West Midlands League postpones planned return to action

The League had planned to resume on December 12 after seeing their programme suspended during the second national lockdown.

But the government’s decision to install a nationwide tier system in the ongoing battle against coronavirus has thrown up various restrictions and logistical issues for the league with some clubs in tier two and others in tier three.

The league are keen to resume their campaign when all clubs can welcome back fans and are now looking at getting back into action on December 19 – three days after a planned government review of the tiers.

“We have decided, given that the majority of clubs said that they didn’t want to play behind closed doors, to delay the restart until December 19,” said league chair Wendy Juggins. “Their safety and security is our paramount concern. 95 per cent of the clubs said they couldn’t afford to play behind the closed doors.

“We have another management meeting on the evening of the 16th following the government’s review of the tier system on the same day.

“We will review things at that stage and then we will notify the clubs accordingly. We are just keeping our fingers crossed we can kick-off on the 19th.”

While the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire clubs in the league are in tier three, teams in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire are all in tier two which means they could welcome fans back.

But the clubs have agreed unanimously to stand together and return to the field when they can all have spectators in attendance.

“The Shropshire clubs in our competition have been really generous and said it wouldn’t be fair to have fans in their ground and then go to clubs that can’t have any,” added Juggins. “It’s the same with Worcestershire and Herefordshire clubs, they have all said we are in this together and we will play together. The clubs want the fans back.”

The league have also given clubs the option to rearrange their scheduled Boxing Day games to the following week.