National League North and South seasons are suspended for two weeks

The decision, made by the National League board, was announced on Friday and sees both divisions suspended for a fortnight.

A statement read: “Following the review of the feedback from clubs in connection to the recent clubs meeting, a board meeting this morning decided to halt the participation in the North/South Divisions for a two-week period, effective immediately. As a result, tomorrow’s games are formally postponed.”

AFC Fylde were already without a match anyway following last week’s positive Covid-19 tests.

However, the club still released a statement of their own outlining their response to the decision, saying: “AFC Fylde Football Club are disappointed by this decision and will keep the fans updated in due course.”

The futures of the National League, National League North and National League South had been thrown into serious doubt when the government, who had provided a £10m rescue package in October, said any future funding would have to be in the form of loans rather than grants.

All 66 clubs across the three divisions were given the option of taking an individual loan from the government, taking a centralised loan from the National League or cancelling the season at a meeting on Wednesday.

A large number of clubs, including half of the National League North, reportedly chose the third option and wanted the league scrapped before this weekend where they would have incurred more costs and - without any coronavirus testing - put themselves at risk.

In advance of Friday’s meeting, 12 National League North clubs had called for an immediate suspension of the season.

Telford, Alfreton, Bradford Park Avenue, Blyth, Curzon Ashton, Darlington, Farsley Celtic, Gateshead, Guiseley, Kettering, Southport and Spennymoor Town all joined together in signalling their intent for the season to be stopped.

A joint statement read: “Whilst the integrity of the National League is important, we do not value this above the safety and wellbeing of our families, staff, volunteers or that of our heroic workers who are tackling this pandemic on the frontline.

“Furthermore, we have now been asked to consider loans against our clubs and we are quite simply not prepared to trade whilst insolvent.

“Therefore, we are calling for the immediate suspension of the league competition to allow the National League, FA and the DCMS time to find a solution that is acceptable to all.

“This suspension will allow us the time to lobby our respective MPs and carry out our own financial risk assessments against avoiding a null and void scenario.

“An inability to secure acceptable funding to cover Covid-19 testing and the loss of fans will continue to render us insolvent and we are not prepared to prolong this beyond the 29th January 2021.

“We are duty bound as mere custodians of our clubs and will do everything we can to ensure we do not place any avoidable further financial burden now or in the future upon our community assets.

“Quite simply, 66 clubs would not have willingly participated in any footballing competition which initiated playing contracts, without assurances.”

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