Scarborough Athletic chairman Bull welcomes non league funding boost announced by DCMS

Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston announced on Wednesday that Steps 3-6 of the National League system will receive up to £10m to protect the immediate future of approximately 850 clubs over the winter period.

The funding will be provided in the form of grants and clubs in Steps 3-6, will be contacted directly by the Football Foundation with full details and will be able to make an application from Thursday. Funds will be distributed quickly through the Football Stadia Improvement Fund.

It is the first award to be announced from the Government’s £300 million Sports Winter Survival Package that is focused on helping those major spectator sports severely impacted by coronavirus restrictions survive the winter.

It follows submissions made from individual sports to an independent decision-making Board, supported by Sport England.

In October the Government announced it had brokered a unique deal with the National Lottery to provide a £10 million cash injection to keep Step 1 and 2 clubs afloat, and recently announced a provisional £11m in very low interest long term loans to support clubs in those tiers.

Football from Steps 3 and below have been suspended since the beginning of November while the National League North and South divisions were suspended for two weeks after clubs expressed their concerns at having to take on loans to keep the season going. Those two divisions are due to resume on February 6.

The Sports Winter Survival Package is a sector-specific intervention that is on top of the multi-billion pounds worth of business support that has been made available by the Government, including the furlough scheme, business rates relief and business interruption loan scheme that has helped many clubs survive.

This would be a welcome boost for Boro, insists Bull: “Of course any funding in the form of grants would be more than welcome and would help the club enormously in these testing times.

“The loans that have been offered clubs just wouldn’t have helped anyone out at the moment.

“We’re yet to hear anything officially but we’re hopeful something will come to fruition - it will be interesting to see how it would be allocated.

“It wasn’t done very fairly by the National League so let’s hope it’s distributed better.”

Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston added: “We promised to support sports and target help to where it’s most needed.

“Today we continue to deliver on that with further support for National League football clubs.

“The National League has already benefited from the Government support schemes through a £10m Government-brokered cash partnership with the National Lottery, and there will be more support for the bigger clubs on the way.

“The £10m grant for lower league clubs in Steps 3-6 will act as a lifeline for around 850 clubs in towns and cities across England, and help these clubs through this difficult period until we can get fans back in safely.”

On Step 1 and 2 National League funding, Huddleston added: “With precious public money, we are providing financial support to the National League Steps 1 and 2 in the form of loans. However if clubs at those levels can demonstrate it needs grant funding urgently to survive, we will ensure that option is available.

“We will not let clubs go to the wall. Applications will be assessed by the independent Board, through the same rigorous process that we apply to other sports.”