements, higher fuel costs, and the likelihood that more of our great non league clubs will be tipped over the financial abyss as a result. It would be nice to know that our games administrators had a plan.
