It's been a while since I last posted - and in that time two more senior non-league clubs have folded.
First was Leyton of the Isthmian League, Divsion One North. That was hardly a surprise - the club had drawn six home crowds of under thirty, and had missed a subscription payment to the league.
Leyton want their youth team to continue in the youth league. IN effect the first team has resigned from the Isthmian League, while the clubhasn't. It's a case, I suppose, of having their cake and eating it, and the matter has perplexed the people who run the league.
In the last few days, a more high-profile casualty. Windsor & Eton, of the Southern League Premier Division, were wound up with debts comfortably into six figures - around £60,000 of that, and the subject of the winding-up petition, was owed to HMRC.
They seem to be a well-liked club, and there has been much sympathy for them. But I wonder what AFC Totton think about it all. Totton finished second to Windsor in last season's South & West Division, despite gaining 100 points, and were knocked out in the play-offs. Windsor will now be deemed to have finished bottom of the division, and will be "relegated" along with three others. They will probably be placed next season at step 5 or step 6; that would mean another club being reprieved from relegation in the first division.
Two of the four relegation places have already been decided there, with Bromsgrove Rovers folding in the first few days of the season and taking one of the S&W places, while Atherstone have indicated their intention to resign from the Central division at the end of this current season. The Southern League reprieve created by Windsor & Eton's demise will almost certainly go to a team from the Central division.
Windsor & Eton will, of course, have their results in the league this season deleted from the records. That's extremely bad news for Didcot, the only team to have beaten them twice this season. Diddy find themselves in the bottom of three relegation places; Weymouth move out of the relegation places altogether.
There are other clubs in difficulty: Redditch Utd of Conference North will not be paying any wages to their players for the rest of the season. Fellow Worcestershire team Kidderminster, of Conference Premier - and, not so long ago, The Football League - are facing a winding-up petition on February 23rd. Kiddy are in the throes of a takeover bid from local businessman Chris Swan. Swan had been in talks with Redditch Utd about taking them over as recently as January 24th.
Cambridge Utd, another ex-Footbal League team now in the Conference, have had to let several players go in recent weeks to cut their wage bill - they've also fired their manager Martin Ling, but may have to pay him
a substantial amount to settle the outstanding period of his contract.
And then there's Wrexham.
They've had issues over their ground for some years now. The latest is that their owner wants to separate the club from its ground, and charge them rent for it - even though they've played there since the 1870s. Now Wrexham has been taken over; there is no firm indication that the new owners will have control over the ground - and there are fears in North Wales that the new ownership is connected to Stephen VBaughan, late of Chester City.
First was Leyton of the Isthmian League, Divsion One North. That was hardly a surprise - the club had drawn six home crowds of under thirty, and had missed a subscription payment to the league.
Leyton want their youth team to continue in the youth league. IN effect the first team has resigned from the Isthmian League, while the clubhasn't. It's a case, I suppose, of having their cake and eating it, and the matter has perplexed the people who run the league.
In the last few days, a more high-profile casualty. Windsor & Eton, of the Southern League Premier Division, were wound up with debts comfortably into six figures - around £60,000 of that, and the subject of the winding-up petition, was owed to HMRC.
They seem to be a well-liked club, and there has been much sympathy for them. But I wonder what AFC Totton think about it all. Totton finished second to Windsor in last season's South & West Division, despite gaining 100 points, and were knocked out in the play-offs. Windsor will now be deemed to have finished bottom of the division, and will be "relegated" along with three others. They will probably be placed next season at step 5 or step 6; that would mean another club being reprieved from relegation in the first division.
Two of the four relegation places have already been decided there, with Bromsgrove Rovers folding in the first few days of the season and taking one of the S&W places, while Atherstone have indicated their intention to resign from the Central division at the end of this current season. The Southern League reprieve created by Windsor & Eton's demise will almost certainly go to a team from the Central division.
Windsor & Eton will, of course, have their results in the league this season deleted from the records. That's extremely bad news for Didcot, the only team to have beaten them twice this season. Diddy find themselves in the bottom of three relegation places; Weymouth move out of the relegation places altogether.
There are other clubs in difficulty: Redditch Utd of Conference North will not be paying any wages to their players for the rest of the season. Fellow Worcestershire team Kidderminster, of Conference Premier - and, not so long ago, The Football League - are facing a winding-up petition on February 23rd. Kiddy are in the throes of a takeover bid from local businessman Chris Swan. Swan had been in talks with Redditch Utd about taking them over as recently as January 24th.
Cambridge Utd, another ex-Footbal League team now in the Conference, have had to let several players go in recent weeks to cut their wage bill - they've also fired their manager Martin Ling, but may have to pay him
a substantial amount to settle the outstanding period of his contract.
And then there's Wrexham.
They've had issues over their ground for some years now. The latest is that their owner wants to separate the club from its ground, and charge them rent for it - even though they've played there since the 1870s. Now Wrexham has been taken over; there is no firm indication that the new owners will have control over the ground - and there are fears in North Wales that the new ownership is connected to Stephen VBaughan, late of Chester City.
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