See what your doing there Kevin, Now stop it youll get us all at it.
Anyway deserves its own thread.

Seems very unfair that Aldershot weren’t allowed to take Gateshead’s place in the playoff game. Football’s administration is a basket case.

When Darlo got caught out with "Seatgate" and weren't allowed to compete in the NLN playoffs, the next club in line (Chorley) took their place.

It seems a pity Aldershot couldn't step in here. I used to watch Aldershot in the 70s as I lived down that way.

The manager will have a hell of a job to lift the players as they still have the FA trophy final at Wembley in May.

They always bring young sides who try to play good football to the Vic. Plus, they were a proper league club for many years. I'd rather see them back in the EFL than Bromley or Solihull Moors.

Just been on tv. Gateshead councillor states stadium being handed to new operator because they cannot sustain present loss of over £800K per year.

Surely the club are at fault for just burying their heads in the sand and / or not being up to speed on the requirements for EFL membership.
Let's face it their Council Tax paying supporters will probably number less than a 1000, so can't see it being a vote loser in the grand scheme of things.
Definitely feel sorry for the fans and players, more so because despite evidently meagre resources and mid season change they're probably the 2nd best team in the division from what I've seen.

Council and club have let down the players and fans.
But 800k is one hell of an annual loss to argue against….in the council’s favour who have a duty to the ratepayers…but what were the club doing just sitting on the information…?

I like Gateshead and what has happened must be sole destroying for them. But what I find very strange is 99% of there supporters on the forum are blaming the council and EFL On here we can see the bigger picture and most of us know its the board of directors at Gateshead who have totally foooked up the club while keeping the situation quiet. This could be the beginning of the end for a wonderful little club with the heart of a lion. Cannot see any decent players joining them now and most certainly they will lose all the players out of contract and probably the one's in contract who were miss sold contracts by the club who hid the facts, so null and void. Almost definitely will lose a few hundred supporters and worse still will be odds on for relegation Not ideal I know but they need to talk to South Shields and get a merger sorted quickly before the Heed completely disappear for good.

Not sure about sole destroying, but definitely a bit fishy…

If their fans are blaming the Council and EFL while turning an apparent blind eye to their owners inexcusable behaviour, sorry, but they’re deluding themselves and hiding their head in the sand…in this case quicksand.

Yes I know but having been on the heed forum for the past two days on and off it looks that way for sure

I'm as confused as heck about this. The Vic is Council owned and Pools rent it from the council. Is it the council that pays for the upkeep of the ground (with taxpayers money) or is it the club that pays for it?

And if it's the club that pays for it - then why isn't this the case with Gateshead? I'm fairly sure that if the Victorias Suit Stadium was costing Hartlepool Borough council 800K per year they'd have offloaded it years ago.

Depends on a number of factors as the Gateshead head stadium is a much bigger site on acreage alone.
I assume we only have a lease on the site at the Vic and any work or development on the site is paid for by the club itself.
Could it be that the entire Gateshead site is used only by the football club as athletics meetings are a very infrequent event.
Could also be a case of having an alternative use proposed for the Stadium site, who knows.

I watched that too. It’s very one sided.

The club are just tenants, like renting a house you’re not really in control.

It seems to me that the EFL wanted the council to do something they simply couldn’t do because they obviously have plans for this site, which is (let’s not forget) their asset.

Any council has I suppose responsibility for finances to the entire population and Gateshead supporters able to vote will easily be well under 1% of the population of the town so it’s a no brainer to who the Council will be more concerned about.
Can anyone explain why the Club sat on this notification anyway, it’s like hiding the Gas Bill and hoping it’ll go away, it won’t and it didn’t.
Now the chickens have come home to roost.
Can you imagine it happening here and defending the club ?

Back in the Brendon Foster /Steve Cram days Athletics was a very popular Sport with plenty of events at the Stadium with big support.

End of the day it's just not designed for Football unfortunately as what's happened has been coming for a long time.

Probably go bust now and not Reform due to the very small crowds.

And ye the 8th team shudda got the last play off place.

Funny old game for sure run by idiots most of the time.

