The club confirmed the news in a brief statement this afternoon.
A new football secretary will need to be appointed as National League rules require that every club has one but the position could be combined with another job.
Former chairman Jon Hale has tweeted:
'Shocked and extremely sad to see Martin go. Massive and integral part of the club from the start. Cannot fathom his departure in all honesty.'
Hereford FC have revealed that out of the three options given to clubs by the National League about further funding, they have decided to back a suspension of the season.
The other options which in essence would be loans are not available to HFC because of the articles of association.
The decision was given to shareholders on Thursday evening.
"The suspension of the season is the most palatable as we can access the furlough scheme," said chairman Rob Crawford.
However the club are hoping that during the current two week suspension the DCMS might change its mind about funding and turn loans into grants. If so, and the grants are reasonable, then the club would be happy to continue the season.
There are hints that Hereford midfielder Ben Pollock's red card given to him last Tuesday at Stamford may have been rescinded.
Yesterday morning it was showing on the FA Club Discipline site but it's not showing today.
Hopefully that means the appeal by the club has been successful.
Meanwhile a one match ban for Luke Haines, who collected two yellow cards at Stamford, is on the site.
Andrew Graham, Vice-chairman of Hereford FC, has re-released the following statement on behalf of several 'aggreived clubs' which calls on National League chairman Brian Barwick to resign.
PRESS RELEASE regarding the National League Grant Funding Allocation of public Money – November 2020
We welcome intervention by the DCMS, the FA and The National Lottery to compensate National League clubs for lost gate receipts due to fans being prevented from attending matches, indeed we are exceptionally thankful for the intention of this generosity. It remains a fact that it is on this basis that we agreed to start the 2020/21 season and thereby trigger contractual obligations. However, we were disappointed to learn two weeks ago that the National League had decided to allocate these funds based on a subjective judgement of clubs’ needs and not based on lost gate receipts. Since then many of our clubs have been in continuous communication with the NL Chairman Brian Barwick, regarding how the distribution method was decided; why the National League Board rejected Government guidelines on using funding to compensate lost gate receipts; whether National League Board members have been allowed to take a decision that directly affects their own clubs financially, appearing to breach their own Articles of Association in so doing, and why we believe that an independent panel should now be appointed urgently, to review the whole matter.
Talks have now reached a stalemate and the aggrieved clubs’ spokesperson, Andrew Graham, Chairman of Hereford FC, states: “we are aware of the method for determining the allocation of funds to NL Clubs and are concerned that the outcome of this method does not represent the initial purpose of the funds, as stated by the Department for Culture Media & Sports. Given the absence of explanation and transparency regarding our concerns, and a refusal to date to correct what to us appear as unacceptable conflicts of interest at Board level, a growing number of clubs who have been adversely affected by this action, have lost confidence in the leadership of the National League and its decision-making mechanism. Graham stated: “£10 million has been handed to the National League thus far. This is a significant amount of money for which we are extremely grateful. However, there has been unsatisfactory transparency over how funds were allocated and there are inexplicable inconsistencies, which amount to some clubs receiving five times as much in funding as others, per absent spectator. As a result, some of our clubs will now face income shortfalls, which may threaten their existence. Despite rumours of matters being discussed at sub-committee level of the National League we have received no meaningful communication regarding our request for an independent panel review of the allocation.
This is an indefensible continuation of apparent disregard for the justified concerns we raise and it is for these reasons that we are left with no option other than to immediately call for the National League Chairman Brian Barwick to resign and for an independent panel to be appointed to review this matter transparently and objectively.” Graham added: “Clubs should now be focussing on how to continue providing football facilities and entertainment for their communities, backed up by generous Government financing. Instead, some clubs are facing financial turmoil, due to what appears to be the National League Board’s serious errors of judgment in making unilateral, subjective decisions regarding distribution, which ignore Government guidelines and ignore the Board’s conflicts of interest. Our clubs cannot let this pass unchecked,as it has resulted insome clubs now facing serious financial difficulty.”
