It might be the fairest method of deciding the outcomes of Thurrock and Stafford, but in what way is any of this fair on Bishop's Stortford?
We're talking about a team that recruits players from the London area. Since last season ended - over a month ago - they will have been budgeting for the new season and planning their finances around trips to the Home Counties and the south coast. Suddenly they've got to fund trips to Workington, Blyth, Colwyn Bay, etc. And when you consider the ridiculous current cost of fuel that puts them at a massive disadvantage. Two further questions for me:-
(i) Given that the regular season ended in April, why does it take until June for the Conference to conduct its AGM? What happens during May? Surely the League should be meeting and resolving these issues at the earliest possible opportunity to give all of its member clubs time to prepare for the new season?
(ii) When a Premier League club drops into the Championship or when a League club drops into non-league, we hear about parachute payments being made to those clubs to offset their loss of income. I don't necessarily agree with parachute payments but given that the exist elsewhere and in the interests of fairness, should the footballing authorities step in and make a contribution towards Bishop's Stortford's increased running costs for next season?