AFC Fylde proposal: Don't start next season until New Year

AFC Fylde owner David Haythornthwaite has proposed that the next National League season should not begin until January.
AFC Fylde want National League clubs to vote on whether to start next season without supportersAFC Fylde want National League clubs to vote on whether to start next season without supporters
AFC Fylde want National League clubs to vote on whether to start next season without supporters
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Fylde call for leadership and options to vote on

The Coasters chairman argues any attempt to start the season behind closed doors because of coronavirus would be financially ruinous, and he believes that delaying the season until the New Year would increase chances of kicking off in front of crowds.

Haythornthwaite feels his fellow clubs should vote on the matter urgently, though they remain embroiled in the issues of resolving this season.

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In his latest video interview for the club website, Haythornthwaite stated that the question of when to start next season has “huge implications”.

He said: “I’ve always felt that if the Government advice is that we can’t have gatherings of people, then we could be waiting a long, long time for football to return to normal.

“We can’t just wait and wait. We need to go back to all the chairmen and ask: do you want to start with crowds or do you not?

“It’s a simple question and everyone is going to vote that we don’t want to start without crowds because how can we? In our league, there’s no chance of streaming games on the internet – it isn’t cost effective because there aren’t enough people who want to watch it.

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“So we have zero income, zero sponsorship, zero season tickets, zero hospitality ... zero, zero , zero.

“All we have is costs, so we can’t possibly start (behind closed doors). So let’s have that vote.

“After having that vote we then need a date to start and I suggest that date is the first week of January.

“If we start then, we could get the league completed by June, possibly July. You then have a very short break before we start the next season.”

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Haythornthwaite admits there would be a price to pay for such a strategy, adding: “The implication is that for next season there would be no involvement at our level in FA Cup or FA Trophy, none whatsoever. That would be sad. I love the FA Cup. We made a lot of money out of it this season and we could lose all that revenue.

“We won the FA Trophy last season and will be one of the fews teams to have held it for two years – a trivia questtion for the future.

“We have to sacrifice that – it makes sense to try to have a proper league season.

“That’s a suggestion but we need a date for next season because we need to know what to plan for.”