I am writing to advise you that the FA have advised the League that they have been allocated one of the Step 6 Divisions to operate from Season 2020/2021.
The Division, currently known as “Area 8” will be to the North of our current footprint and looks to cover an area from Corby/Kettering in the North down to the Luton area in the South. This will of course result in a number of current Division One clubs being re allocated to a new Step 6 Division to the South of our current footprint. More news will be provided when received from the FA but it is too early to speculate which clubs will be affected.
As far as our Premier Division is concerned there will also be changes with our Step 5 area appearing to move further North. There will be a new Step 5 Division established to cover clubs in and the around the M25 and into North/North West London going round to Berkshire/Surrey. Again there are no more specific details at this time and, as stated above, it is too early to speculate on who goes where.
There will be many promotion/relegation issues to take into account at the end of the 2019/2020 season before the new structure falls into place.
As far as Division Two is concerned we are not aware, at this time, of any significant changes apart from this Division not being part of the overall National League System structure. Step 7 will be re branded as “Regional NLS Feeder Leagues” from Season 2020/2021 and will be sanctioned by a County FA rather than Nationally by the FA.
You will recall that I did cover these issues at the recent AGM so this should not come as a surprise to any club.
As far as the League is concerned the announcement from the FA confirms that we will continue to operate with a three Division structure in the future.
It is understood that there will be more details reported in Sunday’s edition of the Non-League Paper.
Regards
Mike Appleby