Dressing Rooms

[The Reasonable Man]

I also think - and this may not apply to Aylesbury - that the FA (and many prudently-run clubs) have had enough of some clubs lavishing money on their playing squads to achieve a series of promotions whilst not improving their grounds at the same rate. This is probably designed to discourage that approach.

It's complex - there are certainly clubs at Step 4 who are above their natural level and don't have the funds or support to sustain it in the long term. On the other hand, that's what happens when you shoehorn in new Divisions and promote whole swathes of clubs in one go, and that's down to the FA.

[drummyb]

No those are good points also. On the flip side, IF a club wins its league, then it should be promoted. Otherwise theres no point in the competition whatsoever. But likewise, any ambitious club should be improving groynds too. Tough one. Obviously the higher the level, the better the facilities should be as youre getting closer to league status. However what it may do is isolate the bigger, wealthier clubs in non-league from the rest, very much like the Man Citys from the Bournemouths Potentially any FA Cup home ties, would need to played at neutral grounds, which then hinders the underdog, which then puts the revenue back to the top.

[The Reasonable Man]

The fuse for all this was actually lit 40 years ago when the Alliance Premier League (now the National League) was formed and what we now know as the pyramid began to take shape. It eventually led, as was hoped at the outset - to automatic promotion to the Football League, and then every club theoretically had a "routemap" to the top.

Remember that first season of the APL? Redditch, Trowbridge, Leamington all at the peak of NL with grounds nowhere near suitable for League football. Sooner or later, particularly once clubs such as Kiddy, Stevenage and Macclesfield began to fail the FL grading and be denied promotion, the grading rules were always going to be stiffened.

Plus, of course, Bradford and Hillsborough led to overdue safety improvements being set in Law.

Before that NL football was much more haphazard. Nobody was overly fussed about promotion, and if a club wanted to apply for membership of the League it could, regardless of what League it played in or what position it finished. Nobody really gave a stuff about crush barriers, stewards, yellow hatching or the size of your dressing rooms.

Better back then? Not necessarily.

Worse? Again, not necessarily.

EDIT. Trowbridge weren't in for the first two seasons. They joined in 81/82, but the point still stands.

[andy]

Great points made TRM. I particularly agree with you about the mass promotion of teams to a level above their means. It just simply lowers the standard of everything. It's not good for NL football just to 'allegedly' reduce travelling distances.

[drummyb]

Two ways of looking at that issue. Once you get to National league status, then it should be more, well, National. I think however regional leagues, benefit smaller non league clubs. Used to be the way with Bank's League, Midland alliance, Isthmian, Southern League etc. I think in a few short years, when the wheat is cut from the chaff, it will settle itself down. This is a new set up and numbers have had to be made up. That will settle itself with natural promotion and relegation, as has always happened. No its not a great way to start, but a start was decided upon.