Footnote: A reminder of the DCMS statement:
Funding will be distributed to each of the 66 National League clubs to help cover their lost gate revenue from the delay to fans being permitted to return, that was originally scheduled for 1 October. The decision was taken to pause this relaxation of the rules on 22 September, in order to stem rising coronavirus infection rates across the country.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-million-lifeline-from-the-national-lottery-for-national-league-football-announced-by-culture-secretary
A Cabinet Meeting of Herefordshire Council is set to take place next Tuesday includes an item about affordable housing.
This paper seeks agreement to proceed with the outline feasibility of an initial number of selected council owned sites and any suitable sites in third party ownership identified across the county in order to progress the pipeline of suitable sites.
Additional documents:
In the list of selected Council Sites is Edgar Street, the home of Hereford FC:
Hereford Football Ground (adjacent to Blackfriars Street only)
Potential Number of Units 115
Nigel Edmondson has become a director of Hereford FC. He was one of the four initial investors in the club.
Comfirmation of his appointment came at Thursday evening's club AGM.
There are now six directors on the club board. The maximum number is seven.
The former Hereford United striker enjoyed two spells at Edgar Street.
Read his story by clicking on the link -> MY HEREFORD UNITED STORY | Stuart Fleetwood | Herefordshire’s Independent Source of News & Information (yourherefordshire.co.uk)
The DCMS has released the following statement this afternoon. It comes after the National North League was suspended for two weeks partly, it appears, to try and convince the DCMS that loans are not favoured by most of the clubs.
Should The National League suspend the current season?
— Bulls News (@BullsNewsBlog) January 21, 2021
It is believed that both Lenell John-Lewis and Giles Coke are interesting Grimsby Town.
As previously reported, Coke has been training with the Mariners and was unavailable for Hereford's FA Trophy tie at Stamford on Tuesday night.
Grimsby manager Paul Hurst says the midfielder will continue training with the League Two club next week before he makes a decision on him.
Lethal marksman John-Lewis was also missing for the Stamford match, with Bulls manager Josh Gowling saying after the game that he had a migraine.
However, it's being rumoured that the striker may also be on Hurst's radar.
Hereford will now not play for at least two weeks after it was confirmed earlier today that the National League North will be suspended.
Therefore, if John-Lewis does leave the club then Gowling will need to bring in a striker in time for when the Bulls resume their campaign.
The owner of Kettering Town has said that today's decision to suspend the National North League for two weeks leaves questions about future funding unanswered.
“The statement today still doesn’t answer the question of how clubs are going to fund themselves to the point,” Ritchie Jeune told the Northamptoshire Telegraph.
“You have still clubs that are potentially insolvent due to no fault of their own and that statement doesn’t tell me what I want to know as an owner of a club about what’s going to happen about the funding that was promised.
“That statement just tells you that clubs were not going to play this weekend and there was little choice for the league because clubs had already taken the decision.
“But the crucial fact over funding, whether it is grants or an option for loans, still remains unanswered and that’s the most important question.
“Obviously the board meeting today has not been constructive in moving that forward.
“You have got a situation where games have gone ahead and I am sure clubs have had coach costs, player costs and other running costs and there has been zero income in January.
“People talk about the money you make for streaming but trust me, at every level it’s a fraction of the gate you’d get. It’s not enough for any club to run itself on.
“So you’ve had clubs who have had much reduced income who would have expected the money they received in December to be available to them again in January and you are finding out a week before your ‘payday’ that that funding is no longer available to you. What are you supposed to do?
“Either owners will have to go in and put the money in in the short term while the league continues to play ‘he said, she said’ or clubs will have to call in administrators.
“The one thing I have tried to get across to people is that if you take football and the emotion that comes with it out of it, the government suspended some of the insolvency laws and pressures on directors to do things at the start of the pandemic but that stopped in September 2020.
