Cod Almighty | Diary
How do you "accidentally" invite 70 people?
16 November 2016
League 3 is dead. This morning the Football League has announced the end of its deeply misnomered Whole Game Solution proposal, which sought to expand its membership to four divisions of 20 clubs each. Like this season's revamp of the Football League Trophy, the idea was received by supporters with almost unanimous fury. Unlike the B teams debacle, however, League 3 never progressed beyond the drawing board. The stumbling block, it seems, is the Football Association's unwillingness to shift FA Cup fixtures to midweek evenings from Saturday afternoons.
Benefits to the England team and improved finances for clubs have long been the pro forma justification for any kind of proposal to bugger about with our competitions – be it Shaun Harvey's latest half-arsed improvisations or the raw, full-blooded capitalist circle jerk that was the creation of the Premier League. Nobody with any idea about the game still buys the England thing, of course – though the case for League 3 might have been stronger had Harvey given any indication at all how a plan for clubs to host four fewer home games every season would have brought in more money for them. You know, as opposed to the glaringly obvious conclusion that it would bring in less, roughly to the tune of the gate receipts from four home games every season.
With the implosion of another cunning plan following the car-crash that is this season's Football League Trophy, supporters are already calling for Harvey to fall on his sword – or, at the very least, resign from his position as the League's chief executive. He's not all about failure, though. Getting fans and the FA to agree on something must rank as one of the unlikeliest achievements in English football history.
Don't even get your original/regular Diary started on how bizarre it is in the first place for any sort of whole game solution to be tabled by the League rather than the FA. Let our gaze refocus now closer to home, for a Grimsby Town reserve side yesterday trounced their Hartlepool counterparts by five goals to nil. Doubtless keen to make a big impression on the new boss, the stiffs could seemingly have racked up double figures, Tom Bolarinwa's standout performance placing him among the assists as well as the goals. You never know – maybe the club's superb new official website might raise its game too, or at the very least someone might get off their arse long enough to fill in results from two and a half months ago.
Finally today, further cause – as if it were needed – for optimism about the Bignot regime. Town's kid-in-a-sweetshop new supremo is widely admired, as you know, for his work with previous club Solihull Moors. Well, they got a draw against Yeovil in last night's FA Cup replay, and then went through on penalties to a second-round tie with Luton. If you haven't already patronised them on social media, we urge you to join us in doing so now.