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Dover Athletic make entire squad available for free as National League considers regional leagues

General view as the players warm up on the pitch ahead of the Vanarama National League elimination match at Meadow Park, Borehamwood - PA
General view as the players warm up on the pitch ahead of the Vanarama National League elimination match at Meadow Park, Borehamwood - PA

Dover Athletic have made their entire squad available on a free transfer and warned that insolvency is likely if they cannot solve their looming financial crisis by the end of this month.

With league seasons now finally over, the long-term reality of the Covid-19 crisis is beginning to bite and it has also been proposed that the National League is regionalised next season in an attempt to minimise costs.

Paul Doswell, the manager of Havant & Waterlooville in National League South, predicted that virtually every new player contract from League One downwards would have a ‘Covid clause’ to mitigate against all the uncertainties and said that there was widespread support for a temporarily regionalised league.

“The costs of competing and travelling will put many clubs under,” he said. “The administrators need to get their heads out of the sand and act now or else football as we all know it is under threat.”

Dover, who are in the National League, released a statement on Monday in which they outlined their failure to agree wage cuts with the players. The furlough scheme has until now been sustaining many clubs down the pyramid but is due to finish in October.

Jim Parmenter, the Dover chairman, said the club was “unsure of its income” in the coming season and that he had explained the need for cuts during a meeting last week with the club’s staff and 14 remaining contracted players.

“At that meeting the players and staff were asked to accept a 20 per cent short-term reduction in salary to assist the club in its efforts to stay solvent and keep the club alive bearing in mind the club will move from four to three days training,” he said. “The management have accepted the proposal, however, unfortunately the players have not agreed.”

He said that the players were therefore all available on a free transfer and that, without an agreement or further investors before the end of August, the board is likely to “consider the club insolvent and as a consequence will be forced to cease trading”.

Season-ticket holders have been promised that their outlay for next season is protected and so would be refunded. The Government is working on proposals to allow around 30 per cent of sports crowds back from October but recent local lockdowns and increases in coronavirus infections in certain parts of the country has put those plans in doubt.