Pandemic impact on football clubs in Surrey not all negative

The impact of the pandemic on football clubs in Kingston and Surrey has not been entirely negative according to the Surrey FA.

A lot of football clubs around the country have suffered negative impacts of the pandemic since the beginning of March last year, especially financially.

But James Chadwick, media coordinator of the Surrey FA, said: “On the contrary to the rest of the areas in the country, the clubs in Kingston and Surrey have actually had more of a positive impact than a negative impact.

“There have been some negative effects financially, but we have seen an increase in players joining the football clubs and that has meant an increase in revenue for them. The FA also has come up with solutions and schemes to help the clubs navigate through the pandemic” said Chadwick.

Robert Wooldridge, communications director of Kingstonian FC disagrees with the statement. He said: “We have not had any negative effect on our finances due to the pandemic but in my opinion, the FA have done a fairly useless job in handling the pandemic.

“The FA seem to have been woefully slow to recognise that there is football in-between elite level and the non-league clubs. Every time some advice is pushed out by an authority, we need someone to translate it into terms that tell us whether it affects us or not” said Wooldridge.

Wooldridge added: “Has our club been affected by the pandemic? The simple answer is no. Expectations are the same, demands are the same and the pandemic has not changed anything for our club, But the FA has still not supported clubs like us as it should have.”