The Vodkat League Management Committee have welcomed announcements from the FA regarding a restructuring of football at Step 7 level, and clarification on the issue of new and reformed clubs, in the wake of recent events involving Chester FC.
At a meeting held at Burton Albion F.C. last Tuesday, the FA National Leagues Committee revealed new plans for re-organising leagues at Step 7 level of the Non-League Pyramid.
National Leagues Manager Mike Appleby presented the results of a recent survey of the Step 7 Leagues which had been considered by the Leagues Committee. The proposals were that each Step 6 League should have two quality Step 7 Leagues feeding into them. The other Leagues presently at Step 7 would be reclassified as Step 8 or 9.
It was stressed that for the North West Counties League and Northern Counties East Leagues, the size of the geographic areas covered may warrant three Step 7 Leagues. It was also commented that some quality Clubs could miss out by not being in the right League and should be invited to be placed in the new Step 7 set up.
The decision regarding which existing Leagues would be selected, or if new Leagues would be formed resulting from mergers, has not yet been made, but it is hoped that the new system would be in place at the start of season 2011/12.
Promotion and relegation between Step 5 - 6 and 6 - 7 would be the responsibility of the Leagues involved.
Given the recent publicity surrounding the allocation of the newly formed Chester FC at Step 4 in the National League System, an interesting announcement was also made at the meeting with regard to the issue of "phoenix" clubs reforming under a new name.
The National League System Rules have been updated and the wording "reformed" has been removed. In future, a club would either be considered an Old or New Club. Any New Club taking over from an Old Club would be placed at Step 5.
League Secretary John Deal said: "The points raised at the meeting regarding the re-organisation at Step 7 level are encouraging, and it is hoped that the end result will benefit everyone.
"Regarding the clarification of "Old" and "New" clubs, the League Management Committee is extremely pleased to see that the FA has taken steps to address a lack of clarity in the previous rules, which is exactly what our Chairman Dave Tomlinson called for in the statement issued last week. The FA's prompt action in addressing this important issue is to be commended.
"Hopefully, this now means that if any future occurrences arise similar to the formation of Chester FC, there will be no doubt or debate as to where a newly formed club would be placed in the National League System".
