Matt Maher: So many questions as non-league season voided...

The coronavirus pandemic has sparked an economic earthquake not seen since the Second World War and – like every other business – football is already feeling the tremors.

Picking a way through the crisis is going to require leadership, patience and in the case of the FA, far better judgement than it displayed in its handling of the non-league game.

Last week’s decision to rule the season null and void for every club below step two of the pyramid sparked widespread anger and prompted questions of just how well the FA understands a large portion of the sport it is responsible for governing.

At the time of writing, more than 100 clubs have signed an open letter appealing for the decision to be reconsidered, with several ready to take legal action if it isn’t reversed.

It is, in short, a mess, with the potential to get much messier in the weeks and months ahead. The irony is it was the FA’s desire to take what it thought was the easiest option which has created such a predicament.

While the structure of English football from the Premier League, down through the EFL and the National League is simple to understand, the deeper you go the more complicated it gets and the pyramid is by no means a perfect shape, with leagues often featuring an uneven number of divisions and teams. This summer was meant to sort that, with a large-scale restructure, most notably at step five, designed to add a bit more symmetry.

Yet the planned revamp only made the outlook even more complex when the season had to be suddenly halted. It is not hard to see why the FA might have looked at the countless arguments to be resolved in each division and decided calling the whole thing off was the quickest simplest solution.

Had they taken time to consult the clubs involved, they might have thought differently. Though the majority were in general agreement the season could not continue indefinitely, there was no consensus over the best way to resolve it.

Above all else, it is the speed of the decision and the lack of discussion which has caused the most anger.

“We just can’t understand why they had to rush the decision,” says Karen Brookes, chairperson at Southern League Midland Division club Halesowen Town.

“We were told they would consult with us through the Southern League but at some point all that changed. You have to ask, what was so urgent?

“You look at the professional game and they are taking time to discuss various issues and find a solution. It feels like we have been ignored and that the FA simply couldn’t be bothered with the non-league game.”

Such sentiment was reinforced by the lack of warning which preceded the announcement. Clubs were emailed a press release at the same time as the media, with Brookes and her fellow directors actually learning their season was over from Sky Sports News, the club’s best season in more than two decades rendered null and void in one passing of the yellow ticker.

Halesowen sat second in Southern League Central Division One, the fourth tier of non-league, when the season was suspended and would have been promoted had the campaign been decided on a points-per-game basis.

Theirs is far from the most grievous case, with both Jersey Bulls and Vauxhall Motors having already won promotion from their respective divisions in a season which effectively never took place.

Still, there can be few clubs in the country more deserving of a bit of sunshine than the Yeltz. Twice in the last decade they have been on the brink of financial ruin, while they are less than 12 months on from an embarrassing relegation.

The investment from Brookes and joint-owner Keith McKenna since then has been considerable, and Halesowen’s finances are a reminder that while non-league clubs operate on smaller budgets than their professional counterparts, neither can they accurately be described as particularly small businesses.

Halesowen’s playing budget alone is thought to be approaching £150,000 and other clubs have made an even greater outlay.

In a pyramid consisting of hundreds of clubs, the collective costs quickly run into the tens of millions. A recent consultation by the Northern League found its clubs stand to lost an estimated £3.25m due to the pandemic.

All that effort, all that investment, all for nothing. No wonder clubs are a little hacked off.

The FA might also have caused itself some difficulty in the phrasing of last week’s announcement.

If results are expunged, they cease to exist – but does the same apply, as some clubs are now asking, to any player fines accrued during the course of matches which, according to the record books, never happened? What happens to the prize money which would have been distributed at the end of the campaign?

There is also the subject of referees who, this newspaper understands, will be judged on their performances in now non-existent matches when it comes to allocating leagues next season.

No-one can claim the position the FA found themselves in was easy. Finding a solution which satisfied everyone was always impossible. But every organisation in the country is having to deal with unprecedented problems and in their haste to dispense with the non-league season, the FA might have created an even bigger headache than they already had.

Given the many other issues they must play a central part in helping to resolve, it does not augur particularly well.