East Sussex Football League axes fixtures amid worries season will not finish

Hastings and Rother - where many of the league's clubs and players are based - moved into tier three Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday, when the matches were due to be played.

That swiftly became tier four from Sunday, meaning the Hastings and Rother areas are now experiencing similar restrictions to those faced during the autumn national lockdown.

While fixtures are still permitted to take place in tier three, at grassroots level people cannot travel outside of their area to take part, including from one tier three area to another.

That means, for instance, that players cannot travel from Hastings to a game in Rother - and vice-versa - so the league opted to call off its final scheduled matchday of 2020.

Speaking on Saturday morning prior to the step four announcement, fixture secretary Kevin Bray said: "We thought it would be Hastings going into tier three, but when they announced Rother as well, that's half our league area. Even the teams from outside that area will have players that live in that area.

"In a tier three area, you have to stay in that area. I couldn't even say teams from Hastings can play teams from Rother because you're not allowed to.

"It may have been possible to play one or two games in the Eastbourne area, but is it really worth it when everything's on the rise? It just seemed easier to call them all off."

Even prior to the blanket postponement, six scheduled matches were already off as a result of players returning positive Covid tests.

The league is now on its annual festive break, with no fixtures scheduled for Boxing Day or January 2 in any case. The action is due to resume on January 9, but given the current coronavirus situation, that would appear highly unlikely.

Bray admits there's a concern about being able to complete the season as the coronavirus crisis deepens.

Just 24 games have been completed since the start of November, primarily due to the pandemic, but with wet weather in early December adding to the problems.

A number of teams are behind with their fixtures as we arrive at the festive break and with Hastings and Rother now under tier four Covid restrictions, there's little prospect of the action resuming as scheduled on January 9.

In fact, on Saturday night the FA ordered all grassroots football in tier 4 areas to cease.As this affects a majority of clubs in the East Sussex League, the league is very restricted in what it can do until the tiers change.

Asked if there's now a real concern about completing the season, fixture secretary Kevin Bray said: "There is a concern. We'll have to have a virtual committee meeting over the Christmas holiday some time and see what we can do.

"You do a reverse countdown (until the end of the season), you look at how many weeks have you got and how many games have teams got left, and then think is it possible?

"Pitches are still going to be shut down (for the summer) at some point in late April or early May."

Catching up with fixtures, even in normal circumstances, is particularly problematic at grassroots level. Pitches are often unplayable during the winter months and with only one or two teams using a ground with floodlights, midweek games are out of the question until after the clocks go forward in late March.

And with the coronavirus situation becoming markedly worse rather than better, a resumption of the campaign looks some way off.

Bray continued: "Really everything is up in the air at the moment because we don't know how long it (the Covid restrictions) is going to go on for.

"During the November lockdown we knew we were starting again on December 5, so you can plan for that. But at the moment I've got no idea (when the season will resume). I have clubs saying 'when are we going to restart?' but I just don't know.

"We all want to play football every week, but there's more important things going on."

So what could happen if something has to give during the second half of the season?

Bray stressed that completing the league fixtures is the priority, so the cups could reluctantly be sacrificed, although there are several different knockout competitions run by several different organisations.

Another option might be to play as many league matches as possible and if some aren't completed by the campaign's end, determine the final standings on a points-per-game average.

But with more than four months to go until we reach that stage, and so much uncertainty over what will happen between now and then, frankly it's anybody's guess how things will play out.

The league, however, will do all it can to avoid a repeat of last season, which was abandoned following the original Covid outbreak in March.

Bray has been involved in Sussex football since the 1980s and is certainly no stranger to fixture pile-ups, but admits this has been the most challenging year he's faced.