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On The Ball | The soul of English football is being destroyed by the Covid crisis but lower league clubs are battling extinction
- Clubs at the bottom of English football’s pyramid will be in terminal danger when the UK government’s furlough scheme ends next month
- A small number of spectators are now being admitted into their stadiums, but it could be too little to save some clubs
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Crowds will attend football matches in England this weekend for the first time in five months, though it’s a stretch to call them such.
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While Premier League clubs and those in the five divisions below are hoping to get some supporters back as soon as possible, matches will be played behind closed doors until October 1 at the earliest when the 2020-21 season has already started. Only the clubs in the seventh level and below can welcome fans back.
With average crowds of 1,700 last season, FC United of Manchester are the biggest club in England to be permitted to admit supporters into the ground. The rebel club formed by Manchester United fans in 2005 as a protest against the Glazer takeover also have 20,490 Weibo followers in China and there’s good news for them, if not the majority of FC’s fans wanting to attend their games.
FC will play a friendly against Football League newcomers Barrow on Saturday and another against fan-owned City of Liverpool a week later, but what could be a financial shot in the arm to save small clubs brings more problems than solutions.
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FC are allowed 300 socially-distanced fans in their home ground against Barrow, a number which will increase to 600 if Saturday is successful.
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