I am incredibly frustrated, says Hemel boss Bircham

Hemel Hempstead Town boss Lee Bircham is staying hopeful that the Vanarama National League South season will indeed resume once the two-week suspension is over.

The row over the Winter Survival Package blew up at the end of last week as the National League Board suspended the North and South divisions for a fortnight after they reviewed feedback from clubs.

It had earlier emerged that £11m of government funding to help Step 1 and 2 clubs through the next three months would be in the form of loans instead of grants like they had received through National Lottery funding in October, November and December.

Clubs had been expecting grants rather than loans following discussions, which were held in a bid to get the season started without fans last year.

It prompted the National League to offer out three options to their clubs - the operation of a club loan process, the operation of a National League loan or the suspension of the season.

With a number of clubs expressing their anger at having to take on debt to complete a season, which will see no income with fans not allowed into grounds due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems the majority of teams in the North and South divisions were in favour of suspending the season to allow further time to find a way forward.

A number of clubs also confirmed even before the suspension that they would not play their scheduled fixtures last weekend and the National League later confirmed that they had withdrawn the idea of the league taking on a loan, which means a deal will need to be struck with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to sort out grants if the season is to progress.

Bircham is hopeful that is exactly what will happen and he admitted to being frustrated after he insisted Hemel are a club who had prepared for this sort of issue.

“I am incredibly frustrated,” the Tudors boss said.

“When we sat down in the summer and spoke to the chairman, he said he was giving us an incredibly modest budget for the season and that was for a reason - to keep us going throughout the season without any grants and the other bits.

“We were under the impression that’s what all clubs would be doing and when the news about the funding came through, we felt we could carry on because we knew things could change.

“Obviously, everything came into play and then the league was suspended for two weeks which is annoying because it has nothing to do with safety, it’s everything to do with money.

“I am really frustrated and it’s another stop-start scenario that you don’t need or want.

“It’s hard enough to build a squad but we got some momentum going and then Covid meant we couldn’t play over Christmas. We stopped for three weeks and now we are off for another two weeks.

“We just hope everything gets sorted and we get back to playing when those two weeks are up.

“There are bigger things than football out there, we know that. But at the moment you never seem to know where you stand.

“My gut feeling is that we will start again in two weeks because it’s not a safety issue, it’s a money issue and I hope it will get resolved.”

Bircham, meanwhile, is hopeful he and his players will still be able to train over the next fortnight to ensure they are ready if the season resumes as scheduled.

“We want to carry on training,” he added.

“We are incredibly privileged to still be able to do it. We all love football and if we can carry on training then we will.

“We want to carry on as best we can and make sure we are prepared for two weeks' time.”