THE NLP SAYS: Three-sy does it in 2023?

THE NON-LEAGUE PAPER says…

BATTLE: Notts County and Wrexham are currently vying for one automatic promotion place

PICTURE: Alamy

EVERY year for regular annual features in The NLP we ask various people around the Non-League scene what they would change in the upcoming 12 months – and every year their answer is the same.

“A third promotion place to the Football League” comes the common reply. “It HAS to happen. Full-time National League clubs have more than proved they can compete with their League Two counterparts.”

While you’ll get very few to argue with that view (especially from the Non-League side of the fence), there’s always a sense we’ll believe it when we see it.

It’s frustrating. Clubs looking to progress upward are stuck in the bottle neck. Look at the current title race, the final points tallies could be huge and only two will go up overall.

Of course, Wrexham fans don’t need reminding what happened the year they finished second behind Fleetwood Town with 98 points. They lost in the play-off semi-finals and are still in Non-League, albeit with very realistic ambitions of that ending soon.

Clubs who have gone up have consistently shown they are more than capable and ready of succeeding in League Two, some have even bounced onto League One and, in the case of Luton Town, are even pushing for a place in the Premier League.

Breakthrough

Opening up an extra promotion and relegation spot would also breathe new life into a League Two division that sees a number of clubs effectively treading water knowing there is no fear of the drop. Free-flowing movement between tiers creates good competition.

And for those clubs who do fall through the trapdoor, often in disarray, making their return to the EFL when they have steadied their ship can take years. But, whisper it quietly, could 2023 could just be the year of a breakthrough?

It’s no secret the National League have been pushing for three-up, three-down for a number of years and say they are in regular dialogue with the EFL on the matter.

Recent reports suggest that as part of a huge shake-up in the Football League pyramid, the EFL are ready to offer three promotion places to the National League “as part of their contribution to the financial reset being demanded by chairman Rick Parry”.

Positive

The EFL are currently locked in talks with the Premier League over the prospect of more funding filtering down through the pyramid from the top-flight.

However, it has been acknowledged that the EFL also have a responsibility to assist clubs further down the pyramid and the “best way” of achieving that in many peoples’ eyes is to offer an additional promotion place to the fifth tier.

It’s a long old process and with the season in mid-flow and clubs set for the vote, nothing would be introduced until 2023-24 at the very earliest.

Still, it’s a positive start, and for those clubs competing at the top end of the National League with dreams of achieving, or regaining, Football League status, it’s proved to be the best Christmas and New Year present they could have possibly wished for.

Of course, The NLP will be there every step of the way as we will with all levels of the Non-League system. As we close the final chapter on an eventful 2022, we look forward to an equally, if not more so, action-packed 2023.