AOB: Grounds for Concern

I'll confess that, much to the chagrin of those that know me, my memory isn't the best.

Therefore it's probably not a surprise that, for me, pre-season seems like a lifetime ago. Those of you with a greater degree of mental dexterity will remember that our first pre-season match was away to Kings Lynn. I can't recall much about the game, which featured such luminaries as Matt Halliday, Ramon Calliste, and Pat Bexfield, but what I do remember is that Kings Lynn's stadium, The Walks, is a decent arena for a club of their size.

So I was surprised to see that The Linnets have been demoted from the Conference North this week because their ground doesn't meet the requirements of the league. You may remember that Cambridge City were relegated from the Conference South for similar reasons.

The specific reasons for the demotion seem to be unclear, but I can't for the life of me imagine how that ground can't be suitable for the level of football they're at. That the Conference are kicking them out is endemic of the wider problems surrounding stadium requirements in non-league football. This is not particularly a dig at Histon (for once), but when you see grounds like theirs, Accrington's, and Dagenham's being declared fit for the football league, you wonder what possible basis there can be for expelling the likes of Kings Lynn and City.

This issue extends all the way down the pyramid. Barely a week goes by without the BBC Non-League show featuring some little club from step six or seven who are being relegated because they don't have enough seats, or turnstiles, or whatever. No matter that their average crowd is three men and a dog; you have to comply to these ridiculously high standards or you're out.

In my opinion the whole ground grading system needs to be ripped to pieces and redesigned from the bottom up, with common sense being used rather than strict adhesion to the rules. What I do know is that, as a fan, the match day experience at Kings Lynn is a lot better than at some of the supposedly superior grounds we've visited in the Conference in the last four seasons.