“So now, as a director, you have legal obligations to run your business in a certain way and if you can’t pay creditors or negotiate with creditors to give you more time then you are insolvent.
“So you have clubs who are, on paper at this point, insolvent when none of them would have voted to start the league if they thought this was how it would have ended up.
“Somebody somewhere, at very best, has been incompetant verging on fraudulent.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that the board haven’t resigned en masse. There’s no statement of accountability. It’s all ‘we believed this and that’.
“Ultimately, this sits with the board of the league who have no shred of paper to back up what they told the clubs was, in effect, cast iron.
“If
that was any other business, that board are getting fired. But football
seems to be in this alternate universe where the laws of the land and
the rules of governance don’t seem to count. It’s crazy.”
The news that the National North League season is to be suspended for two weeks came as no surprise especially given the number of clubs who had supported the idea.
However the suspension will mean that there will be more fixture congestion, always assuming the season restarts which is by no means certain.
For Hereford FC the suspension means that a further four games will need to be rearranged.
It has been confirmed that, following the review of the feedback from clubs in connection to the recent meeting that was held, the National League Board has decided to suspend the National League North and South seasons for two weeks, starting immediately.
Therefore, all games tomorrow are postponed.
Several National North clubs think this weekend could be the last this season unless future funding is in grants not loans.
Bradford Park Avenue's director of football Marin Knight has spelt out his club's position.
"Every club needs money to complete the season whether that comes from a loan, a grant, or your own bank," said Knight as reported by the Telegraph and Argus.
"We didn’t start the season on the basis that we would complete it on loans, we started it on the basis we would complete it on grants.
"Do you want to saddle your club with 10 years' worth of debt for the sake of completing the season?
"With the exemption of one, every club will be saying the owners are not putting the money in. You either gives us a grant or we null and void the season.
"The National League will have to go back to the DCMS and say get us a grant or we are suspending the league.
"I think this weekend against Kidderminster will be our last game.
"I think on Monday there will be a decision made to curtail the season. I would suggest that is the likely outcome unless the DCMS backtrack."
Bradford PA's manager Mark Bower feels that clubs paying transfer fees hasn't helped.
"It is hard to ask for free money when you see teams in this league splashing cash on transfer fees. We have cut our cloth accordingly.
"Our lads are not here for the money this year; they are here to enjoy it. The younger ones to further their careers and get up that ladder.
"We are hoping for the money because that was the conditions to start the league. But I do not think we have done ourselves any favours in terms of what is going on in the world."
An interesting response to the National League Funding Options have been posted by Chelmsford FC last night.
In particular the following paragraph which says - Is it right for the National League to take a further £11m out of the Government coffers which could be more prudently spent on increased immunisation programmes or to our nurses and doctors who are providing such amazing care at this time.
Chelmsford FC Club Statement – Covid-19 Update
As everyone will have seen,
the National League hosted a call with all clubs in the League yesterday
and presented three options for consideration regarding if, or how the
season should continue from a financial perspective. The options we were
presented with and have been asked to comment upon are as follows:
1. Loan to individual clubs
2. Loan to the National League to distribute as grants to clubs
3. Suspension of the season
Let us respond to the last one first.
In December we wrote to the National League twice suggesting a suspension of the league during challenging times for the NHS; this was declined.
The club is still of the view that it is morally difficult to justify football continuing whilst the Covid situation remains critical. Having said that, it may be that football provides some comfort to people and gives them an alternative focus, helping their overall wellbeing.
Given that the season did start and almost a third has now been completed with good protocols implemented to help minimise the risk of further spread, we can see the arguments for both continuing and a cessation and in fact have almost daily debates on this matter as a Board.
The terms and length of a ‘suspension’ are unclear and cannot be guaranteed based on recent precedents. So, whilst some may argue it allows time for a rethink by DCMS, the one thing that is very clear is that the commercial implications of a cessation would be catastrophic for the club and its players.
