Words Bill Waterson

Last Friday the National League and the Premier League announced the launch of the National League Cup - a new midweek competition featuring 16 National League clubs and 16 PL2 clubs.

Idea behind the competition

The idea for the competition was first mooted over 12 months ago with the two main objectives being to benefit National League clubs through the redistribution of funds to the participating clubs and to benefit Premier League clubs by increasing the number of competitive matches their under-21 teams play against senior teams.

Benefits for the National League

The money the Premier League is making available to the National League is the sizeable sum of £1.2m – some of it distributed to National League clubs, including the North and South but specifically excluding those clubs who have chosen not to take part in the competition. The prize money is generous, with significant sums on offer for wins and draws, as well as for reaching advanced stages of the competition.

As a club intent on achieving our ambitions while remaining on a sound financial footing, such considerations had to be taken on board and factored into the decision on whether to enter.

Altrincham's position

• We understand the concerns of some of our fans with regards to this competition, but all in all we consider it to be a net benefit for the club. And as a National League club our default position will be to take part in a National League competition

• Our stated strategy under Phil and Neil's tenure has been to build a footballing side that can compete at the highest levels in the National League and strongly grow our revenues to underpin this

• Therefore, our focus is on growing the revenues year on year to close this gap. This means we need to identify new sources of income, and the National League Cup is one such source of a decent chunk of additional revenue

• Not taking part would simply hand over this income, which will be of real benefit to a potential rival

• There will be a full review of the NL Cup at the end of the season, and by being part of it we will have a say in how the competition will be in the future

Misconceptions about the National League Cup

• The first relates to this being some kind of “payoff” for the end of replays in the FA Cup Proper. This is clearly not the case as the FA themselves have addressed the potential loss of revenue by significantly increasing the prize money in the FA Cup from the First Round onwards to address this. The new prize scheme was announced this week and more than makes up for any potential loss
• The second relates to “poaching” – the ability for PL2 clubs to spot our best talent through playing against us. We had over 20 scouts at most games last season, so we, and every other NL club are already in the spotlight.

Ticket info

 As announced last week, our group stage fixtures in the competition are as follows...