National League ramp up pressure on EFL over third promotion spot saga

The National League hope Saturday’s 3.03pm kick-offs will continue to ramp up pressure on the EFL to finally put a third promotion spot into League Two on the agenda.

As part of their 3UP campaign, ‘A Day of Action’ is taking place to shine a light on the issue during the international break.

All Step 1 games will start with symbolic delayed kick-offs which are also again being backed by the Step 3 and 4 leagues. National League chiefs and clubs have been pushing for an extra promotion place for a number of years.

While the EFL acknowledge it should be up for debate, they say only as part of any funding agreement with the Premier League.

While the EFL acknowledge it should be up for debate, they say only as part of any funding agreement with the Premier League.

With the two bodies at a stalemate amid the wait for the incoming Independent Football Regulator, National League chiefs fear it could be years before EFL clubs vote on any changes.

That sparked the launch of the 3UP slogan last season urging the EFL to ‘Put Football First’.

National League vice-chairman and chair of the league’s 3UP steering committee Steve Thompson MBE has been a key part of the push and he wants their message heard.

“The games kicking off at 3.03pm is really going to shine a spotlight on it,” Thompson told The NLP. “We’ve got MPs from all over the country going to these games.

“It’s not just the 12 National League games. While National League North and South aren’t playing league games because it’s FA Trophy, the Trident Leagues are also supporting it. That’s fantastic. The whole football family at Non-League level sees how important it is.”

Support

A recent Football Supporters’ Association poll revealed 93 per cent of all supporters support the move, while 83 per cent of fans of EFL clubs are also in favour.

It’s thought a strong number of EFL clubs – many of them former Non-League clubs – are also keen for change.

Since two up, no team has been relegated back into Non-League the season after they won promotion, while Luton went through to the Premier League and others, including Yeovil, Doncaster, Burton Albion and Wrexham, have reached the Championship.

“The National League is a safety net for clubs that fall out of the EFL for one reason or another,” Thompson said. “There’s got to be light at the end of the tunnel. The National League is well-run, it’s a professional league and clubs falling out of the EFL don’t need to fear relegation.

SEND OUR MESSAGE AT 3.03PM

Bottleneck

“There’s over 30 clubs in the EFL that have been in the National League at some stage or another. There’s Wrexham now in the Championship. There’s 19 League Two clubs that have been in the National League. Half of the National League have been in the EFL. There’s nothing to fear but there is this bottleneck.”

Historically, one accusation levelled at the National League as a reason not to allow the third spot has been around financial controls – something Thompson outright rejects.

“We’ve addressed them all,” Thompson said. “The main one was SCMP – Salary Cost Management Protocol. We discussed this with the National League board over a year ago.

“One of the things we try to do at the National League is prepare our clubs for the Football League.

“Lots of our rules and regulations mirror the EFL because we want our clubs to succeed. We don’t want them coming back down.

“So over a year ago we discussed SCMP, Mark Ives (former CEO) and some of our finance team went to Preston and looked at how it worked in the EFL. We drew up a plan to mirror it in the National League. That was introduced in the summer.

“So there should be no reason why the EFL don’t ask their clubs. The question is, ‘Why won’t you?’.”

Community

In recent months, clubs and the league have been engaging with their local MPs with more than 100 – and members of the London Assembly – pledging their support and last week Sir Keir Starmer commended the campaign at Prime Minister’s Questions. Thompson and colleagues also attended the All-Parliamentary Group on Football.

“I was blown away,” Thompson said of the event following an invite by Clive Betts MP. “So many of them are season ticket holders at their local club.

They realise how much their clubs do in their community. They realise how much the owners and chairs of those clubs do in the community.

“The fear is if you have this bottleneck and owners don’t think there is a realistic chance of being promoted, they will walk away.

BLOWN AWAY: Steve Thompson

PICTURE: Dagenham & Redbridge

Unfair

“You need that competitiveness. It creates a healthy eco-system in football and that’s what we face losing.

“The EFL say they’ve got to look down as well as up. Well, look down a bit more.”

It’s been two years since EFL chair Rick Parry gave that quote in a BBC interview. Thompson says the time to act is now and cites a recent comment from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin about English football.

“One of the things he said was we’ve got the strongest football system in the whole world,” Thompson added.

“Nowhere else have you got five professional leagues. We’re the envy of the world for that. The president of UEFA has said that. We should be proud of that. But it should be fair.

“The EFL have spoken to us but they talk about their deal with the Premier League. That’s been stalled because of the appointment of the Independent Regulator.

“But that’s got nothing to do with us at our end. That’s the funding between the Premier League and the EFL. It’s not to do with the National League. For us to be lumped into that seems really, really unfair.

“The question to ask is: Why won’t the EFL board discuss this and put it on the agenda for their next club meeting?”