The club is still generating some income through streaming and the excellent efforts of the Supporters Club but has bills to pay and whilst some players could be furloughed, not all would receive monies as they joined post 31st October and furlough still leaves the clubs with some significant costs to pay, so we would have no income and continued costs. In addition, we are only 10 days away from the January payroll with no certainty of funding. Therefore, this is not a commercially acceptable solution and not one the Board is able to support on this basis.
With regard to options 1 and 2, loans versus grants, there has been much talk of promises made at the start of the season that monies would be made available and the announcement of a further £11m being made available to the National League.
The money currently being offered is available either as loans to individual clubs, based on needs, or as a loan to the National League and then the National League providing individual clubs with grants, again based on need. Either way the money has to be repaid; by the clubs themselves out of future income or by the National League through a reduction in central funding usually paid to clubs – both have a similar impact at club level; a reduction in income of around £10k to £20k per club per year depending on the length of the loan that can be agreed.
On the basis of the full terms proposed so far, the cost of repayments would be the equivalent of less than £500 per week per club. Based on a squad of 20 players, that is £25 per week less per player – is that too big an ask?
These are challenging times for everyone and it is felt that football, having been given the opportunity to continue, should be prepared to pay its way and not take further Government funding.
Is it right for the National League to take a further £11m out of the Government coffers which could be more prudently spent on increased immunisation programmes or to our nurses and doctors who are providing such amazing care at this time.
As a Board, if the season is to continue, we have expressed a preference for the National League to take a loan and provide grants to clubs though the offer of individual club loans is equally acceptable if they can be provided in a timely manner.
We hope you, our supporters, back this proposal and as soon as we are aware of the outcome we will again communicate the position.
The decision will be based on feedback from all clubs in the National League and you may have already read on social media the views of some of those – we, like you, await the outcome.
The Board
The annual general meeting of Hereford FC took place via Zoom earlier this evening.
Club chairman Rob Crawford gave shareholders a review of the year to May 31st 2020 including some figures showing why the club lost £283K. There had been a decrease in sales of season tickets, matchday tickets, programmes and shop merchandise. Also there were costs associated with managers leaving.
The club had taken advantage of money on offer, because of the Covid crisis, to increase other operating income. Losses would be been somewhat higher without this help.
As regards the present position Crawford said that the board had taken control of expenditure and were currently ahead of budget. The playing budget was considerably smaller.
Given the costs of sacking managers, the board had changed the contract.
The costs of producing match programmes had decreased since changes were introduced. A digital version is now available. Also there is a new subscription service. It was hoped the new system would soon be profitable.
Later in the meeting Crawford spoke about National League's 'options' which had been discussed by the board. He went through the three options in some detail. A press release from the club is expected to spell out the club's position shortly.
Twelve clubs have signed the following letter.
A dozen National League North clubs have released a joint statement calling for a suspension in the current season to allow a funding solution to be found.
The statement read: "Whilst the integrity of the National League is important, we do not value this above the safety and wellbeing of our families, staff, volunteers or that of our heroic workers who are tackling this pandemic on the frontline. Furthermore, we have now been asked to consider loans against our clubs and we are quite simply not prepared to trade whilst insolvent.
"Therefore, we are calling for the immediate suspension of the league competition to allow the National League, FA and the DCMS time to find a solution that is acceptable to all. This suspension will allow us the time to lobby our respective MPs and carry out our own financial risk assessments against avoiding a Null and Void scenario. “An inability to secure acceptable funding to cover COVID testing and the loss of fans will continue to render us insolvent and we are not prepared to prolong this beyond the 29th January 2021.
"We are duty bound as mere custodians of our clubs and will do everything we can to ensure we do not place any avoidable further financial burden now or in the future upon our community assets.
"Quite simply, 66 clubs would not have willingly participated in any footballing competition which initiated playing contracts, without assurances."
