As some of you will have seen, having beaten Gainsborough Trinity 3-0 in the FA Cup in midweek, AFC Mansfield have now been drawn away against Boston United in the next round.
The Pilgrims, as a Step 2 non-league side count as one of the teams that the sporting governance bodies are referring to as an 'Elite Sports' club, who under the current Covid restrictions must play all of their games, both home and away, 'behind closed doors'.
If Boston United, who have moved out of York Street, are going to play their tie with the Bulls at the Northolme (the home of Step 3 Trinity, of course), where Boston have a temporary groundshare arrangement, that means that the game will have to take place behind closed doors, because of Boston's 'elite' status. Which would've thrown up an interesting though purely hypothetical scenario: what if Gainsborough had beaten AFC Mansfield and iwere drawn 'away' against BUFC instead?
The slippery curveball that such a draw would have chucked everybody is: effectively Trinity would have been playing an 'away' game on home turf, with no spectators allowed, because of the presence of a Step 2 side on the field of play. Even switching the tie to afford Gainsborough 'home' status wouldn't get around the 'behind closed doors' regulations, regardless of the fact that the game would be bookended by two NPL fixtures where 600 spectators would be allowed into the ground.
It's all a bit bonkers innit!?
AFC Mansfield, along with other non league teams are being told that the FA are looking into the possibility of making allowances for cup games, but I doubt if the powers that be willing to set a precedent by tweaking their own rules and inevitably inviting a tidal wave of aggrieved clubs wanting further alterations to be made to accommodate their requirements too.
The Bulls also enquired if it would be possible to switch the game to the Forest Town Arena, but that request seems to have fallen on deaf ears... and even if the FA and BUFC had consented to such a move, the game would still have to be played 'behind closed doors' anyway, even though spectators have been allowed in for AFC Mansfield's previous three cup games.
FA Cup games take precedent over league fixtures, so if the powers that be would've allowed the venue switch to have been made, Trinity would still have been able to use their own ground on Saturday October 3rd, instead of having to move a NPL game to midweek, to allow a game between two sides from outside the town (52 miles away v. 32 miles away) to be played in an empty ground. Clubs and supporters are undergoing enough upheaval already and in these 'unprecedented times' and under the circumstances, I reckon that the FA could've at least allowed the cup game to have been played elsewhere, especially given the fact that no spectators are being allowed in. I wouldn't imagine that it would have been too difficult to find another suitable venue. #JustSaying
Of course, if the underdogs of AFC Mansfield should beat Boston United and draw a club from outside the 'elite group' in the next round, fans would be allowed back in again... unless of course, further pandemic lockdown restrictions are reintroduced and imposed on us all again by then.
#Strangedaysindeed