It’s as if the 2019-20 season did not happened at all for the lower tiers of England’s non-league football pyramid, after The FA announced their decision this morning to annul the seasons for steps 3-6 of non-league football in response to the continuing coronavirus outbreak.
For men’s football, this means all leagues below the National League North/South divisions (née Conference North/South) will be reset to last summer, with no promotion or relegation taking place to or from any of them.
While this could be seen as a precursor to similar steps eventually taken at the higher levels of the game, the lack of any sponsorship money or outside interests in these lower leagues makes it significantly easier to declare this season null and void and start over anew next season, whenever that may be.
The FA remain adamant about completing all the Cup competitions (including the FA Cup and the FA Youth Cup) if at all feasible, which could see them stretch well into next season (such as October, as the Mirror prognosticates). The Premier League and the EFL meanwhile “maintain ambition” to finish the season by, or not much later than, June 30.