AOB: Showing the way?

Remember this article written in September by the Guardian’s David Conn.

If you haven’t seen it, the gist is that the Conference has introduced a raft of trail-blazing measures to try and stop clubs getting into financial difficulty, with penalties to be incurred if the requirements set out by the league are not met.

“The system has teeth”, declared Conn, referring to penalties such as transfer embargos and expulsion, which can and have been applied to clubs in the past.

Well since then we’ve seen Weymouth, Salisbury, and Grays make huge cuts to try and save a bit of money, while Lewes are up for sale and in danger of entering administration, and doubts continue to surround the futures of Rushden and Northwich (best not to mention Histon here, or I may end up threatened with a law suit).

This has all happened despite the Conference’s supposedly strict rules regarding finances. If indeed the league is “showing the way” (as the title suggests) to the rest of the football world, I hate to think where we’re heading.