Di Paola: League placings shouldn't be decided in the boardroom

As reported in last week's County Times and on this website, the Hornets manager believes the football authorities have had no real choice other than to draw a line under the current season.

Now he has gone on to express sympathy for the clubs directly affected - and that it would be wrong to try to resume the current season in a few months' time, when many players may have moved on.

Di Paola also thinks the National League's three divisions should be scrapped for this year in the same way as their feeder leagues.

He told the Horsham FC website: "I really don’t see what else they could have done (re scrapping the season for step three and below) because there were still so many points left to play for.

"It would have been wrong to decide league placings in the boardroom or on paper although I would argue that clubs who have already had promotion or relegation confirmed, like Jersey Bulls, should stand and the leagues make the necessary adjustments to accommodate them next season.

“The National League will be an interesting one as that should be voided too, in my opinion, because I really can’t see when they’ll be able to finish the season. The pro leagues is a little more difficult because it’s their careers but that’s not necessarily the case in non-league.”

He added: “It’s clear that those clubs who have objected to the decision are the ones hopeful of going up and I obviously feel for them in that situation.

“But if you look at someone like Worthing, for example, you can’t say they were guaranteed to go up. They’ve been the best team in our division, without doubt, but they’d only taken 8 points out of the last 21 and if Cray won their game in hand that would have put them 4 points behind with 8 games to play. How can you sit down and predict how that would have turned out?

“You can’t suddenly introduce new rules halfway through the season, either. Of course these are extreme circumstances that couldn’t have been predicted but if rules are written up before a season starts, that if everything has to be shut down early we have to hold an egg and spoon race to decide things then so be it, everyone would have signed up to that.

"The League had to make a decision and I genuinely couldn’t see that they could have done anything else.

“There’s been a lot of clubs shouting about how much money has been spent this season on trying to go up or just hoping to stay in the division but the same applies to all of us.

"We’d had a terrific season but although we weren’t likely to have got promoted, we were 90 minutes away from a cup final appearance, something this club hasn’t achieved in years, so we were as frustrated as some of those teams at the top of the table.

“Another problem you’d get by playing on in, say, September is that you can’t guarantee the players will still want to be at the club so to ask them come in and play under those circumstances, in probably a match on which there’s nothing riding on it, would be very hard.

“Yet we shouldn’t forget that football isn’t just about results. It’s about providing an escape, a release, for so many people. We’ve been very fortunate to get some big attendances at Horsham this season and I’m sure many of the supporters who have come along and paid their money in good faith will have felt disappointed at the outcome.”

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