Between Seasons

It’s that dread time for many football fans – The Close Season. I’m not even sure if that terminology even counts as proper English! But that is the term as I often see it written. Of course, the Premier League and other competitions across Europe involving top flight clubs are ongoing. But at our lowly level, the fallout is being discussed. The hottest subject is Who will be Where next season…

This is not a geographical discussion in the purest sense – It’s very rare that a club will move ground. In fact moving to a new ground can alienate your fans so clubs try not to do that! It’s about the allocation of clubs to divisions after all the promotions and relegations have been decided.

That may seem simple – Two up, Four down and a reciprocal number of incomers… Only, it isn’t as the geographical areas covered by each division within the leagues is different. So, every season the FA, as the governing body, have to allocate each team to whatever league and division is appropriate for their geographical location. The geographical constraints have to be fluid because every league and division has to have the required even number of clubs to function correctly in the forthcoming season – For the Isthmian League Premier division, that number is 22.

I’m looking at the Isthmian Premier’s changes this season and I’m wondering… Leatherhead are returning. Enfield Town too. But Folkestone got promoted as did Billericay. That leaves two outlier clubs – Ramsgate and Chichester. It might be politic were the FA to shunt Chichester across to the Southern League given the tragic circumstances surrounding our last meeting at Summers Lane. Ramsgate should probably be moved across to the French leagues as they are so far from everyone else as to be considered outside of the UK… 😅

I hope that has given some insight for the non-football fan. It’s really complicated this season and I don’t know which way we will go. I have seen simple suggestions that would allow the status quo to exist for the majority of clubs but I’ve also seen the option of shunting several of us west into the Southern League while expanding the Isthmian north and east to cover clubs into Suffolk. An interim solution that I would propose is that Leatherhead rejoin the Isthmian and Chichester move across into the Southern – Simple and it would perhaps give time for wounds to heal. Since when has the FA done anything simple…

The end of season brings Awards for players and scant regard for the cameraman 😅 Joe actually remembered me after the applause had begun for all those loyal club workers he had mentioned. I’m just great at being invisible which is why I’m a good street photographer 🤣

Here’s a little selection from the Awards Night – Herding Cats…

…Ben, Rams and Loic get their shirts for over 100 appearances for the club – Pointless even trying to get a pose in these circumstances! At least it was fun 🤣

The man of the night – Gavin, about to give an award to Caiolan, found himself briefly scratching his nose…

…It was an emotional night for us all. And it was soon time for Gav to stand with his long suffering family…

…And with the cup that he has won as a Player and now as a Coach. Well done Gav – You will be missed 😎👍

Here’s Caoilan receiving another award from director Paul and daughter…

…And Luca Botti getting one of several from Rich…

So here we are… Another season in the Isthmian Premier or maybe not… Whatever awaits, I’m sure we’ll do our best 👍