By Stuart Broom

Former captain of Lyme Regis Football Club

WHILST we all struggle to adjust our lives around COVID-19, the one thing we look forward to is some kind of normal life resuming as the vaccines hopefully drive away our fears and depression.

Life is sure to be different in many ways. So many businesses and organisations have suffered because of the pandemic, unfortunately many never to return.

Sport in general has been decimated, but particularly grassroots football with only a handful of local games having taken place. Unless you have a wealthy sponsor or benefactor, the main source of revenue is earned on match days and through organised events. This has been virtually non-existent this past year, although the cost of running the club has continued despite no income.

We are all aware of the obscene amount of money being bandied around in football at the top level with transfers, agents' fees and television broadcasting contracts, which has turned the sport into a business.

Unfortunately, this disease has rapidly percolated down through the Football Pyramid with clubs as low as Level 10 (step 6) offering inducements to play for them. The original idea of local football has expanded out of all recognition with clubs pressurised to follow. It is inconceivable to think that a club in the South West Peninsula Premier League is reported to have been paying a goalkeeper £200 per game (two games a week) earlier in the season. That kind of thing is killing the game as a sport.

We also know that unless you can match the big spenders in your league, you are unlikely to achieve success. Look at teams like Axminster and Bridport, both doing their best but both wallowing near the bottom of their leagues.

Teams have to travel too far

Expansions of leagues has also resulted in teams having to travel inordinate distances to play. For instance after joining the Devon & Exeter League Lyme Regis had to travel to Chumleigh, on the outskirts of North Devon, a round trio of more than 120 miles, whilst half the teams in the Toolstation Western League Premier Division are based in the Bath/Bristol area meaning trips for Bridport of well over 150 miles. Not only is this expensive in travelling costs, in the majority of cases their rivals bring few spectators when they host them.

There was a suggestion a few years ago about regionalising leagues once again. This would cut costs to clubs and I think bring back the crowds that were so much of the game half a century ago.

Those of us old enough can recount the atmosphere of local derbies both playing in them and supporting your team. For instance, what about an area from say Sidmouth in the west, Chard/Yeovil in the north, and Portland in the east. Yes it would take a couple of years to even itself out from the disparity of standards at the moment, but I would guess that Sidmouth v Seaton or Lyme v Axminster would provide an atmosphere that would see fans filling the stands and munching pasties at half-time, bringing in much needed revenue for the clubs.

You may say that is killing the ambitions of clubs to better themselves, or indeed for players to play at a higher standard, but promotion could still be available to those clubs who felt they had the finances and facilities to progress, and as now if you have a talent, higher clubs will soon recognise that.

Okay, maybe pie in the sky? You only have to see what de-regionalising League Three and Four of the old Football League has done with Exeter travelling to Carlisle and Yeovil to Hartlepool midweek. Crazy. I rest my case..