19-20 Season Declared “Null and Void”
The FA have today, Thursday 26th March, came to the decision that leagues at steps 3 to 6 of the National League System will be brought to an immediate end with all results and stats expunged – also known as “null and void” – due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The full FA statement is available here – http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/mar/26/national-league-system-womens-football-pyramid-grassroots-covid-19-update-260320
As a result of this, the Hawks will not have a final position and it will go down in the books as no games being played and no final league table position. When it is safe for football, and life in general, to resume the Hawks will remain in the Isthmian South East looking for an immediate return back to the Isthmian Premier League. With the club sitting in a playoff position still with a good chance to win the league and gain promotion, be it automatically or through the playoffs, naturally we are disappointed that it has come to this, but we believe this is the fairest decision for all clubs in the league. No one deserves to be punished even more as a result of this terrible pandemic.
Even though it’ll go down as never happened, the 19-20 season brought us some great moments. The 5-1 home win over Herne Bay. The 4-1 upset of Hendon in the FA Trophy. Our ‘final’ game of the season where we annihilated Three Bridges 8-1, which would have been our biggest ever win outside the county league. Then finally there was the memorable trip to Guernsey with nearly 100 Hawks fans making the trip to the Channel Islands, watching us grind out a 2-1 win. We’ll have the opportunity to do this all again in the new season.
The club, as always, wish to praise our fans throughout the season. The support has once again been shown to be the best in the league and we’ve got no doubts the high level of support will welcome the team again next season when we can restart.
The current situation is unprecedented and right now football isn’t important. Overcoming this horrible virus is now the goal of everyone and we can all do our bit to help our NHS heroes by following UK Government advice which is simple – Stay At Home, Save Lives. Staying at home is the easiest way to stop the spread of infection which can reduce the strain on the health service.
Further information and advice on COVID-19 is available from the NHS here – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Comments (1)
Paul Tomlinson
If the whole season is expunged, does that mean that all fines for players & clubs (for what ever reason) & all red & yellow cards are expunged too?