The end of the season.

[Scott Brehaut]

In other words, no one still knows what division they will be playing in, if any, when football returns.

No one knows how many clubs will survive this, let alone what division they will be in.

[Plainmoor78]

The Fylde chairman has said that he cannot justify continuing to support his club financially at its pre-virus levels at the expense of his non-footballing business and the people who work in that business (which he calls his real world business).
With some in the game now saying that football will not restart until 2021 at the earliest the footballing is going to look very different in the future.

[culmstockgull]

Well rightly or wrongly decisions have been made, a fudge, a compromise , a bad ending to an insurmountable problem, all of the above, but never the less a decision, unlike the league and premier. We should have waited for a decision of the premier if they had made one as they are in one form of another, football's paymasters.
I note that one football journalist stated last week he understood that 2 championship clubs and perhaps as many 20 lower football league clubs will go broke within the month, that in itself poses questions for promotion and relegation.
For Torquay who have no money, no separate fiancé stream, next season when ever that starts will be very different to the last, a good percentage of our team will be youth players whether they are ready or good enough because that will be the reality of football at our level going forward, I do not believe we will be disadvantaged because the majority of not all of teams in out league will be in the same position.
Regionalisation of the national and league two must happen purely on financial terms, our days of hotels the night before will be a luxury that must be consigned to the sub heading of a complete waste of money.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Well rightly or wrongly decisions have been made, a fudge, a compromise , a bad ending to an insurmountable problem, all of the above, but never the less a decision, unlike the league and premier. We should have waited for a decision of the premier if they had made one as they are in one form of another, football's paymasters.
I note that one football journalist stated last week he understood that 2 championship clubs and perhaps as many 20 lower football league clubs will go broke within the month, that in itself poses questions for promotion and relegation.
For Torquay who have no money, no separate fiancé stream, next season when ever that starts will be very different to the last, a good percentage of our team will be youth players whether they are ready or good enough because that will be the reality of football at our level going forward, I do not believe we will be disadvantaged because the majority of not all of teams in out league will be in the same position.
Regionalisation of the national and league two must happen purely on financial terms, our days of hotels the night before will be a luxury that must be consigned to the sub heading of a complete waste of money.

Well that would be great. Thanks.
Regional football - lower crowds, lower revenue.
If , as you suggest and League 2 and the NL combine, the need for travel would still be there.
Also, what about the exiled fans?
It was sh1t when we were in the NLS.

[grockle]

Regionalised football would mean us travelling to places like Southend, Colchester, Dover, Ebbsfleet, etc. All far more difficult to reach than the "Northern" clubs along the M5/M6. It is a myth that we would benefit considerably from regionalisation. Possibly, our 2 nearest rivals will/would have been promoted this year, so increased gates would probably not happen either.

[Jerry]

For Torquay who have no money, no separate fiancé stream, next season when ever that starts will be very different to the last, a good percentage of our team will be youth players whether they are ready or good enough because that will be the reality of football at our level going forward, I do not believe we will be disadvantaged because the majority of not all of teams in out league will be in the same position.

If all the other teams are in the same position then why would we have to rely on youth players? If no other teams can offer big wages then all the players at this level will have to accept less, therefore we would have the same calibre of player just on lower salaries.

[culmstockgull]

Regional football will only bring bigger crowds, and yes it will be to the detriment of our exiled fans which I was for many years, Exeter, Cheltenham, Bristol rovers, Yeovil ,Newport to name a few would bring in on normal days 4000 plus crowds, yes we might have to go to southend and dover but that would still mean at least 75 per cent less costs on overnight stays than we pay now. its not just putting up 16 players but probably another ten from the non playing staff. Even if we only pay corporate rates for accommodation and food and transport we are still looking at well over 2 grand for each away game .
As for us being in the same boat as everyone else, I agree, but we wouldn't have the money to pay marque salaries, so you say to the likes of Reidy, Cameron,wynter,kalala, please stay and play for us but we will pay you half of what we do now, most of our players are imports from other parts of the country where they have families if not family homes , they could manage living closer to home without the additional costs of renting in Torquay but definitely not both.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Regional football will only bring bigger crowds, and yes it will be to the detriment of our exiled fans which I was for many years, Exeter, Cheltenham, Bristol rovers, Yeovil ,Newport to name a few would bring in on normal days 4000 plus crowds, yes we might have to go to southend and dover but that would still mean at least 75 per cent less costs on overnight stays than we pay now. its not just putting up 16 players but probably another ten from the non playing staff. Even if we only pay corporate rates for accommodation and food and transport we are still looking at well over 2 grand for each away game .
As for us being in the same boat as everyone else, I agree, but we wouldn't have the money to pay marque salaries, so you say to the likes of Reidy, Cameron,wynter,kalala, please stay and play for us but we will pay you half of what we do now, most of our players are imports from other parts of the country where they have families if not family homes , they could manage living closer to home without the additional costs of renting in Torquay but definitely not both.

No it wouldnt.
You are talking like we would get those clubs in our league, they would not want to "drop down" like that unless they actually got relegated.
If it was done by the EFL, who would use L1 & L2, then we wouldn't get anyone apart from Yeovil.
It would be a mix of NL and NLS.
So therefore, reduced crowds to what we currently get.

[Plainmoor78]

Given that the Conference was founded as a national league to try and facilitate the promotion of non league clubs into the Football League via the old re-election process I can't see how the National League top division could be regionalised.
If you wanted to regionalise the top strata off non league football you might as well scrap the National League and everyone goes back into the Southern/Northen Premier/Isthmian League as before.
Equally if the Football League decided to regionalise Leagues One and Two how can you have a pyramid system with tiers 1&2 national, tier 3 regional, tier 4 national?

[yellowmonkey]

It will be interesting to see what happens reference promotion and relegation, would we been in with a shout of the play offs as most of our team would have been back from injury?

[SteveDeckchair]

If everyone else is playing youth teams next season, then surely that is the best chance of going up. Hold onto the best players and we walk the league.

Simples......

[grockle]

If everyone else is playing youth teams next season, then surely that is the best chance of going up. Hold onto the best players and we walk the league.

Simples......

IF only football was as simple.

[Louis]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/52862637

[MellowYellow]

IF only football was as simple.

I still remember when Youth Academy graduates started for Man Utd when Sir Alex Ferguson picked the likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Gary Neville coining the phrase "you can't win anything with kids" the rest is history, winning the league and cup double that season. And only last season on the opening game the youngest named team in the Premier was Man Utd beating Chelsea 4-0. So let's not count our chickens till they hatch.

[desperado]

Well that was like watching paint dry - Colchester Exeter I mean.
No Gary Warren amongst the nine substitutes. Let's hope he's on his way here in a few weeks.