FC Halifax Town: How can we vote to end the season without knowing the implications, says Wild

In a letter to member clubs last week, the National League said: “The board has approved an ordinary resolution for clubs, that the playing season shall immediately end for all fixtures scheduled up to and including 25 April 2020. The board recommends clubs vote for this resolution.
“If the ordinary resolution is passed and the remaining ‘normal season’ league matches of the season are cancelled, the league will then immediately proceed with a poll of North and South clubs to determine the outcomes of the season across those divisions.
“This will be followed by a vote to determine the outcomes of the season in the National Division.
“The appropriate options to determine the outcomes of the season are being diligently prepared, and will be approved by the board before they are sent to clubs in due course.”
But Wild is unhappy that the vote has been organised before clubs know exactly what the consequences will be.
“I don’t know how they can vote to end the season when we don’t know what will happen with promotion and relegation,” said the Town boss, who was also disappointed that the Premier League’s cash injection - which amounts to just £58,333 for each National League club - is only an advance on money from next season, not additional financial help.

“I understand why they’re doing it, and I understand the money that we thought was going to come from the Premier League has now transpired to just be an advance on payments for next year.

“Financially the club won’t be able to live off that, they’ll need that money next year to make the books balance.

“So I’m disappointed by the Premier League’s stance.

“It shows again that the support from the Premier League has been very poor.
“If that’s the case, I understand why clubs will have to end the season because of funding.

“But my stance on it is, how can we vote to end the season when we don’t know what the implications will be?

“If it was the case we would go straight to the play-offs, then so be it, but we need to understand that first before we can start voting to end seasons.”

When asked what he thinks the likely outcome of the vote will be, Wild said: “I don’t know, but let’s take a common sense approach. You’ve probably got the bottom six who clearly want it ended for obvious reasons, you’ve probably got a middle group of teams that aren’t really bothered because they’re not going anywhere and it’ll save costs, and so the minority are probably the ones that want the season to continue because we’re playing for something.

“Everybody’s in it for their own self-gain, which is the way of life, so the harsh reality of that is that not many people will want the season finished to a conclusion.”

Should the season be written off completely, Wild admits that would leave him and the Town squad feeling they had been cheated of their opportunity to earn promotion, with Halifax currently occupying a play-off place.

“100 per cent, and the fans should do as well,” he said. “The fans have spent their hard earned money travelling up and down the country to support their team and what have they got for their money at the end of it? Absolutely nothing if it’s null and voided.

“For us, it’s our job, and when you go to work, you try to be the best you can be and for all your hard work over 10 months to be ignored and null and voided, that’s 50 appearances in a players’ career being wiped away.

“They’re things you work all your life to get better at, just for it to be null and voided, I just think it can’t happen.”

Wild admits the situation is changing from week to week.

“It depends what week it is,” he said. “From last week thinking we had a rescue package from the Premier League and they’re going to cover the wages to this week being over a barrel and you can have next year’s money now but that’s your lot, to voting to end the league that you don’t know what the ramifications are.

“Let’s see what happens next week.”

But Wild doesn’t think the National League will align themselves with whatever the Premier League and Football League eventually decide to do.

“I don’t think they can now because of the finances, which is disappointing, because I think they should,” he said.

“I’ve gone from having complete clarity on what I think’s going to happen, to now just resigning myself to the fact of sitting back and seeing what happens.

“Things are changing week on week. It’s frustrating, I know there’s a bigger health issue and football’s secondary at the moment, I completely agree with that, but in terms of what’s next, it’s hard to find a way forward to what we’re going to do.”

With all but one member of staff now on furlough, Wild says the Town squad are now responsible for “looking after themselves and making sure they stay in shape”.

On the issue of player contracts, Wild said: “The contracts at Halifax run to the last competitive game, so there’s no problem with that.

“And FIFA are currently passing a bill that will say no player can move onto another club until the completion of their current club’s season.

“Obviously they can sign pre-contracts but they can’t move.

“A lot of expressions of interest have gone out from us in terms of planning for next season, a lot of speaking to agents regarding players.

“But I can’t even tell my own players what we’re doing with them at the moment so until I’ve had that conversation with them, I won’t be doing anything with any other players.

“But I can’t do that with my own players because I don’t know what the crack is, and my chairman can’t give me a definite answer either way on that, so the plans are in place but we can’t do anything about them at the moment.”

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