It is important that everyone realises that this decision has nothing to do with safety or the COVID pandemic and evidence of this, is that the National league continues.

This is purely down to the fact that no funding is currently available by way of grant to finance clubs in the absence of fans, despite assurances back in October that further grants would be available for January, February & March if still playing behind closed doors.

Hungerford Town FC would not have commenced the season on any other basis and triggered player contracts.

This is an absolute disgrace and we have been misled in no uncertain terms.

At the Zoom meeting last Wednesday, I was assured that both the FA & NL were at those meetings with the DCMS back in late September, early October and that they are 100% certain that loans were never discussed and believed funding would be available by way of grants.

The winter sports funding package of 300m was announced back in December and 11m was earmarked for the National league and North + South.
At this point it was pointed out that 250m was by way of loans and 50m by way of grants, but still no clarification on the 11m.

We played on in good faith to have the rug pulled from underneath us in the last 7 to 10 days with very short notice on cancelling todays game.

Lobbying will continue to try and get this money converted to grants as previously promised and I would urge everyone to lobby wherever possible.
I have a meeting next Friday with our MP Laura Farris, who responded to my letter.

The potential consequences are catastrophic and the initial 10m grant would have been wasted and the cost of furloughing staff and players would dwarf the 11m at a huge cost to the tax payer.

To be clear, if the FA, NL & DCMS suspended the season temporarily on safety concerns due to the pandemic, I would 100% support that direction, but not due to the unforgivable way the club has been misled over finances.
If grants are made available and testing obligatory, that would be a satisfactory solution, as the safety of our players, staff and volunteers is paramount. However, we can be proud of the fact we havent had to postpone a single match due to a COVID incident.

There is now a real threat that Step 2 may well see the season become null and void after all the hard work and COVID protocols put in place and not least the vast amount of money spent thus far.

Spare a thought for our manager Danny Robinson who had promotion cruelly taken away from him last season, to yet again face a similar scenario, after thrilling us all with one of the most competitive squads in our history.
I sincerely hope he gets the opportunity to finish what he started back in October, as it has been an absolute privilege to work with him and his coaches and to see the amazing progress we have made with a limited budget.

On a personal note, the distraction of football and dealing with all that has entailed for me as COVID officer has definitely benefitted my mental health and I have received numerous messages from fans who have been given a lift from watching us from afar.

This morning I feel a little lost, but will continue the fight to right this injustice.

Please stay safe everyone.