{"id":29322,"date":"2018-12-11T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=29322"},"modified":"2018-12-11T09:00:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T09:00:27","slug":"the-land-of-hope-and-wonder-being-destroyed-by-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/the-land-of-hope-and-wonder-being-destroyed-by-money\/","title":{"rendered":"The land of hope and wonder being destroyed by money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In English football there exists a haven. A wonderful place where groups of men meet on Saturdays &#8211; sometimes a Tuesday &#8211; and they drink beer together. Some of them wait until after they\u2019ve run around a field kicking a ball to drink their beer and others drink their beer whilst watching their mates run around a field kicking a ball. This is non-league football and it\u2019s bloody beautiful.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The incredible thing is that this happens in every city, every town, every village and every hamlet; every weekend. Where there\u2019s a field, someone will have painted white lines along it and put up some sticks at either end. Each game noted by the Football Association and used to update league tables that stretch down to the 24th tier &#8211; each containing countless divisions. Every last one of these clubs theoretically able to make it to the Premier League.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s the non-league dream, you see. It\u2019s the reason that these men gather to drink beer together. They watch their mates play football to see them win, lose and draw. In the rain, sun, fog and snow. Some people call it their second job, for others it\u2019s a full-time commitment; their life. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with the money in football nowadays, non-league teams are seeing the gap between them and the Football League increase at an alarming rate. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The wages in the National League South are what players got paid in the Conference 10 years ago,\u201d says Craig Whitehead of Northwood FC. Eyebrows were raised in the summer when Salford City, financed by Hong Kong billionaire Peter Lin and The Class of \u201892, signed Adam Rooney; reportedly paying him \u00a34,000 a week in the National League. \u201cWith Salford, it helps when you have some rich owners behind you, but, paying someone \u00a34k inflates wages around that league and beyond and will ultimately work its way down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Whilst Football League clubs battle against the guidelines of Financial Fair Play, non-league Salford City have bought Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and are paying him a reported \u00a34,000-a-week.<\/p>\n<p>Madness.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; HLTCO (@HLTCO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HLTCO\/status\/1020242193062289409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">4k a week for Adam rooney ?? how is that a fair playing field ?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jamie Scarborough (@jimycfc1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jimycfc1\/status\/1070816321829593088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig is in charge of media for Northwood FC, a side in the Bostik League South Central Division. He gives up his free time to help with the social media, programme and post-match highlights and interviews. For him, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the ability to make a change and try and build the club off the pitch\u201d is enough of an excuse. For teams like Northwood, it\u2019s the kindness of others that help them get by; the club has no full-time employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Their hopes of ever reaching the National League North\/South &#8211; two divisions above &#8211; seem thin. Craig\u2019s level-headed when it comes to a team like Northwood\u2019s chances. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think any club could make the national league with backing. Look at some of the teams that have made it to the conference and beyond like Yeovil Burton and Fleetwood. If you have the planning and the ability to grow who knows? But, these days, it requires a lot of money to get to that level and beyond.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-29324\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/12\/middleofpitch-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"494\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Darlington, however, have been on the promotion\/relegation rollercoaster over the last few years. Thrown out of business because of serious financial mismanagement by a past owner, The Quakers started again as fan-owned Darlington 1883 in The Northern Premier League Division One &#8211; a step below Northwood. A series of promotions and a re-acquisition of their former name later, though, and they\u2019ve found themselves in the National League North.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-29325\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/12\/IMG_20171226_172346_055-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"555\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">James Wren is part of the fan-ownership and a massive Darlo fan. A return to the Football League is the ultimate goal for them but James is apprehensive on whether they can make it back. \u201cIn the short-term, no. Without a major backer, it just doesn&#8217;t seem feasible unless we see a massive increase in participation of our fan owned model &#8211; and then some. At the start of the season we grouped together to give an \u00a385,000 boost to the budget and that was just to stay competitive at this level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">possible, though. \u201cMacclesfield last season are a great example of that. Despite having one of the smallest budgets they won the league. It takes something special to do that though.\u201d James knows that money is the driving factor behind promotion, however, and wants something to be done about it. \u201cThe lack of a financial fair play system in non league takes the competitiveness out of entire seasons, how frustrating it must feel to spend years building a competitive team only for a Billericay to sign a bunch of league one players and take away a promotion slot. It spoils the competition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-29326\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/12\/unnamed-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"555\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, financial regulation outside the Football League seems a long way off. It seems that the Conference could soon become the play thing for millionaires. Billericay is certainly an example of this. And until something is done, clubs such as Darlington and Northwood will have to rely on hope. Football is a game that now relies heavily on money but you bet there are teams out there that play for the love of football. For a dream, the non-league dream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Samuel Carter | Pictures: James Wren and Craig Whitehead<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In English football there exists a haven. A wonderful place where groups of men meet on Saturdays &#8211; sometimes a Tuesday &#8211; and they drink beer together. Some of them wait until after they\u2019ve run&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":29327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,116],"tags":[1713,2470,4518,4539,5717,5818],"class_list":["post-29322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-sport","tag-darlington-fc","tag-football","tag-non-league","tag-northwood-fc","tag-soccer","tag-sport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}