What let them down was getting a very basic thing wrong.
Ironic.

we all like to blame the councils and i,d guess if it was a south east based club this has happened to we,d be having a good laugh about their situation. it makes it a farce anyway by allowing a club to be promoted into a league who cannot tick all the boxes needed to compete in the play offs if they managed it. if a club is promoted to our level next season who cannot meet all the requirements now and not later they should stay where they are and save one of the teams who are relegated who have bothered meeting all the requirements. as usual though its the fans who have suffered.

Snowy, your question. I think the club sat on it (wrongly imo) because otherwise they would have been lumbered with demotivated players and dwindling support. And they might have thought that they could bluster their way through?

With the motivated team (and fans) they’ve at least managed the Trophy final.

Some problems just sort of rotate and are no one’s fault - this ground issue will continue until the stadium ownership quandary is sorted.

Darlo have had similar problems with the seat thing and in some ways are having similar problems now, with our rented ground impeding us.

There will be a lot of demotivated Gateshead players who now don't have the stomach for another season with them, sounds harsh but we may benefit from their bad luck. I do hope they win the FA Trophy now but wouldn't be surprised if they don't turn up.

you can add future players to that list also. unless a club is paying more than the rest to players it seems pointless playing for a club thats refused promotion from the outset and all you are doing is fulfilling fixtures or avoiding relegation.

According to Transfermarkt, only 5 Gateshead players are in conract after 30 June. Just saying!!

To be demotivated then would be a much better option than this outrageous tease of letting them get all the way through a season and getting stopped dead in their tracks at the possible moment of glory.
With Council's cut to the bone financially anybody could have told them there was going to be no ‘blustering through’ in this case.
At least informing them from the outset might have gotten the club some sympathy and even sorted something out, but closing your eyes and putting your fingers in your ears and ignoring logic is not and advisable tactic in this instance.
Would you have made the same allowance for us in that scenario… because I’d be varnishing my pitchfork and preparing my torch.

⬆️ I agree with you. The situation for all those kept in the dark is deflating, to put it mildly. It would have been better for glorious failure ie just missing the last playoff place like Aldershot.

The biggest damage must be to their prospects next season as basically there really is nothing to aim for apart from mid table safety. They don’t want to be in the playoff places as that would again deny a place in the playoffs to another team, but want to stay in this division, so have to be happy with treading water.
That is assuming anyone would want to play for them.
Might I suggest the club get their arse into gear and sort out their priorities which is a ground to play on, because surely this present scenario is completely untenable.
Back to basics I’m afraid.

The clowns running the National Legue can't escape blame either. This is from the Real EFL site:

"When Aldershot missed out on the final spot by two points, they were told to be on standby.

Under the National League's own rules, an expelled club is not able to be replaced. Confusion then reined as the league first announced a bye for Solihull Moors, sending them straight to Barnet on Saturday in the first semi-final.

That announcement was soon deleted and replaced with fourth-placed Altrincham heading to Bromley whilst Solihull entertain FC Halifax on Wednesday for the right to face Barnet in the second semi-final. At best, it painted the National League in a farcical light. They would have been aware of the rejection by the EFL in good time but the season was allowed to play out in full before any notice was given.

It’s something the EFL won’t look favourably upon when the conversation turns to the debate for three up and three down between the two divisions. The National League are pushing hard for the extra promotion spot to be in place sooner rather than later. However, a league that wants to be known as a professional, elite outfit was anything but.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the EFL asking for or expecting more robust requirements for all National League clubs to be eligible for promotion at the beginning of every season."

As Poolies know from 3 years ago, the NL couldn't run a piss up in a brewery! I reckon there'll only be a fully professional 6th division with all full-time clubs and no synthetic pitches if the EFL takes over and the NL is told to stick to running a competition for part-time clubs - hopefully by the new government regulator.

As for Gateshead, I'll be surprised if they don't go part-time next season. What's the point of a full-time squad if the club can't be considered for promotion?

Think Gateshead need to find a new home sharpish, Think the stadium will be sold.
Or will they keep that from the fans as well.

You have a valid point, but sorry, in this instance it’s on Gateshead’s door step.

The National League (Mark Ives) have shown previously that they operate either half asleep or drunk.

They are now saying they approve of the recent change re FA Cup replays whilst ignoring the fact that many member clubs have come out strongly to say that they don't agree with them and don't want them.

The Gateshead Councillor on TV didn’t mention selling the ground but that it would be taken over by a new operator but who will want to takeover if it’s making a K8000 loss.

