The Cards have been Shuffled…

I’m surprised this year – middle of May and we actually know which league and division we’ll be playing in come August! It would be simple at this point to tell you where Wingate & Finchley will be playing but there are other things going on in Football way above our level that probably need to be talked about too. These are things that require me to say what I feel as a fan while carefully chewing those words in such a way that the big cheeses don’t hear what I said.

Last weekend Arsenal won the Premier League title after Manchester City could only get a draw against Chelsea. This has annoyed a lot of ‘Football Fans’ as there seems to be an ‘Anyone but Arsenal’ movement out there. This is rather perplexing for me because Man City have been winning lots of trophies in circumstances that have required big money lawyers to prevent them being held accountable for alleged stretching of the FA’s fair play rules. The same is true of Chelsea… But for some reason, Arsenal should be hated for doing well without ever crossing the bounds of acceptable fair play? The only fans who should be hating on Arsenal are their local rivals – Tottenham. Something is wrong here and that’s just my view as a neutral.

While the Premier League and the FA don’t act, the English Football League do! We have Spygate and it’s filling the sporting press. Southampton FC – looking to return to the Premier League – have admitted sending someone to spy on a Middlesborough training session before the clubs met in the League play-off semi-final. They’ve also admitted to doing the same for two previous league matches. As a Fan my view is that this is dishonourable to the point of being disgraceful! Interestingly, I suspect that a significant number of Southampton fans agree. Let me clarify what is acceptable – Sending a scout to a match to watch how you play. Checking out the video streams of a match to see how you play. These are acceptable. But filming a team during a private training session?

The EFL have thrown Southampton out of the playoffs and reinstated Middlesborough to play the final against Hull. But now it gets messy – Wrexham with their go-getter film-star owners have seen an opportunity to try and get back into the play-offs and may take legal action (Word to the wise here guys – That will tarnish you with fans forever!). Southampton’s players are thinking about suing for loss of earnings because the promotion that was in their grasp was taken away due to the spying and the EFL decision. As for the manager and coaching staff involved – I suspect they will be paying a huge penalty in their future careers.

Lets come back to Wingate & Finchley and the Isthmian Premier – I spoke in my last football post about some of the options open to the FA. I’m pleased to report that we will continue in the Isthmian Premier League. The FA have balanced out the relegations and promotions such that old friendemies Leatherhead will return and Chichester City will move across to the Southern League. That will give Chichester a number of local derbies to enjoy while avoiding our clubs meeting for the foreseeable future – something that will rest well with everyone at both clubs. For once I can say – Well Done FA 👍