THE Football Association have decided to END the tier five and tier six seasons in England effective immediately.
Teams in the National League had between ten and seven games remaining, respectively, but will now never get the opportunity to play them – after a decision was made in an FA meeting today regarding the coronavirus crisis.
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The National League was among the last divisions to have played in this countryCredit: PA:Empics Sport
It has not yet been decided on how promotions and relegations will be worked out.
The FA Leagues committee could declare the season null and void – although a complex points-per-game formula may be used instead to calculate how the campaign might have finished.
And the same will apply in the regional sixth tier of English football.
The decision sees the National League among the first divisions to make this kind of call, having ironically been one of the last to have kept playing amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Despite the Premier League and EFL having already been shut down after Mikel Arteta and Callum Hudson-Odoi’s diagnoses, National League chiefs initially decided to ignore concerns.
Six fifth-tier matches went ahead on Saturday 14 March, to date the last competitive men’s football to have been played on these shores.
In the days that followed, however, the league caved and joined the rest of English football in suspending – before ultimately deciding today that no more balls will be kicked in their 2019-20 campaign.
Barrow currently sit four points clear at the top of the non-league pyramid, with the Cumbrians looking in pole position to go up, should the season not be voided.
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Harrogate Town and Notts County sat in second and third, with a host of teams down to as far as 14th having still been fighting for the remaining playoff spots in the battle for promotion into the EFL.
Meanwhile, York City topped the National League North, with North West Londoners Wealdstone leading their southern counterparts.
A decision on the fate of these teams is expected in due course.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