Signed by:
AFC Telford – Andy Pryce
Alfreton Town – Wayne Bradley
Bradford (Park Avenue) – Martin Knight
Blyth Spartans – Anthony Platten
Curzon Ashton – Wayne Salkeld
Darlington – David Johnston
Farsley Celtic – Joshua Greaves
Gateshead – Neil Pinkerton
Guiseley – Gary Douglas
Kettering Town – David Mahoney
Southport – Ian Kyle
Spennymoor Town – Tony Wilson
One of the best central defenders of the non league era of Hereford United is today's guest.
Click for more -> MY HEREFORD UNITED STORY | Ian Wright | Herefordshire’s Independent Source of News & Information (yourherefordshire.co.uk)
Photo supplied by the Hereford Journal
Assuming Covid stays away, the ‘loans not grants’ affair doesn’t get in the way, and any tailwinds from Storm Christoph don’t blow the Blackfriars End onto the pitch, Hereford FC entertain Farsley Celtic on Saturday at Edgar Street, kick off 3pm, as the Bulls finally get back to National League North action.
Without a league game since the creditable draw at Kidderminster on 2 January, the squad has been filling its time 1/ trying to play a football match in the northeast again, which always ends in tears, 2/ having subsequent games in more hospitable climes postponed as a result of ‘1’, and 3/ continuing to progress in the FA Trophy, with a gritty if ill-disciplined performance at Stamford on Tuesday, and now in ‘the round of 16’ as the Americans would have it, with a winnable home tie against Leamington awaiting. Win that and there are some giants of the game awaiting, potentially. Forget those matches against Newcastle, Arsenal, Tottenham and Man U - if the prospect of a quarter-final against Wealdstone, Havant and Waterlooville or Peterborough Sports doesn’t get you out of bed in the morning you need to check that you’ve still got a pulse.
Farsley are, like last season, minding their own business in mid-table, winning some, drawing some and losing some. They score a few, but are a little bit leaky at the back, like my gutters. They’ve beaten Gloucester at Gloucester but lost to both Curzon Ashton and Alfreton. They are Jeckyl and they are Hyde (who they drew with in a pre-season friendly). They’re four points ahead of the Bulls in 11th position, but have played almost a season’s worth of games more to get there.
Much-travelled striker Jimmy Spencer has scored six for Celtic so far this season. Last time out they led twice but ultimately lost 3-2 at Chorley, current darlings of the BBC for pumping a bit of romance into their FA Cup coverage, and allowing them to show footage of northerners watching the game precariously perched on terraced rooftops, with the producer’s Patronisotron machine turned up to 11.
Last year, in Farsley’s first season in the NLN since folding in 2010, these clubs drew at Edgar Street before Hereford won in Yorkshire, making it back to back wins in that county after the 4-1 win at York that was one of the few high points recently. It also hinted at what newly installed and then-interim head coach Josh Gowling might be able to bring to the party, a party that had been more of a very gloomy wake in the preceding 18 months. Those early positive signs have recently started to grow into true potential, with a new-found sense of purpose and belief.
This looks like a juicy opportunity for Hereford to build on the progress that has been made since the Chester defeat way back when. New arrival Callum Rowe looked instantly classy on his debut at Stamford in midweek, and was also sure-footed on what was a right old leveller of a pitch, so when taking to the manicured turf at Edgar Street he should make quite an impact. On making his first home start, it’ll also hopefully be vaguely recognisable to him as the same sport he knew at Villa Park, as a debut at Stamford must have had him wondering what on earth he’d committed himself to.
With Brandon Hall in goal and Jamie Grimes growing in stature with every game, opponents now have to put some effort into scoring a goal, rather than having a couple chucked in for them every game.
The Trophy tie was won without fielding an out-and-out striker, which is a neat trick if you can pull it off, but it’ll be good to see Lenell John-Lewis back for this one, assuming he was rested rather than injured or ‘training with Grimsby’.
Now a whopping seven games unbeaten, and with the players named above starting to form a very decent backbone to the squad, three points would keep the Bulls’ push for the play-offs on track, but with the season treading gingerly through an absolute minefield of potential terminating factors who knows whether it’ll all be in vain. Hopefully the players won’t have such a defeatist attitude, and win this one at a canter.
