Soccer Saturday anchorman and Hartlepool United club president Jeff Stelling pens his latest exclusive column for The Non-League Paper…
It's fair to say there's been plenty of talk about how the National League season should come to a conclusion over the last few weeks.
Quite a few different ideas have been put forward and everyone seems to have an opinion about what should happen.
From a personal point of view, I would like the National League to stop the season now even though my club, Hartlepool, would lose out on a possible play-off place.
Before the season ground to a halt, we were in ninth place, just three points off the play-offs with seven games left. We also felt we had a favourable run-in to look forward to, with four of our games against teams in the bottom five places in the table.
Of course, those games wouldn't have been easy against teams fighting for their lives, but we would like to think we could have picked up a lot of points.
There are plenty of other clubs in a similar – or stronger – position than us in the National League's three divisions, but I just think we need some form of certainty now.
As a minority shareholder and club president at Hartlepool, I can see exactly how difficult this current situation is for clubs.
At the moment we've got eight players under contract and we don't know when the season is going to finish. How do we, for example, ensure we have sufficient players to finish off a season if it resumes in June? Do we re-sign some players on short-term contracts?
It's a horribly difficult situation and it's even more impossible for clubs with nothing to play for. Some may have only five or six players under contract, so what kind of team will they be able to put out? Understandably, clubs with nothing to play for won't want to shell out big money to pay players for seven or eight games.
Financially, this is a really tough time for Non-League clubs. The furlough system is helping some and it means you can effectively mothball a club until you start playing again.
The other big issue – and another reason to make a definite decision now – is that you can't put season tickets on sale without a start date. Make no mistake, season ticket sales are vital to Non-League clubs.
We would expect to take around half-a-million pounds in season ticket money over the summer. If you haven't got that money coming in, you've got a cashflow problem.
Add it all up and I just think it would be better to draw a line under the season now. The question then is ‘what do you do next?'.
I've got to say I'm not a fan at all of null and void. I'm sure there would be some teams in our division happy with that, but it's not for me.
I think Points-Per-Game is the fairest way. Agreed, it's not perfect, but nothing's going to be perfect in this situation.
Barrow have been top pretty much all season and most people would accept they have been the best team in the league. I think it's right and proper they should go up – and they would with Points-Per-Game.
Another important factor to take into account is that we need some synchronicity from the Premier League down. Without that, things will be even more complicated.
For me, Points-Per-Game is the best way to do that. It wouldn't help my club, but that's not the most important thing right now.
In a sporting sense, the most important thing is to make sure that every club is still in existence at the start of next season, whenever that will be.
Another walk? I've not ruled it out just yet!
It's hard to believe that it's four years ago that I did my first charity walk for Prostate Cancer UK – time flies when you're having fun!
That first one was 260 miles from Hartlepool to Wembley and the following year I did 15 marathon-length walks in 15 days. No wonder I needed a year off to recover after that one!
Last September, I clocked up a mere 105 miles in Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and London – and it took the cumulative fundraising total past the £1m mark.
It's something I'm really glad I've done and the key thing was to raise awareness of prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer in men.
‘Enjoying' is probably not the right word when you're out there walking, but there's a lot of satisfaction and you meet some fantastic people along the way, including the great Kevin Webber.
Kevin, who has terminal prostate cancer, was doing an epic running/walking endurance event in his back garden in Epsom this week!
I was going to say it's unbelievable, but I would expect nothing less from Kevin.
Would I do another one? It's been under discussion. It's about finding something different that would have an impact.
One thing I do know is that Prostate Cancer UK – and all charities for that matter – need our support right now.
Times are incredibly hard and some charities have seen their income drop by 60 per cent lately.
Ironically, people need Prostate Cancer UK more than ever now because they are concerned about their treatment, lack of treatment or being diagnosed.
It's a difficult time for everyone, but I know Prostate Cancer UK are working with the NHS and professional bodies with the aim of ensuring the best possible outcomes for the 400,000 men living with prostate cancer in the UK.
If you have concerns about prostate cancer, you can visit prostatecanceruk.org or speak to one of their specialist nurses on 0800 074 8383.
The Premier League haven't exactly covered themselves in glory since the coronavirus pandemic began, have they?
Take the £125m they've offered to EFL and National League clubs. It's not the magnanimous gesture it appears to be at first sight.
Why? Because it's not a gift, it's an advance that we will need to repay later. It effectively means they are advancing £60,000 per National League club. They need to do much more than that.
One of the other things is the way they've handled the whole situation. It's been a total mess – PR disaster after PR disaster.
It's amazing that an organisation with so much money and power can make such a mess of things.
