Something Missing

As the final pieces of the 2021/22 season jigsaw fall into place, thoughts begin to turn towards pre-season friendlies and the important dates for the campaign ahead.

Four years on from Russia 2018, however, something is missing as we wait and see what a winter World Cup will look like.

For those clubs where the bar is a thriving venue, and crucial income generator, there will be a big World Cup-shaped hole this summer, money that could have been banked for the uncertain times ahead.

The prospect of the top divisions of the game being shut down, for a month or longer, for Qatar 2022, is an opportunity for clubs across the country to continue attracting new spectators as so many have done over the past season.

At a time when the cost of living is the number one thing on people's minds, and with leisure spending perhaps first in line to be cut back, those clubs will, I'm sure, continue to offer an affordable afternoon in friendly surroundings.

But rising prices have an impact across the board and the cost of heating a clubhouse, turning on the floodlights or filling up the team coach will all have gone up sharply in recent months.

I've often highlighted the informative weekly bulletin provided by Hitchin Town FC secretary Roy Izzard in this blog, and this week he confirms that adult matchday admission prices have had to go up for next season for those very reasons.