National League chief: Cup competition is fantastic

National League general manager Mark Ives believes the league’s new cup competition involving Premier League B-teams is “fantastic” despite a virtual boycott by supporters of the 16 clubs which have entered it.

The league has unsurprisingly not published attendance statistics for many of the matches with the most recent round of fixtures seeing Braintree Town top the charts with 437 for their 4-2 home win over West Ham United’s kids. Woking’s 4-4 draw at home to Southampton B attracted just 157 fans – enough to draw jeers following the announcement of an away attendance in many league games.

Despite this, Ives went on the Price of Football podcast to pronounce the enthusiasm which clubs in the division which eight clubs – including Yeovil Town – decided not to particpate in. You can listen to the interview with the excellent Kevin Day and football finance expert – and friend of the Gloverscast – Kieran Maguire  wherever you get your podcasts – or find out more here.

He said: “I am happy with how the competition is going. Let’s remember it is part of the development programme to give wider experience to clubs. The games have been very competitive and a happy mix of Premier League and National League winners, draws going to penalties, and the feedback we have had to date has been positive.

“It’s a fantastic relationship. We have our own voice. We have an agreement from PL, the solidarity funding we get goes to our clubs. We have had an increase in our funding and the increase has gone from a £3m to over £6m when you add everything else in, which includes funding for the Football Foundation and additional solidarity funding for these clubs and the funding for this competition. If I am being critical of the Premier League, they do not sing quite as loudly as they should do for the support they give.”

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Before you ask for some of whatever the General Manager has been smoking, it gets better. He said that the idea of adding further to the league’s fixture congestion was a positive – a view at odds with Yeovil boss Mark Cooper who said most managers who would “dreading” playing in the competition.

Ives said: “From a footballing perspective, it gives our clubs the opportunity to have competition with clubs in the Premier League and EFL, that they do not have at the competition. They will have the opportunity to mix with (Premier League) management teams and who knows they can pick things up from those operating at the higher level.

“It gives opportunity for squad players to get experience which they might not otherwise be able to. They would benefit from a wider playing programme because we do not have a league cup, so this was a fantastic opportunity to play against PL2 clubs. It is also a fantastic opportunity for the PL2 clubs to play against senior players from the National League, a competition they do not normally have.”

Scrapping of FA Cup replays

The cup competition is widely considered to be a ‘sweetener’ for the decision of the Premier League to deny non-League clubs the chance of FA Cup glory by removing replays from the competition’s First Round this season. Read Dave’s rant about that – here.

Now, we will cut Mr Ives some slack (stop booing at the back!) here because he was speaking on a podcast about the finances of football and therefore it is not surprising he went on to talk about the financial benefits of changes to this year’s competition.

We will leave you to decide what you make of his explanation, not least his opening sentence which appears to explain the reasons why the FA Cup is what he himself describes as “the greatest competition in the world” – before seemingly ignoring them with the rest of his answer.

The general manager said: “You can either look at the romantic view of the FA Cup, we all love the FA Cup [some of us more than others it seems, Mark], I am a fan as well. It is the crown jewel of the FA and the greatest competition in the world. The flipside of that an objective look at the finances and the business decision.

“I know some will say it is the lifeline of our clubs and many clubs have missed out on the opportunity of replays. Over the last five years, the average number of National League clubs to get a replay in the first round is three, second round it is one, third round it is 0.6. The number receiving financial benefit for replays is not that high when you consider there are 32 National League clubs in the First Round. 

“The FA invested in the funding of the FA Cup prize fund of £2.34m [about what Manchester City spend an hour on lawyers] which all went in to the prize pot for rounds one to three which increased the prize pot by 38%. That recognises 32 clubs from the National League system would be in the First Round. In the First Round, 75% goes to the winner and 25% to the loser for the first time ever, in Round Two it is an 80%-20% split which means the losers get paid for reaching that level.

“The average share of the gate for a replay is about £4,900, but any club which lost in Round One this season will make £15,000 compared to nothing last year, any club losing in Round Two will make £65,000 compared with £41,000 last year, and a club losing in Round Three makes £145,000 compared to £108,000. That moves benefits all 32 clubs (which make past the qualifying rounds) in the National League.”

This article is already getting far too long, so we will leave you to make up your own mind on Mr Ives explanation there. Feel free to add your comments at the bottom of the article as to whether you agree or disagree with his opinion.

For those of you with longer memories, you can watch our FA Cup second round replay victory over Hereford United in 1992 which set up a home match with Arsenal which saved the club from bankruptcy. Fortunately for those lucky enough to remember such games, the Premier League cannot take your memories – but they’ll probably make you a good offer for them.

New broadcasting deal with DAZN

Ives also spoke about the deal with broadcaster DAZN (pronounced ‘Da-Zone’) to broadcast live matches for the next seven years with “a mutually agreed cut-off point for us to step away” baked in to the agreement.

Asked what the value of the deal was to the league, he said: “We do not disclose the amount of money, but I will say it is more than our previous broadcast deal, so that is better for our member clubs.”

From Thursday 7th November, the old nationalleaguetv.com platform will not be available with subscribers having to sign up to DAZN instead. If you already have a subscription, this will migrate over to DAZN from this date and you should have received an email about switching. See details from the league – here.

Speaking about the method for sharing the undefined amount of cash generated from the deal, Ives said: “We have an agreed central distribution to all of our 72 clubs. As it is a joint venture, there is a potential profit share for running the platform.

“It is always a bit of a hot potato because there’s 72 clubs and 72 opinions. The representation is within the board (x6 National League Premier, x4 National League North and South). If you were to go out with every broadcast deal and discuss with the clubs you risk the cat getting out of the bag and we want to keep the confidentiality of it.”

“We have not maximised our commercial opportunities. From our fans’ point of view, they will see little difference with accessibility.”

Independent Football Regulator

For much of his 45 minutes on the podcast, Mr Ives repeatedly referred to “correcting a misnomer” – that’s a fancy way of saying ‘clearing up an inaccuracy’ – which almost suggests the National League has an issue with communicating with people. Far be from us to say that, of course!

One of the others he wanted to clear up relates to the establishment of an Independent Football Regulator and the suggestion the National League was siding with the Premier League which has come out strongly against it.

Mr Ives said this was never the case. He said: “You cannot fight against something which is protecting the club’s finances and heritage, ensuring the right owners are there on takeover to ensure we have a really meaningful owners and directors test. I am interested in the protection of our clubs.”

Just to add, former Yeovil Town owner <NAME REDACTED> – you know who we mean – was a director of the National League during much of his time in charge at Huish Park. But the National League is interested in the protection of clubs. Clear? Good.

Mr Ives continued: “The regulator is here, we support it, but my concerns are that the full cost of the regulator is borne by the clubs, not the Government. The clubs they are trying to protect the finances of are responsible for the total costs of the regulator. It would be a dereliction of our duty to ensure that when the bill comes in the correct proportion of funding comes from our clubs and it is increased to ensure the biggest bill is borne by the Premier League clubs.

“We are concerned about duplication because we run a licensing part to membership of the National League system which is very successful and the regulator is also bringing in a licensing approach which is likely to be asked in both ours and the regulators system. That duplicates work for the clubs. It is not the what we are challenging, it is the how it is being applied.”

If you’ve made it this far, well done, However, there is also conversation about the lack of an agreement for the Professional Footballers’ Association to be able to represent players playing in the National League, the use of artificial surfaces and the thorny subject of an increase in three clubs being promoted to the Football League.

We would encourage anyone interested to listen and subscribe to the Price of Football podcast which is a great listen even if there’s not someone talking about non-League football.