The joys of the cup, 3G in the Football League and five years on...

Once again, thanks to the skills and professionalism of our squad and management, we find ourselves in the first round of the FA Cup and looking forward to a real treat of a match on Sunday against Yeovil. 

I am gutted to miss a home game in the FA Cup First Round for the second year running, particularly as it looks like we will set a new capacity record thanks to the huge demand for tickets. 

We are obviously delighted with the interest generated but disappointed for those unable to get tickets. There is no perfect system for satisfying everybody when demand outweighs supply. We do however recommend joining our Fan Club as it is relatively cheap and guarantees you a ticket and also helps club funds.

At times like this our newer supporters in particular might be forgiven for thinking this is just what it's like every year. But you'd be wrong. This is an exceptional run of success for the club and we should all savour every moment of it. 

To get to the proper rounds of the FA Cup is always the icing on the non-league cake. It allows the players and managers to test themselves against seriously talented professional teams; it gets the club into the limelight for brief but unforgettable moments; it raises the profile of the club and enables us to attract more supporters, more business partners and more customers, all of which is positive for the long-term health of the club. 

Also it's a huge amount of fun mixing it with the 'big boys'. This is what most non-league clubs dream of. So let's share the dream and enjoy every minute and never, ever, take any of this for granted. 

And while we do that, let's remember that our squad has managed to get us to third in the league and pressing for a play-off place. This is as notable as the FA Cup run and will hopefully keep our whole season as alive and kicking as the previous Gallagher Stadium seasons have been. There is a long way to go of course but there is a growing confidence that we can compete in this league and have a chance to reach the play-offs in April. Let's see how we go.

The FA Cup also raises the profile of our 3G pitch, which is no bad thing, even though we are aware our pitch does sometimes look tired, what with all the use it gets  and can appear shiny and patchy, particularly under the lights and on TV. After Graham Westley's comments last season on the dangers of 3G, while his club Stevenage were advertising it in their programme as perfect for youth training, it will be interesting to hear what the Yeovil manager has to say.

Recent weeks have seen England play on 3G again, without any serious adverse comment. Furthermore we have heard on the grapevine that the Football League are once again revisiting the 3G issue, under pressure from The FA. The time may indeed not be far away when a club from National League comes knocking on the Football League door with a 3G pitch. The FA realise that there is no simple way for National League to manage 3G clubs seeking promotion while the Football League door is shut. So they will be as keen as we are for the Football League to allow in 3G. 

On that topic I noticed today that Kidderminster Harriers, in serious fiancial difficulty, were taken over. Their new owner stated he was looking at a new business model to grow the club as a community facility not dependant on match day revenues…well my friends at 3G4US may have some advice for him.

You will possibly be aware of the race against time to get the new east staircase open and fit for purpose this Sunday. The completion of these works will give us over 3000 capacity in normal circumstances and just under 3,000 when we segregate. It all depends on how we segregate too. The numbers change all the time depending on where we might put dividers and how many rows of seats or metres of terracing we wish to block off. That depends on whom we are playing… in any event these numbers will be quite satisfactory for us and the league. 

We are also embarking on a new master planning exercise for the stadium design to revisit where we plan to be in future years as and when we continue to climb up the pyramid. The focus now is achieving the minimum capacity requirements (4,000 for The National League and 5,000 for League Two) in a logical and economical way, so as to give us the best possible chance of financing them sensibly. The precise urgency of this exercise may depend on how the team is doing!

You can all be rightly proud of the club's facilities, which are among the newest and best in the league. On top of that please let's make sure all of us, staff and supporters alike, continue to welcome all fellow and opposition supporters to the stadium with the same friendliness we usually do. That is what we stand for.

As Christmas pokes its nose round the door, can I respectfully ask you to consider buying presents through our shop? Look out for special opening times in the run up to Christmas. We try and produce new and attractive merchandise, Helen and her volunteer staff are the friendliest in the business and every penny contributes to your club's financial stabilty. So it's for a great cause! Thank you.

Lastly we held a club Premium Partner wine-tasting event last week, thanks to Shepherd Neame, which was successful. Our Premium partners such as Shepherd Neame, Britelite, Gullands and Gallagher Group, as well as many others, contribute hugely to our resources. 

On 19 November, in the evening, we host our twice-yearly Supporters' Get-Together in the Spitfire Lounge. The theme is 'Five years on, looking back and looking forwards'. You will have a chance to meet fellow supporters for a drink or two, chat to Jay Saunders and some of the players and ask questions, hear from Terry and Bill about the latest club news and possibly view the premiere of the latest Stones TV production thanks to Fred Atkins and John Gooch. In fact you might soon be seeing much more of John's work because he is returning shortly to bring you - once again - highlights from most of our matches. 

Yours in sport,

Oliver Ash

A wonderful victory

The achievement of Maidstone United Football Club in changing the face of non and lower league football should never be underestimated. 

By allowing artificial 3G pitches the Conference have opened the doors to football in the 21st century, which can now be played on even and true surfaces. 

I feel we will look back, as we look back on the pitches of the sixties and seventies, and wonder why it was ever in doubt that 3G surfaces would eventually prevail. 

