Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor slams 'unprofessional' Vanarama National League for handling of funding crisis as season hangs in the balance

Controversy has surrounded the National League over the past week after it was confirmed that future funding provided to clubs from the DCMS would be made up of loans rather than grants.

With no contingency plan in place, the league presented three potential options to its 66 member clubs across the fifth and sixth tiers in order to gauge the response.

The first option was to go ahead with the government loan which clubs were welcome to apply for. Option two was for the league to take on the loan themselves and provide grants directly to clubs.

Many National League North and South clubs were in favour the third option to suspend the season and the divisions have subsequently been suspended for two weeks.

Pools were one of several clubs to state their preference as option two. But this option was then taken off the table by the National League late on Friday night, much to the frustration of Challinor as clubs were left in the dark again.

“Why put an option on the table and then all of a sudden decide to withdraw that because of the fact that the majority of teams weren’t in favour of a loan or were in favour of suspending the season?” He told The Mail.

"Again it doesn’t take a scientist to work out that would be the case because you’ve got two leagues below us voting and the majority of teams in those leagues have been open in the fact that they want to suspend the season.

"The National League have hidden behind something that they knew was going to happen so they shouldn’t put an option on the table then withdraw it within 24-hours.

"They’ve taken a lot of criticism for how they run things and they’ve done themselves absolutely no favours whatsoever with the decisions that they’ve made. They’ve made themselves look even more unprofessional with the way things are being run.

“There’s been no decisiveness in their actions. You look at circumstances and clubs were asked to put forward their thoughts with the understanding that a decision would be made from that.

"Then it comes out that the National League North and South wouldn’t play. I don’t get the understanding behind why emails are being sent to National League clubs on Friday night when teams are preparing for a game within 12-hours. In what world does that need to happen?

"The games we played should have been left to be played and then we can pick things up on Monday instead of dropping it on a Friday night and not expecting to get a reaction.”

The National League season remains up in the air with Challinor admitting the latest u-turn has ‘dashed’ hope for a lot of clubs.

"It is what it is, we don’t know what we’re up to now, the next few days I imagine will be quite telling,” he added.

“But the hope we had in our league from the majority of teams to continue having voted for option two, that hope has been dashed.

"As far as the National League are concerned, that option that was there no longer is for some unknown reason.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Hartlepool United coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

We’ve launched a new transfer window special offer for readers to get 20% off our subscription package.

Use the promo code TRANSFER20 to sign up here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor