The Club’s board met last night and had a detailed discussion about the resumption of matches at Steps 3 and 4 level, including those of Enfield Town FC.  The previous evening, Isthmian League clubs had met with league officials, and the meeting concluded with a proposal for the Trident Leagues (ie Isthmian, Northern Premier and Southern) to consider together, and vote upon, in favour of or against:

“That Steps 3 and 4 continue the current pause in the season with a regular review in the light of changes to the current tiers and/or grants becoming available” 

The Enfield Town board has voted in favour of this proposal.  It discussed at length a number of factors.  The overriding themes of the discussion were health, finance and the longer term benefits for the club, the Isthmian League and the Trident Leagues.  It was not an easy decision to make and, of course, we have no idea of the outcome of the overall voting on the proposal, which I understand will be announced before the end of this week.

I felt it important to let Enfield Town FC Supporters Society members and other supporters know which way the club had decided to vote.  The board were acutely aware that, as a member-owned club, it had a duty to take account of a variety of opinions on behalf of all members and supporters, and it came to a conclusion which had its primary focus on the longer term. 

I understand that a number of supporters will be disappointed with this vote which, as I say, is not the definitive way forward – that will become known sooner rather than later.  There were risks to be considered with both adopting this proposal or rejecting it (and thus paving the way for the league season to continue from 12th December).  But we had to come to a decision and I wanted you all to be aware of it openly before the outcome of the overall vote is known. If the proposal is adopted, I understand that it is likely that a series of review points will be triggered and that the current intention is that these review points could lead to a league resumption for clubs at Steps 3 and 4 in January 2021.

Separately, in a competition in which we were not offered a similar choice, the club will be continuing its participation in the Buildbase FA Trophy, and our next match in that competition – for which tickets are now on sale – will be at home to Maldon & Tiptree in the first round proper on Wednesday 9th December (7.45pm).

We have learned many lessons about staging matches this season, with Covid-19 precautions uppermost in our minds, and we will continue to take those precautions although the final decision on whether or not to attend this match (or indeed subsequent rounds if we are successful and are drawn at home again) rests with spectators themselves. 

The board will continue to update members and supporters as necessary as we continue to negotiate this most difficult of seasons. The ETFC Supporters Society Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 21st January (7.30pm, almost certainly via Zoom link) during which members can discuss these, and other, issues in an open forum. 

Paul Reed

Chairman