Although I am not bitter about the song and dance Oliver had to go through, the extraordinary attitude of some of those running football became a symbol of what is wrong with the nation’s favourite game. 

Each time I heard a dissenting opinion about 3G it was obvious that yet another dinosaur of the game hadn't bothered to do any research on the realities and benefits of using an artificial surface. 

I recall meeting with the supporters after another depressing defeat playing at Ashford and being asked whether the surface will never be accepted and beginning to doubt whether this incredibly risky decision to install 3G would explode in our faces. 

Bill never doubted the decision and Oliver, by his efforts, clearly was never going to back down. We were alone and isolated in the football world but we knew we were right this had to be the only way forward. 

What then happened is that the football loving public of Maidstone gave the 3G surface the most overwhelming vote of approval. This was no longer a battle for Bill, Oliver and I – it became a cause for almost two thousand people every week. 

The supporters were clearly telling the rulers of the game, the politicians and the football hierarchy that they should embrace the new way that the game should be played. 

Each time we stood up in front of the supporters and said that we would win the battle one day it was your support that kept us going. We have as a club much to be proud of. 

We should all recognise the efforts of Oliver in achieving this momentous change. His skill and determination has been prodigious and an object lesson in perseverance and bloody mindedness. 

I know he would want to acknowledge the various people who helped, such as Matt Dickinson from The Times and Matt Dunn from the Daily Express who so eloquently made the case for 3G and gave it a national profile, and to Greg Dyke and his colleagues at The FA for showing great leadership on this important issue.

The 2014/2015 campaign is going to be another battle but after this victory we must believe that anything can happen.

Thanks for your support.

Terry Casey

A cunning plan…

I have now heard about the proposals for League 3 and heard the reaction from the non-league world: outrage, annoyance, fear, disbelief, any number of negative sentiments. Hardly any in favour. 

People have questioned the logic, questioned the Commission membership, questioned the motives, questioned Greg Dyke’s credibility. I too believe the proposal to be misguided and wonder why it was put forward in what appears to be such a clumsy and provocative way. Deliberate surely?

There remains the strong underlying issue here of an FA, which has to run an England team but which doesn’t control the source of its players anymore: the Premier League. After all the Premier League were not even on the Commission and let’s face it, Premier League clubs, foreign-owned in many cases, don’t care if no English players play for them as long as they win things and make heaps of dosh! The biggest challenge Greg Dyke has is to wrest some control of English football back from the Premier League, a tough ask.

League 3 is supposed to be a solution to the challenge of producing more talented young English players for the national team. Even Greg Dyke himself admits it may not be the best solution but it’s the only one they seemed to all agree on and he invites us to propose a better solution or accept this one because something needs to be done. Well it has certainly got the debate stirred up.

League 3 is wrong firstly because it ignores the unique nature of non-league and lower league football in England, which cannot be compared easily with other countries’ structures. We have about 100 full-time professional clubs. Is there any other country in Europe, which can claim such a huge figure? The huge number of followers and supporters of non-league and lower league clubs is also exceptional. In France’s professional Division 2 for example, the bottom four clubs’ crowds average 2000, comparable with The Conference, our Division 5. Our pyramid structure is highly liberal: all clubs can legitimately aim to rise to the top. Nothing but merit restricts them.

Additionally League 3 adds an unfair element of imperfect competition: clubs will inevitably put together their (reserve) team not simply in order to win matches and the competition as a whole, but in order to ‘practise’, to improve players, their experience and ultimately their club’s first team. This will skew the results unfairly. The division will be compromised and the results almost irrelevant in sporting terms. This pollution of the pyramid is undesirable to say the least. The pyramid is not perfect (e.g. the absurd situation by which non-league clubs at AGMs get one vote in Step 1, 3 and 4 but virtually no votes in Step 2…) but it’s not bad the way it is, thank you very much.

More importantly it doesn’t seem to be the best solution to the problem. After all the FA Commission highlighted the problems: too few coaches in English football; too few good pitches; too little competitive football for 18-21 year olds because existing reserve leagues are not deemed competitive enough; surely they are not trying to tell us that the only answer they can find to all these questions is the League 3 idea. Surely they know we will realise they can’t be that stupid?

Let’s look at the questions and answers:

We need more coaches? Well create more courses and coaching/training facilities and make sure conditions and costs are such that more top football people are tempted to apply and qualify.

Too few good pitches? Well yes it was only going to be a matter of time till I got to that one. Then continue to promote 3G pitches throughout English football; not just in grass roots but in lower league stadia that will improve the standard and frequency of football being played. It’s one thing we can learn from our fellow Europeans: it works. In this respect the FA have started to shake up football’s reactionary governing bodies in England and perhaps League 3 is a cunning plan to harass and provoke these bodies into creating a stir, the volume of which might cause a rethink at Premier League level where change needs to happen and where The FA is weakest?

Too little competitive football for top reserve teams? Well set up a competitive reserves competition. Perhaps the obscenely wealthy Premier League clubs should put some of their millions up as prize money for a Premier B League, to give a proper incentive to win games? £5 million for the winning club should make it competitive.  Or improve the player loan system to encourage clubs to loan out players to lower league clubs but limit the numbers allowed to be loaned to each club. It’s hardly rocket science but would it not work?