COYW
Hereford FC have appealed against the red card shown to Ben Pollock during Tuesday's FA Trophy Tie at Stamford.
After the tie manager Josh Gowling said they would consider an appeal.
"I've had a look back at it. I don't think it was, I thought he would give him a yellow at first then the lads have got round him and he gave him a red card.
"It looks like Ben has pulled out so we might appeal. It doesn't look like he made any contact at all."
The club should know the outcome of the appeal tomorrow.
Jim Gannon has left National League Stockport County.
The club say that 'This has been an extremely difficult decision for the Club’s Board to take and not a decision taken lightly. The decision is not results based but is centred around culture.'
Gannon first managed the club from 2005 to 2009, a second spell from 2011 to 2013, and most recently from January 2016.
AFC Telford have responded to the National League Proposals for future funding of clubs:
AFC Telford United would like to provide supporters with the following statement regarding the 2020/21 National League season.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the National League confirmed to its members clubs the Government’s Winter Survival Package would be in the forms of loans not grants.
The National League have asked clubs for their views on the three options below.
We can confirm we have responded to the National League this morning with the following points.
Option 1 Loans to Clubs
AFC Telford United are not in a position to take Loans. Repayments over 10 years or more is a liability that we are not prepared to take on, as to do so would jeopardise the future of our football club.
Option 2 Loan to National League
A loan to the National League which is then paid over to clubs is still effectively a loan to clubs, given you are proposing that our annual National League funding is withheld until the ‘loan’ is paid back. We are not in a position to forfeit the National League funding for 10 years or more.
Option 3
Given that options 1 and 2 are not acceptable to us for the reasons outlined above, we vote for the season to be suspended immediately for a maximum of three weeks, to give you time to see if you can find a more acceptable plan that is based on Grants to clubs not Loans. We suggest to you that a suspension of the season would be for three weeks maximum, at which point the season would be declared null and void if you have been unable by then to propose an option that is based on Grants.
Should we be required to continue our National League North campaign we would like some reassurance from the National League board what support would be available for clubs to implement COVID-19 testing to bring the health and safety of our league in line with the Premier League and EFL and the rest of “Elite Sport” within the country.
AFC Telford United maintain a concern for the health and safety of our players, staff, volunteers and their families while we continue to play behind closed doors during this period.
AFC Telford United are again calling on our local MP’s and government support to get the money granted to enable clubs to complete the season. We are appealing to Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, The FA and Vanrama National League to work to together to ensure we have a football club for our community in the future.
Should The National League suspend the current season?
— Bulls News (@BullsNewsBlog) January 21, 2021
Kettering chairman David Mahoney has said that his club, like most others in the National North, was expecting grant suppoprt 'until the situation improved'. However with the prospect that any further finance will come as loans not grants, he feels clubs will be 'financially impacted'.
“At Kettering, we set out a
strict budget at the start of the season and have worked really hard to
control all expenditure but we don’t have a reserve of cash," Mahoney told the Northampton Telegraph.
“As many people will know, we had to make improvements to the ground at the end of last season to meet league requirements and that costs money.
“It’s not just about meeting the costs associated with the first team that we have to consider month after month, we also have to meet various maintenance costs, utility charges, travel expenses and as with any business the unexpected.
“We have made our position known to the league and what impact any delay in clarification and award could mean.
“We were asked to ‘trade’ and to provide a community beneficial service last October with the confidence that we would receive financial support in the form of a grant.
“We are now being asked to continue but not only can’t we open the doors and generate revenue we’re being asked to take on a debt for doing so.
“Anyone can see that this just isn’t realistic, isn’t in the interest of the club and basically makes no sense.
“The next 24 to 48 hours are going to be critical, if acceptable support isn’t available then I am sure the continuation of the season will have to be seriously looked at."
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