IT MAY NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
Clubs may have to rethink, says Ash
OLIVER ASH hopes the coronavirus crisis will force clubs to hit the reset button and rethink every aspect of their operations.
Ash admits his own club, Maidstone United, will not be exempt from such a “radical” shake-up and are likely to go part-time when football resurfaces.
The co-owner insists the Stones will survive but knows other clubs may not.
He said: “We’re trying to guess how much we will lose because there is going to be fallout. There are going to be fewer season ticket holders, fewer advertisers, fewer sponsors and it’s going to take a long time for income to get back to where it was.
“Under those circumstances, can we afford to pay players?
“Every club has to look at every single aspect of the way it operates and re-think it.
“We probably won’t be able to continue with daytime training and we’ll have to go back to a part-time situation because our finances won’t allow it in the short term.
“It’s a radical shake-up but we’re planning ahead.”
Maidstone turned a small profit in 2018/19 but they’re in the minority in that sense. And with Covid-19 decimating the season and savaging income streams, clubs already making substantial losses are facing a bleak future.
Funding gap
“Some clubs have made it harder for themselves,” Ash said. “If you’ve existed with owner subsidy for years, that owner – through whatever business he might have – may have difficulty keeping that going.
“If that is the case, there will be more of a funding gap and therefore the change that might need to happen in some clubs will be even more dramatic as loss will be even more.
“But in other cases, where the owner is fortunate to have resources that are very strong, they’ll be able to cover any losses. They’ll be in a stronger position than we are because we don’t have that facility. We have to make sure our income and costs are closely linked.”
With the country in lockdown there’s certainly plenty of time to reflect on how football runs itself.
Ash said: “Everybody’s mindset is going to be different when we get out of this. It will change a lot of things – and some things for the better.
“When it comes to football, I think we have to look again at certain fundamentals: the greed, overspending and decadence at the very top level. There will be a big question mark about that.
“Some of the TV companies are going to suffer in the shortterm and they won’t be able to pay such massive prices for their rights.
Gift horse
“Perhaps that will wash down to the lower leagues and we’ll have to ask whether it’s reasonable in English pro football to have five national divisions and around 120 professional clubs.
“Is that really sustainable? Is it ecologically and environmenincome tally sensible for Dover to play in Hartlepool, for example?”
Ash, a well-known advocate of 3G pitches, has contacted EFL chairman Rick Parry to suggest clubs promoted from the National League with one be given two years’ grace before they have to rip it up.
He said: “We know one could bring a League 2 team £500,000 a year. Can you really look that gift horse in the mouth at this time? That would be indefensible.
“Hopefully this crisis will provoke some sensible moves and reset the meter in many ways that are beneficial for the game.
“If things change and there is regionalisation and if salary caps and other measures to reduce the madness are introduced, it will all wash down and there will be less danger that clubs suffer difficulty.
“The pyramid is far too stretched out. When you think Pogba’s agent earned £30m from his transfer and then look at what we go through, day to day, it’s not the same world.
“Hopefully, at the end of this crisis, there will be a re-think and clubs will decide to, or be forced to, operate with a different mindset.”