And why not push for limits on players not qualified to play for England in the Premier League? This would be similar to what the French Rugby Federation have recently chosen to do in the Top 14 competition, comparable to England’s Premier League in football, in order to improve the poor results of the national team and combat the increasing numbers of foreign mercenaries being imported by rich clubs.

And why was there no consultation of non-league bodies? There are a few non-league bodies who are capable of demonstrating common sense, vision and leadership, e.g. the Ryman League, who should have been asked their opinion. However having listened to the Non-League Show there are clearly some who continue to live in cloud cuckoo land: issues like 3G show up the failings in bodies like The Conference. They do not, contrary to what is claimed, stand up for non-league football as a whole. They are not leaders they are followers contrary to what their spokesman claimed; they are more concerned to secure additional promotion places to League 2 (perhaps now League 3?), an issue of importance to maybe 25% of Conference clubs, rather than promote 3G pitches, which, as they themselves admit, would be welcomed by far more clubs, even in The Conference itself, let alone throughout the wider world of non-league, where so many people now support more 3G pitches. For Brian Lee to state that “the FA have lost the plot” is laughable. The Conference need to have a good look at their own plot first: voting rules, membership of their Board and governance, communications, representation of non-league as a whole, all have much room for improvement.

And why not encourage non-league clubs to form academies, as we have done and the NPL are doing as a League? This can only provide benefits in every sense. Instead there is still no real financial incentive for clubs to go down the complicated and costly set-up costs of academies because the rules are such that Premier League clubs can freely poach players and no financial compensation structure exists for smaller clubs.

So it just cannot be possible that this is the end result of The FA Commission’s deliberations. Greg Dyke is too canny for that to be the case. He and the FA have recently shown great courage and leadership in the 3G campaign, throwing open its competitions to 3G and pushing other bodies to embrace 3G. Their actions will encourage more clubs to install these pitches and they have virtually removed all remaining barriers to 3G in non-league. I can only assume therefore that this wacky League 3 proposal must be part of a very cunning plan…

Oliver Ash

A decent few days

Oliver Ash

It's been a decent few days for your club. 

Let's look at the positives and forget the negatives: we've welcomed back one or two key players from injury; we've stopped the run of away defeats; we're still unbeaten at home this season; we've got Jay signed up as our manager for next season; we're making good progress on our stadium extension project; next year's academy recruitment is going well; we're in the league cup final AND we’ve just won our play-off appeal to The FA. 

Following the appeal hearing Ian and I were treated to a private tour of Wembley changing rooms and pitch. We could admire at first hand the hugely impressive infrastructure and pitch maintenance equipment. It certainly is an expensive business keeping a pitch like that in good condition year out. Although it is a hybrid 'Desso' type pitch, the grass needs constant feeding with light and CO² in order to grow fast between matches and events. 

The FA appeal result was good news for the club of course because it keeps our season alive until the very end. It's also excellent news for the whole 3G4US campaign. Every development on 3G is greeted through email or on social media by a flood of replies and comments from all our fellow clubs in 3G4US. 

There really is a great group of clubs involved in this campaign. There is good solidarity with all we are campaigning for and it's heartening to remind ourselves of that widespread support.

The appeal decision and the mood of the hearing itself was another clear indication that The FA mean 3G business from now on. There is a clear message for change. Now it is up to us on the field to defy the odds and to get into a promotion position.

If all that should happen (and I must stress that it is rather hypothetical given where we are in the table - the realistic odds today on us winning the play-offs must be about 7-1) and if we were refused entry to The Conference in May despite having qualified through the play-offs then we would be entitled to appeal to The FA. 

Whatever happens there is now a positive feeling around the club that even if it is not for this season one way or another, then at worst by next season all this will have resolved itself in favour of 3G being allowed in Conference and that is excellent news for clubs all around the country.

On the subject of the stadium Bill, Terry and I met earlier this week to discuss the designs and funding for the Henry Reeves End extension. We are working on a design, which would give us another 600 seats and another 400 standing capacity, thus increasing the overall ground capacity to about 3300. It would provide much needed seating with excellent views of the pitch, extra covered stepped terracing in front of the stand and maintained pitchside railing standing capacity, albeit uncovered. 

Once we have gone through the last revisions with the architects by the end of the month we will arrange to display the plans so that you can comment on them and give us some more useful ideas. This is sincere because the extra terracing design comes from comments made during the February supporters' meeting, so we do listen! However no design is perfect and this will be no exception. We have to do the best we can given the league requirements, health and safety, planning issues, available land and costs.

We are looking to fund this extension with the assistance of local agencies, The Football Foundation, and a debenture scheme, which would allow around 100 seats to be purchased in advance for several years at a reduced price. We may also need some capital contribution from club or shareholder funds and our major partners, all of which will be under discussion over the next weeks. The extended stadium should be capable of providing the club with an infrastructure enabling it to operate profitably and sustainably for the foreseeable future and provide comfortable high quality facilities to supporters, customers and the local community. 

But never mind all the play-off battles, 3G arguments, stadium extensions, etc. All that really counts for the next two months is getting half-fit (no, let's be realistic, a quarter-fit) for the Directors v Supporters football match and BBQ party on 20th June. Hope to see you there.

My appearance in last summer's supporters vs. directors match

Much ado about 3G

BY OLIVER ASH

There's on-field and off-field at a football club. We have all been very occupied with off-field matters over the past few months. Fortunately Jay and the players have had an excellent start to the season on the field. 

As I write this we are in a strong position close to the top, with a couple of games in hand and able to put in first-class performances on our day. We would have signed up for that at the start of the season. In fact those of us who thought play-offs were a reasonable target sometimes forget that that implies there will be a few defeats as well as the run of victories in style. We can't always play attractive, entertaining, winning football. Even Barcelona have off-days.

We now need to consolidate and make sure we don't have too many of these off-days. If injuries are not too unkind to us we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. We don't have FA Cup, Trophy and Youth Cups to distract us anymore. While this might be a good thing in the longer term as we can concentrate on the league; I am disappointed we didn't get further in these competitions. The FA competitions are the glamour end of non-league (and of course there's the prize money) and who wouldn't trade a league win or two for the chance to do what Brackley FC have just done by knocking out Gillingham in the first round...? I have a sneaky feeling next season is going to be ours for a majestic cup run. Just remember you read it here first...

Off the field we have been concentrating on making sure match-days are safe, entertaining, friendly and with a good variety of food and drink outlets. We hope we are getting this pretty much right most of the time. No doubt you will continue to tell us if we don't! We're also planning to increase the range of merchandise you will be able to purchase and we are improving the on-line shop to make it easier and quicker to order on-line.

I am surprised that I have managed to get to the fifth paragraph of this blog without mentioning 3G. Do not fear, it is still my number one obsession. Over the past 12 months more and more people in football are coming round to the idea that 3G is not the devil but has a huge and positive role to play in football at every level. In the top divisions in Wales and Ireland it is allowed. In Scotland there are 11 clubs playing on 3G in the Scottish League. There are two 3G clubs in The Scottish Championship - Falkirk and Hamilton. Hamilton are currently runaway leaders of The Championship and are a case in point: several years ago they were promoted to SPFL and chose to rip up their 3G pitch. Their community and academy programmes suffered considerably in the following years and it took relegation and a decision to put 3G back in to their stadium to rebuild the fortunes of the club. It is hard to imagine they will choose to rip 3G up this time if they achieve promotion and much more realistic to imagine The SPFL taking the sensible decision to allow 3G in their league.

Closer to home let me update you on latest 3G news:

• Our open letter in September to Greg Dyke at The FA received nearly 20,000 hits on the Maidstone United website and we received countless messages of support for our proposals from clubs and individuals around the country. In his reply Greg even admitted agreeing with us on 3G. In fact we still haven't heard one single, sensible, objective argument against 3G being allowed at all levels of the English game since we set up 3G4US (now 50 clubs strong) two years ago.
• All this makes it all the more surprising that The FA has not subsequently addressed the issues we raised with any serious attention. In Greg Dyke's reply to us he said he had put a senior executive on the case. However the executive in question confessed to me when I spoke to him that he was not qualified to address the 'political' points raised in our letter. We wrote back to Greg Dyke to take issue with this anomaly. We have had no reply. I can only leave you to imagine how we feel this matter has been handled...
• We have written to The Football Conference to request that they reconsider their refusal to allow 3G in their competition. We have added some new arguments resulting from consultations we have had with barristers, who specialise in sport and competition law. We are raising all these issues again with The Conference in a few days time. We remain confident that common sense will prevail and that The Conference will find a way of opening their doors to 3G. 

The other issue we raised with The FA was academies. There is still precious little sensible support for clubs like ours running academies to be protected when the big clubs come sniffing around. The system is really designed to protect and enrich the bigger clubs at the expense of the smaller ones. As a direct result we find our top young academy players are being scouted down and hassled by agents on a regular basis, which is disruptive for them and for us, although we acknowledge it can ultimately be in the player's interest.  Well when we have resolved the 3G problems, we will turn our attentions to urging The FA to organise a general debate on this issue. 

Well all that remains here is for me to hope that we come out of the next couple of weeks of very tough matches with a few points and some high octane performances to warm us all up in the chill.

Take good care.

Speaking up for our national game

Last week the new chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke, happened to mention our club in his first major speech since taking office. 

He called for views on the national game, so on behalf of the club I penned a personal letter, hoping its contents might strike a chord with those who believe that non-league clubs can contribute in a small but meaningful way to improving football in this country. 

Here it is:

Dear Mr Dyke,

I read your recent inaugural FA speech with great interest as by coincidence you mentioned our club Maidstone United while quoting from Martin Tyler. 

In fact, although we are leagues apart, we do have a link with Manchester United through England player Chris Smalling, who played for our club in 2008/09 until he left to play for Fulham, who subsequently transferred him a few months later to Manchester United, reputedly for £10 million. He has now matured into a talented international player and as you so rightly say, we could do with a few more like him. I’ll talk about Chris later.

In your speech you asked for ideas with regard to improving the numbers of talented Englishmen coming through to help the England team, which has struggled in the years since 1966 and 1970.

I can only agree with your assessment of the basic problems. We would all like the England team to perform well. Yes the Premier League is too influential in running football in England for its own good rather than for the good of the game as a whole and the England team in particular. Until more balance is restored the England team will not be able to win major competitions.

More and more English football fans, such as me, are going off the Premier League with its masses of foreign footballers, player tantrums and obscene amounts of money and returning to the simple pleasures of Football League and non-league football. 

The joys of non-league football

When I used to watch pro football in the early seventies there were England players and other British international players to admire in most first division fixtures. That was part of the thrill of attending and following your team. The fact that today’s talented Premier League players are mostly foreign does not detract from their skills but certainly does detract from the overall interest and pleasure of watching them. So although the Premier League may be enjoying unparalleled success internationally it can now be regarded as against the interests of English football as a whole.

Although I only represent a humble Ryman (Isthmian) League Club, ambitious as we may be, I would like to tell you of one or two of our ideas, which may help increase the medium-term production of good young footballers in England. 

Despite being almost bankrupt in 2010 our club was fortunate to have an injection of funds and a new business plan, predicated on the 3G business model for community football. We took the risky step of believing that our town’s local community would relish the prospect of playing, as well as watching, football on our pitch and that a successful community club could be reborn. 

We designed and built the first English stadium to be purpose-built with a 3G synthetic pitch. Through the 3G pitch our club lives virtually round the clock. There are students, football academy players, youth teams and soccer schools all over the pitch for many hours a week. They can all learn skills and enjoy playing and practicing football in the stimulating amphitheatre of their local stadium.

A thousand people play on the pitch per week, enjoying our clubhouse facilities, becoming hooked on the club and developing a link which goes far beyond simply coming along to first team matches. We run a clubhouse events centre and an academy (but more on that later). We have a sport and social facility which works for the widest possible range of people in the local community. We know from what we are told by our customers – that the facility has changed people’s lives.

We rarely get postponements now because 3G looks and plays as well in darkest December as it does in sunny August, while our grass and mud pitch rivals are staring at frozen wastelands which lie idle for weeks on end through a harsh winter. The impact on revenues is huge:  we estimate that the 3G pitch creates direct and indirect revenue of around £150k to £200k per annum; and on employment: we now have eight full-time and 20 part-time staff. When you think that 3G pitches cost about £350k to install and the maintenance is far easier and cheaper than for mud and grass then you can see why it is so interesting, particularly for clubs whose total annual revenue may only be £500k.

Action on the Gallagher Stadium 3G pitch

More importantly, in answer to your concern about finding new England players, 3G ‘football turf’ is a perfect playing surface, proven to be safe, playing just like a top quality natural grass pitch and ideal for learning and practicing skillful football, as played by most of our national rivals. Skillful players thrive on the pitch because it runs true, as true as Wembley, another top quality pitch, which also has plenty of plastic fibres in it. 

Old school typical English-style physical players, who thrive on the mud and bumps of so many pitches below Premier League level, are quickly found out and bypassed. The more young players, who can be trained and coached from an early age on 3G surfaces, the more likely it is that another Chris Smalling or two may emerge in our lifetimes.

Now we know that the FA is in favour of 3G pitches and provides, through the Football Foundation, considerable funds for community pitches. However we believe that football clubs at our level should be encouraged by the FA to build 3G pitch stadia for the reasons outlined above. I remind you that if we had not decided to put down a 3G surface, the business would simply not have been viable and we would not have been able to rescue the club, let alone develop our 70 student strong football academy, which is already receiving plaudits for the work it is doing only 12 months since opening. 

 “But we do support 3G,” I hear you say. “Yes,” I reply, “but not enough.”

Although we took the risk of putting in 3G other clubs don’t. One major reason is that leagues from the Conference upwards do not currently allow 3G pitches in their league competitions. We understand that The FA is unable and/or unwilling to push the cause of 3G to them because of the Premier League’s influence in your committees.

Faced with this strange barrier to what could be a hugely positive business option for many football clubs we decided to set up 3G4US, a group of 50 football clubs from Football League, Scottish League and non-league, who are all in favour of 3G pitches. Many of these clubs would like to put down facilities similar to ours, which could potentially enable them to develop a sustainable business model as it did for us, significantly increase their in-house coaching  set-ups and add to the probability of unearthing top quality young players. 

However I repeat: from Football Conference upwards 3G is not currently an allowed surface. The Football League don’t want to take any action because they might upset the Premier League, who are against 3G, and the Football Conference don’t want to take action because they don’t want to upset the Football League. And the FA can’t show an example by giving the green light to clubs to play on 3G in the FA Cup because the PREMIER LEAGUE WON’T ALLOW IT! It’s madness, and a metaphor for how football is being run in this country.

Why do I use emotive words like ‘madness’? I am sure I hardly need to remind you that 3G is already an approved FIFA and UEFA surface and internationals are frequently played on it. England have already played in Russia on it. Our Premier League clubs sometimes play Champions League matches on it. The Football League had a vote on it only a year ago and a majority of League 2 Chairmen were in favour of allowing 3G. And yet the FA cannot get 3G allowed even in the lowly Conference or show an example by allowing it in every round of the FA Cup? 

To sum up: the FA cannot get the Football Conference, our 5th and 6th Divisions, to allow 3G pitches, the promotion of which can only be to the benefit of helping to coach a new generation of talented English footballers, while 3G is freely used for World Cup matches and Internationals. How can you improve levels of football skills at grassroots and Football League level and hope to increase the number of young genius footballers being produced if you allow this sort of anomaly? The Premier League tail is wagging the FA dog. 

A final word on the subject before I go off and take my tranquilizers: rugby.

Rugby has a lot of ideas which football could do well to examine carefully. I’m not just talking about subjects like players respecting referees, or on-field sanctions, although these are wholly relevant subjects for the rulers of the national game. No I refer to rugby’s approach to 3G.

I should declare an interest here: in addition to Maidstone United I am also involved as a Director in a French first division (just) rugby club, Brive. I am in a fairly unique position of being able to compare from the inside the practices of football and rugby in a number of areas.

With no fanfare and little publicity but to their immense credit the English Premier League of rugby decided recently to allow 3G rugby pitches in their competition. They had the support of the RFU. They took a view that the many advantages of 3G, similar to those in football, were simply too overwhelming to ignore. And this despite the fact that evidence of no additional injury risk on 3G pitches is less extensive for rugby than it now is for football. They were very forward thinking and visionary.

I can only urge you, if you have not already done so, to speak to Ed Griffiths, CEO of Saracens RFC, in order to hear his positive feedback after the first few months of operation of their new 3G turf stadium. The 3G project has revolutionised his club. It has helped regenerate facilities in the local area and make the club home-from-home to thousands of local people. Of course youth training, practicing and coaching is virtually non-stop on their pitch. Ed thinks it is a no-brainer and cannot understand why football authorities cannot embrace 3G and show leadership. 

Indeed would it not be interesting to set up an FA Special Commission comprising a handful of rugby and football experts and opinion leaders, in order to exchange these sorts of ideas and brainstorm ways in which these two fine sports might help each other to thrive?

Well you might reasonably be hoping I had run out of paper by now but I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. I want to talk about the second issue I mentioned: football academies.

As I said Maidstone United took the decision to set up an academy because we wanted to create a sports education project which could benefit from our facilities, which we knew would be available at off-peak times, thanks to the durability of 3G synthetic pitches today. 

Maidstone United Football Academy 2013/14

Another reason was to provide an elite coaching facility for local and Kent-based youngsters, who could develop their skills and aim to play in our senior teams in due course. It was to complement our existing community youth coaching structure in order to enable young people linked with the club to go all the way through our youth teams and academy right into the first team and beyond. And it is the ‘beyond’ that is the problem. 

From our research into this thorny subject we have concluded that there seems to be no FA regulation enabling fair compensation to be paid to non-league clubs, who see their young players leaving to join bigger clubs. This can be called poaching, tapping-up, whatever; it happens at all clubs and we are helpless to prevent it. 

These young players may spend years in our youth teams or academy. They are not on contract either because we simply cannot afford to take such a financial risk or because we genuinely believe it is in the student’s interest to stay in full time education.  And yet there is simply no compensation payable.

Do you think this is fair or encourages clubs to spend significant moneys to set up academies as we did, at our cost? Do you not think more academies staffed with better coaches are one of the ways forward in assisting you to achieve your objective of more young, talented English players coming through? Surely it is at our level, Conference level and even Football League level that academies could potentially be full of English-qualified young players looking to hone their skills. This is where the next generation of exceptional players can emerge and be taken on in due course by Premier League clubs. With encouragement and fair compensation please. 

And that brings me back to Chris Smalling. When Fulham came in and signed up Chris, who was not on contract while playing for us because he wanted to play for England Schoolboys, we had no rights to any compensation. We received a small ‘gift’ from Fulham because we begged like starving dogs. 

Surely this is not right. Smaller clubs need proper encouragement and compensation for their efforts, which can help breed a new generation of English players. With no compensation you will get fewer clubs bothering to set up first-class academies and youth coaching structures with top coaches and consequently fewer players coming through, fact. It’s not fair to clubs and not in the FA’s interest.

In conclusion we understand that there are many issues to solve in improving the quality of the England team and giving us all a bit of relief from those awful evenings we have all endured when England are knocked out of a major competition. 

We are simply and humbly offering up one or two ideas that, whatever else, cannot do any harm and might just do more good than you can imagine. If the FA were to wrest more control from the Premier League by allowing 3G stadium pitches further up the league pyramid and in the FA Cup, and establish clear rules for sensible compensation for clubs nurturing talented young players in their academies, now and not in ten years’ time, there may well be benefits for the England team down the road. 

Thank you for letting me use the excuse of our namecheck in your speech to put these ideas to you.

My 3G tantrum

Oliver Ash

It was a day of frustration for all at Maidstone United when our FA Trophy Second Round match against FC Halifax Town was called off on Saturday due to an unplayable pitch.

Several other fixtures were also called off around the country but Maidstone United’s magnificent new 3G artificial grass pitch was playable and hosted a match between the Stones and Folkestone’s deaf teams. 

