Coronavirus battle: Coasters to put league first and vote to end season

AFC Fylde chairman David Haythornthwaite is backing the National league’s recommendation to end the season without playing again because of the impact of the coronavirus.
The Coasters chief, pictured cheering on Jim Bentley’s side, will vote in favour of the resolution, despite the prospect of a second vote on determining any promotion and relegation then taking place.
AFC Fylde were four points adrift of safety when the season was suspended in March but Haythornthwaite has told the Blackpool Gazette he will put the whole league first by voting to stop the campaign, whatever the consequences.
Haythornthwaite, who’s previously suggested the season should be declared null and void with no promotion or relegation, confirmed the club’s intentions on Thursday ahead of a May 7 deadline for the key poll.

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— AFC Fylde (@AFCFylde) April 16, 2020

Ahead of an official statement setting out their position, the Coasters chief told The Gazette: “It’s very controversial because the National League are asking for us to vote on whether the season should end now.
“If the clubs vote for the season to end, the National League will then come up with a number of options for clubs to vote on regarding how the season should finish – should it be declared null and void, should it be decided by points-per-game, should there be no relegation … etc.
“Obviously that’s going to be the more controversial vote but at the moment we’re only voting on whether or not we want the season to finish. For many weeks now I’ve campaigned for the season to end simply because of the uncertainty many clubs, ours included, find themselves in.
“All votes have to be in by May 7, so they’ve given an extremely long deadline – I’m not exactly sure why but they have. I think they’re attempting to align with other decisions made in other divisions, which might help them.
“We haven’t sent in our vote yet but we will be voting for the season to end. In many ways, we should be voting to keep playing because we’ve got nine games left and we feel we can still get out of trouble.

“But I think in this case you have to set aside personal circumstances and vote for what is good for the entire league. There’s a lot of emails flying around between the club chairmen and a lot of letters as you can imagine.”
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Images courtesy of AFC Fylde/YouTube