Following yesterday’s announcement of the National League Cup, we can confirm that we will not be participating in this season’s competition. 📰 #YTFC 💚 pic.twitter.com/3WrCUcS4vY
— Yeovil Town FC (@YTFC) September 20, 2024
I’m pleased that my club along with a handful of others in the National League (you might know it as the Conference), have put two fingers up to the senior clubs and are boycotting the National League Cup.
Yeovil have not put out a statement, but rivals Eastleigh have.
This is a version of the Eastleigh Statement
Eastleigh Football Club would like to issue the following statement regarding The National League Cup: 👇
— Eastleigh FC (@EastleighFC) September 20, 2024
Our rational for this decision was based on numerous factors some of which we have listed below:
National League teams currently receive no compensation or protection for our young players, some of whom would feature in this competition.
Premier League and EFL clubs sign up these home-grown players who have often had many years development at our clubs. They cannot do this to each other’s players.
It is illogical to provide big clubs with competitive games to showcase our players for sale.
The financial reward for playing in the competition is negligible and is likely to cost the club some much-needed funds. The total prize money is only £1m
We don’t believe there is a huge demand for the competition from our supporters or the supporters of any other National League club.
The fixtures are to be played between October and April which is a time in the season where the club would hope to be competing in the FA Trophy, FA Cup and mounting a challenge for the Play-offs/Promotion. To add more fixtures to this already busy schedule would be counter productive.
To fulfil these extra fixtures, the club would need to increase the size of its first team squad at considerable cost to cover games with no revenue to support this.
National League clubs were not consulted on the decision to launch the National League. They were not involved in the recent removal of FA Cup replays .
Both of these decisions have potentially huge financial implications for National League clubs and also for our supporters.
A number of other clubs have made the decision to not participate. If we truly value our football pyramid, which is often held up as something we should be proud as unique then it is incumbent on the clubs to push back against developments that devalue our national sport. We believe this cup competition devalues football.
Lower league football provides huge enjoyment all over the country for thousands of fans. It is a large employer, and provides vital experience along the way to thousands of people connected to the game many of whom subsequently achieve well paid, hugely rewarding jobs higher up the football pyramid.
Our clubs are being under-valued, and far too many have not survived in the game when there is more money than ever flowing into it. This needs addressing and this competition increases the huge divide which currently exists.
We feel this competition benefits the richest in the game at the expense of the poorest, many of whom are fighting to survive. So we feel the right decision for clubs and fans at this level is to withdraw from the competition.
There is a good discussion of the stupidity of this competition in the opening section of this week’s Glovercast.
I would like the English to invite guest sides from the Scottish and Welsh leagues into the National League Cup.
All Welsh Cymru Premier sides. And the b teams of Celtic and Rangers as guest sides.
The Scottish were allowed English, Welsh, and Irish Sides in the Scottish Challenge Cup.
This would expand the trophy.