Last Tuesday, in freezing evening conditions, 1120 spectators watched Maidstone’s home game in the Ryman League, while all but one other league game was called off due to frozen pitches. At the end of the game the referee praised the pitch, saying it had felt like a good quality grass pitch throughout the game despite the chill. 

A few weeks prior, when the rains came down and several more games were called off with waterlogged pitches (with others taking place on mud baths) Maidstone’s home game was played on a perfectly drained pitch in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 1400. 

We became the first club in England to purpose-build a 3G pitch stadium. Recent weeks have vindicated our decision. Our opponents and ourselves have enjoyed a perfect playing surface in heavy rain and freezing temperatures alike. 

It is frustrating that 3G is not yet authorised at Conference and above. As a result, clubs below that level are reluctant to put in 3G, when they otherwise might. Therefore, football often has to be played on knackered grass and mud pitches at non-league or junior football league level.

Let’s face it, a number of non-league grass pitches are poor quality, particularly at this time of the year. They are virtually unplayable for a quarter of the season due to bad weather, causing fixture backlogs, supporters’ frustration and revenue losses. They aren’t conducive to playing good football either because they are in a dreadful condition, therefore long-ball football is often the main tactic. 

Meanwhile, there is research evidence now available after 10 years play on the new 3G surfaces, to show they perform as well as decent grass pitches in terms of ball bounce and roll and likelihood of sustaining injuries. The only real difference therefore is that 3G plays like a top quality pitch in most weathers while grass and mud is often unplayable in extreme weather conditions.

I am not saying all clubs have to follow our example and put in 3G. It should be a simple choice where the club has the resources and believes the business plan on 3G would work. For the time being the FA, the Conference and the Football League are all refusing to open the door fully to 3G. All we want is for clubs to have complete freedom to be able to choose to put in perfect playing surfaces which are weather proof. The more such pitches the better for players and spectators alike. Sounds like a no-brainer doesn't it?

Most 3G pitch business plans would indeed work due to the potential pitch hire income, as long as capital or credit can be raised for installation. The costs are around £250-300k depending on soil conditions and pitch specification. Also the regular gate income from weekend matches uninterrupted by postponements is vital and can be life-saving for cash-strapped lower league clubs.

Figure this out – the world football governing body Fifa allows international matches on 3G; several leading UK clubs and national bodies, like Arsenal and the FA itself at Wembley, are already allowed to use plastic grass strands to knit their grass pitches together better. Some 3G is good, some 3G is bad... it doesn't make sense.

And after this weekend, as the players, officials and supporters of FC Halifax Town and Maidstone United sat twiddling their thumbs I wonder if it's not time to change tack. Perhaps it's actually the poor quality grass and mud pitches which shouldn't be allowed by the football authorities, and not 3G pitches?!

Bad weather = good news for 3G

Oliver Ash

The bad weather is back, turning thoughts to our future 3G synthetic pitch.


I noticed that Durham City played one of the few games to survive the weekend but Woodley did not - it snowed heavily just before kick off and not even 3G could cope with that. So even if it's not perfect 3G has proved its strength again this weekend and it will continue. 


We are leading the lobbying, as we said we would, in order to inform football people of the qualities and advantages of 3G, with a view to getting increasing acceptance of the surface at higher levels. We have now established a lobby group of clubs and so far have received nothing but positive replies from other clubs to the initiative. 


You will have seen the good news on the Football Stadia Improvement Fund grant. A special thanks to Mike Littleboy for his efforts on our behalf; he is a tenacious battler and never gives up: essential qualities on and off the field. 


I met Mike a few years ago when I first joined the club and saw how he and others worked hard on the first presentation to the FA. I originally agreed to help the club financially based on the 'hope' at the time that a major grant could be obtained. I was conscious of the risk. We had no other resources. 


Well it soon became clear that getting a £2 million grant for a stadium project (without a serious financial business plan to back it) was pie in the sky. It had nothing to do with whether we were a limited company or not, simply such substantial grants were not available for such projects. End of story. 


Except that fortunately it was not the end of the story. I was now attached to the club in every sense and Terry Casey swallowed hard and jumped in our direction at the last moment. The result is that 12 months later a well-conceived and prepared grant application was made for a much smaller amount, that we were confident of winning. Sincere thanks are due to the  Football Stadia Improvement Fund and the executives who believed in our project and backed us. 


The other sums needed for the stadium are being put into place, with other essential contributions from the supporters and our stadium sponsors the Gallagher Group. It's still challenging despite all these contributions because the overall cost will be around the £2 million mark. 


However the club will be on a strong footing as a result of the business model being developed: the revenue generated, once loans and running costs are covered, will be able to be reinvested sensibly to support the club's efforts on the field. But the model will only really work if you come in your hundreds to support your team and your club at The Gallagher Stadium.


Weather permitting I look forward to seeing many of you at Dulwich.

Wonderful progress at Whatman Way

Terry Casey

The progress made on the Whatman Way site has been wonderful. The hundreds of us that can’t keep away are seeing developments every time we visit. Our thanks and admiration go to the team at Gallaghers who have worked incredibly hard and skilfully which has meant that, in this part of the stadium project, we are ahead of schedule.

The Gallagher performance has enabled us to order and pay a deposit on the floodlights.

