Premier League supporters – please read.

Posted on April 11, 2024 by henry tapper

 

If you are the top football team in Cornwall, you are Truro City. Truro City played last night played out a goal-less draw against Eastbourne, on Monday they’d lost 2-1 at “home” to “neighbours” Torquay and tonight they are playing “Champions Elect” – Yeovil Town.

Three home fixtures in four days? Sounds like Truro City’s got a big squad. That’s not quite true, the team is tiny and “home” for Truro is now Gloucester, a 220 mile round trip from Truro. They may be the best team in Cornwall but they can’t play there. That’s 1100 miles of travelling in 10 days and a carbon footprint the size of a Cornish tin mine.

So while Barcelona and Atletico Madrid battled it out in the Champions League, spare a thought for Truro who had been ground sharing with Taunton, Taunton whose ground has been underwater this winter and Torquay, pre-season favorites to go up, but now in administration – struggle on.

The “pyramid” extends to the National League South . The lower leagues are full of clubs who once had football league status. In theory the pyramid operates trickle down and my club does explicitly acknowledge help from the Premier League

But Yeovil has a fan base that can watch football in Yeovil, unlike Truro.

Clubs like Torquay and Yeovil have, until recently, been part of the English Football League. Let us hope that both will be again. I am pleased to see that there is a preferred bidder for Torquay to take it back from the administrators. These clubs serve local areas and are well supported. Over 6,000 people were at the Huish on Saturday to watch them lose to Worthing, Worthing were able to bring 140 fans across country (for which they were properly thanked)

Although they are  a long way from Manchester, Liverpool or London, in terms of wealth, these clubs regularly include players who go on to become household names. Dan Burn was recently a Yeovil player, as were Luke Ayling and  Keiffer Moore.

 The Pension Angle  (There’s always a pension angle!)

Financially, many clubs like Torquay have legacy debts to a pension scheme set up for football league clubs last century but with DB liabilities that will stretch for decades to come.

Some friends of mine have decided to put up capital to help a couple of Premier League sides to fix the scheme so clubs like Torquay have no further obligations – and their  ground staff can look forward to a pension that is as secure as the covenant of the top handful of clubs.

We have the capital and we wait to talk to anyone from the EFL or Premier League about how we deploy it. If you are involved with a top club, either as an owner or as an executive, we’d like to hear from you. We’d like to make sure that clubs like Truro, can find a pitch to play on, that Taunton get some drainage , that Torquay leave administration and that Yeovil get back to the football league.

When we get promoted…

Yeovil only need one more point to be crowned champions

Hopefully the road back to the football league  will be   one step shorter when we get promoted to the Vanarama National League  tonight #coyg

About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman
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