TROY OF THE ROVERS

 

To be printed in the National League South game v Worthing Saturday November 2025

‘It is a fairytale; you can’t even dream about something like that. I have no words to describe the emotions right now.’

When Troy Parrott poked in that last minute goal to send the Republic of Ireland into the World Cup qualifiers there was chaos on the pitch, in the stands and anywhere else Irish fans happened to be. The following night Scotland scored two injury time goals to qualify with the same scenes of joy. This is what football is all about, this is why we love the game. And yet these fairytale's are under threat like never before.

People in power rarely like to give it up and always come up with

1. Excuses.

2. Warnings that any changes to the status quo will bring about Armageddon.

3. Threats to keep the status quo (If you’re unlucky enough to live in some of the countries Premier League owners represent those threats include torture, imprisonment and death).

Salary cap? See you to court.

Make the league fairer? Well wave goodbye to best players who just won’t come here if they can’t get £100,000 plus a week (I know I wouldn’t get out of bed for that either).

Three promotion places to the football league – hold those slay bells think us Turkeys are going to vote for Christmas?

FA Cup replays – come on, we’ve given you the National League Cup where you get to play Premier Under 21 teams. What more do you want?

Financially stable football clubs? Don’t be such a wet sponge.

There’s no doubt the new football regulator is going to have a fight on their hands trying to even things up. There’s already lots of ‘See you in court’ as clubs, agents and players unions argue its not fair and against competition law (unless of course you’re Manchester City whose 115 charges of breaking the rules rumble on and on). Which is ironic really as the idea of stopping some clubs spending the same amount as a small European countries total GDP is about bringing more competition to football. To try and sprinkle it with magic rather than drown it in pounds, shillings and pence.

On David v Goliath FA Cup games we are always reminded that the English Football pyramid is the envy of the world - but do everything it seems to knee cap any clubs who want to do a Wimbledon and go from non league to Premier league.

So let’s talk about AFC Wimbledon, who it should be remembered started near the bottom of the pyramid pile after MK Dons were allowed to nick their league place and moved to a town full of roundabouts. Fan owned, they are doing well in Division One and financed a new ground next to their old Plough Lane. But now they are looking for investors who support their ethos as they just cannot compete with the riches of others. Clubs in League One are losing on average £5.2 million a year. In League Two its £2.2 million. Those loses are not an option for a supporters run club.

Even small asks like 3UP to the English Football League have been in limbo for years. So last week the National League upped the ante with games kicking off at 3.03 with more protests promised. Just two promotion spots has created a bottle neck that has filtered down to the north and south divisions – pushing finances to the limit just to try and compete. 12 clubs in our league are full time. For basically Division 6 South. That’s insane. How do clubs afford to compete without a sugar daddy? Do we really want our community clubs in the hands of one person? This basically means if you run your club sustainable and sensibly it could well end up in relegation tears.

No club that's ever been promoted from the National League has come straight back down while the majority that have been relegated into it have failed to bounce back straight away. Ironically those current Turkeys - if they ever find themselves in what Sutton United supporters dubbed the Bastard League - will find promotion much easier with 3 places.

The jump up to the National League is as brutal as the Championship to the Premier League. So let’s see if the new Independent Football Regulator can knock some sense into footballs wild west finances, and that it’s on the pitch not just how much you have in your pocket that occasionally wins you games.

That football fairy dust isn’t so sparkly when the same old clubs keep winning. But don’t expect those in power to play nicely or go down without a fight if anyone dares try and even things up.