The surface is now ready for the final layer of stone and the 3G carpet to be laid. We have confirmed our order with the pitch manufacturer but laying the carpet will be one of the last jobs that we do. We are also endeavouring to lead a lobby group of clubs who will start to get the FA to realise that the future in the game for the smaller clubs has to be playing on a surface that can be used all year regardless of the weather.  

We are currently looking at final designs for the club house and we are very close to starting work on the grandstand. Whilst there is a long way still to go, it is beginning to take shape and the excitement amongst the people of Maidstone is growing daily.

Our sales campaign will start after Christmas and we will be looking at selling advertising boards and a whole range of different items that will relate to our historic homecoming. One of our priorities is to ensure that we come up with a system that enables all of our loyal and regular supporters to get first opportunities for the high profile opening friendly matches. There will be more information on this next year.

We have been close to making the books balance this season for the football club but the historic financial problems still come back to haunt us making the job of making the football club viable more difficult to achieve. We have set aside a fund to build the stadium and I am optimistic that the team’s performances will continue to attract sufficient gates which will allow us to keep our stadium fund intact.

As well as all the excitement off the pitch, the performances of Jay and the lads has meant that we are getting better crowds than we have for some years and I am hoping that we continue to see an increase in attendances for the rest of the season. There is no doubt in my mind that because of the way that the team is playing we are getting fantastic entertainment. I felt that the during the Ramsgate match, with the noise from behind the goal and the general banter from the Stones faithful, that we were beginning to regain some of the old swagger that always went with Maidstone supporters in days gone by. There was a pride that I hadn’t seen for a while which comes from being top of the league, playing exciting football and knowing that we are coming home to our rightful place in the town.

Football can be a great game!

A small but significant step

Oliver Ash

It's a small but significant step: we are now completing the acquisition of the freehold of the James Whatman Way site after a lengthy negotiation process.

In little over six months we have cleared out £200k of debt that was strangling the business and turned the long leasehold into a freehold. The battles are being won at great cost but the war is long.

We also have other problems to deal with, dating back to before we took control. Unpaid taxes are an unfortunate and unpleasant subject. Terry and I are going to fight our corner and negotiate to the last penny on these issues so we reduce our costs as far as possible and free up funds for the ground.

Speaking of which there is the ground fund: now that we have secured commitments for two thirds of the money needed to build the stadium. We are asking the local aithorities to support us financially and we are also asking synthetic turf suppliers to provide flexible payment terms. I am attending an FA conference next week in Birmingham on synthetic turf and intend to return with a deal in hand.

We will keep asking supporters to share the financial burden as much as they can, hence the ticket pricing debate. Please do what you can to pay to support the club. I sincerely hope nobody will be put off coming because of the pricing, that would be a blow.

Within 18 months, assuming we have a new ground, we hope to start raising even more money from supporters far and wide, individuals and corporates, by improved client relationship management (all serious sports businesses are now focusing on it) and offering more club products for sale - but that's for later. The basic idea is to raise enough money commercially to make the business wash its face so owners don't have to keep pumping money in. Absolutely necessary I can assure you...

I won't bother mentioning actual football...June is the pro football and rugby holiday month so I'll just have to get my kicks from cricket, golf and tennis for a few weeks.

On the eve of something historic

Terry Casey

Under normal circumstances this would be a quiet time of year and with all the postponements there should be even less to write about but there is very little that is normal about running this football club.

There are extra financial pressures put onto to all football clubs when there are so many matches that fall foul of the weather and it means that our already small income is for the month is reduced to almost zero.

The problems caused by the weather have not stopped us moving forward on our ultimate ambition which is to bring Maidstone United Football Club back to the town. In fact we have arrived at a number of crucial decisions regarding the building of the stadium.

We have spent the past three months reviewing the design and build of the stadium and we are now clear on our financial objectives as the costs will be £1.6million. This is the amount of money that it will require to comply with the minimum requirements for the team to continue to play at its’ current level.

In the £1.6 million is the cost of a 3g synthetic surface which has been unanimously agreed between the three directors as the best, and some have said the only way, to secure the long term security of the football club. I know there has been a great deal of discussion and I feel obliged to explain how we reached the decision.

There were two main factors influencing the decision with the first being the financial return that can emanate from the hire of this type of facility. There are very few artificial pitches in the area and they are all booked for many weeks ahead.

The profits from this venture will be channelled through to the football club which will allow the club to improve the stadium and also to improve the playing squad. We all feel that to attract investors we will need to demonstrate that the club will be viable because of the surface.       

The second reason was that the football club must become a community with many of the teams using the pitch for training and matches meaning that the players, parents, friends and supporters will come together on the one site. We will have bar and refreshment facilities available which will add to the financial effectiveness of the project.

The last two winters should force the FA to think more progressively and allow the artificial surfaces or many more small clubs will face extinction. I am of the opinion that the installation of this surface signifies our ambition to progress and to secure the future of Maidstone United Football Club.

The next three weeks could be the most important in the club’s history because we will, by mid January have our proposals ready to present to potential investors. We are looking to put together a package that will attract people to the club with a mixture of good solid business sense and an exciting  opportunity to become involved in something that will ultimately be historic for the town.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas.

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