“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 testing, and the loss of
fans will continue to render us insolvent and we are not prepared to prolong
this beyond January 29th, 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”.
The
chairmen with whom the statement concerns are:
AFC
Telford United – Andy Pryce
Alfreton
Town – Wayne Bradley
Bradford
Park Avenue – Martin Knight
Blyth
Spartans – Anthony Platten
Curzon
Ashton – Wayne Salkeld
Darlington
– David Johnston
Farsley
Celtic – Joshua Greaves
Gateshead
– Neil Pinkerton
Guiseley
AFC – Gary Douglas
Kettering
Town – David Mahoney
Southport
– Ian Kyle
Spennymoor
Town – Tony Wilson |