Someone with new ideas?

When Gateshead Athletics Stadium was a new facility it was quite something, but it's badly outdated and now and needs a fortune spending on it. What new operator is going to take it on? London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Cardiff all have far better athletics facilities.

Gateshead is getting the 12,500 capacity Sage Arena on the Quayside as an indoor facility that will replace the Metro Arena over in Newcastle. For a skint council they're not doing so bad, but the Athletics Stadium's future is demolition.

I was there a couple of years ago and not only was it ropey, it was also an awful place to watch football.

GFC need a new home, that will slow them down.

It was quite different back in the day, a popular venue, only ever been to concerts there but even that was a long time ago…but time moves on and it could be demolished and rejuvenated, but whatever replaces it I see no sign of a football stadium on it….they need a sugar daddy.

Or mummy.

Think of what you just said…..I’m trying to think what it would be like if our lass won the lottery and took over Pools.
First would be the ground being ‘brightened’ up with a re-vamp of pastel shades and the floodlights would be replaced with sympathetic but understated modern sculpted columns with a subdued light source with sweet peas climbing up to add fragrance to the ground.
The strip would need a complete revamp that would result in a the players looking like Bulgarian porn stars with an emphasis on gold, silver and turquoise shades for the home strip.
‘Never say Die’ would have to go as it’s so ‘passé’ and will be replaced with ‘We really are trying’ so everyone knows.
Catering would need to be improved, out goes the fast-ish food and sensible grub and instead new scran would appear….Celery and leek soup with black pepper…that’s it!
Things like signings would be put on the back burner till the new image was in place and if you annoy her (it’s been known) she’d turn the Vic into a garden centre.

No one mate.
If I were a Gateshead Council tax payer I would be demanding the f/kin place is levelled... full stop.
Its costing a fortune... and the Brendan Foster/Steve Cram/BBC cult era is long long gone.
No one locally gives a shit anymore about athletics.
"Wor club" is well and truly goosed, good and proper, them being tenants there in such a dilapidated, outdated and loss making wreck.
The owners of the Heed have it seems known about this for some time, and the potential lease implications for promotion to the EFL, but have kept stum.
Maybe Sonia Kulkarni, Director of Heed Ops, [the ex manager of the Mackems Womens football team] can tell the Heed fans what has happened, why it has happened, and what the f/k should happen next?
She's the one who lost the EFL e-mails in her spam folder apparently.
https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/gc-m ... 7ce942.pdf
Still ...she has a degree in Sports Directorship.
Well done Sonia.
https://uk.linkedin.com/posts/sonia-kul ... _like_view
Maybe Mr Singh should get his new board on a part time course?
Sign of the times or what?

Gateshead should just rebrand themselves as ……..’Self Inflicted Utd’

Just a question Snowy what time do you get up to be sending in to the Bunker at 5.31am or do you sleep with your dogs.

This thread is a stark reminder that it takes more than what happens on a football pitch, to run a successful football club.

Regardless of what happens off the pitch you can't be successful without doing the business on it though. Southend have been in turmoil off the pitch but have had a very good season nonetheless.

Simple, 5am…..the Hounds are working dogs and had a routine when we got them, so now I’ve adapted to it and find it’s convenient for me too …. never could sleep in, waste of a day….. first light they want to be outside…wakes you up …I’d recommend it ……but I will understand if you tell me to bugger off The wife does

like that athletics stadium in sheffield where rotherham played for a bit. awful for football and eventually was demolished also and guess it was for the usual thing nowadays, houses. they need a ground of suitable size for the fans they,ll get including away ones. They might get lucky if some local businessman feels sorry for their predicament and helps them. there only other option is a ground share or becoming south shields again or was it the other way round.

Weren't they looking for alternative grounds a few years back? Recall Dunston being mentioned

Dunston? Not unless they’re gonna bulldoze it and start all over again.

GROUNDhog day...this club certainly has a habit of breaching rules.
https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/ot ... gue-116870
Who knows what else has been going on with it under the surface?
Smells.

You mean when they were taken over by criminals in the Coxall mould? They're a very different club now with owners who actually care (can you imagine that?). Saying they have a habit of breaching rules is like saying we reflect the club we were at the end of Duxbury and Blackledges time, when we didn't pay bus companies and dry cleaners etc.

Oh what angled web….etc.