Soccer

Local football chiefs to thrash out plan

No consensus has been reached about how to sort out the current football campaign
No consensus has been reached about how to sort out the current football campaign No consensus has been reached about how to sort out the current football campaign

LOCAL football will know where it stands tomorrow morning as the movers and shakers of the game try to thrash out an agreed pathway back to the playing field.

The Premier League committee met via Zoom last night, while delegates from the Championship, Premier Intermediate and Women’s football are scheduled to discuss tonight what to do with the current season.

While there are some Premier League clubs keen to call a halt to the current season so that winners and losers can be declared and prize money and European places sorted out, it may be an academic exercise as it’s unlikely Uefa will have space in their calendar to include the minnows in European competition when top level football resumes.

So far, no consensus has been found among football’s hierarchy as to how to finish the current campaign, with the potential for legal challenges.

One Premier League source said there should be no rush to make a decision in May when the landscape could be more favourable later in the year.

A Premier Intermediate official voiced a similar view.

“What’s the rush? I think people should realise finishing the season is more important than starting a new one,” he said.

Indeed, many interested observers have said the following season could easily be adjusted and shortened in order to complete the current campaign.

The north’s five-stage lockdown exit plan gives some hope to sport returning but no dates have been attached to each of the stages.

For Sport, Culture and Leisure activities, stage four states competitive sport can take place behind closed doors with limited spectators and stage five talks of a “resumption of close physical contact sports”.

In the lower rungs of football here, it is understood the Northern Amateur Football League has decided not to complete its season with no trophies awarded, although Rosemount were promoted because they’d finished their campaign.

The Fermanagh & Western League has ended their season too with no relegations and Dunloy FC were crowned champions of the Ballymena Premier League even though the campaign remained unfinished.