Horsham boss: Why don't we have a plan to deal with another disrupted season?

Horsham keeper George Bentley in action earlier in the season - but when will the Hornets return to the pitch?

The new national lockdown means a resumption in non-elite football matches is six weeks away – at best.

And hopes of getting seasons finished in the Isthmian League and other more local leagues are fading by the day.

While there is little the football authorities can do now to speed up the restart, Di Paola feels they have neglected their duties in failing to plan for the new shutdown and its effect on the 2019-20 season.

“I would just like the league to make a decision, even if it is one I or others don’t particularly like,” he said.

“We played six friendlies after league games stopped so we could by now be close to having played half our games, and then you could maybe consider points per game.

“Or we may still be in a position where we can pick it up again and play 16 or so games in April and May and then will have played a good percentage of games. But what I can’t believe is that even now, they have not put in anything in place setting out different scenarios.

“After what happened last season, they had all summer to put in writing – in the rules – what would happen if this season was truncated.

“But we still don’t know. There’s no structure or thought.”

Di Paola said there would be ‘massive fallout’ for football from the pandemic and he would not be surprised if leagues were reorganised to reduce travel and overheads.

He said even at Horsham’s level, step three of the non-league scene, many clubs must presently be losing thousands of pounds per week – and would not be able to carry on doing so for long.

But he claimed the FA’s response to the lockdowns had been a ‘shambles’ and added: “I don’t think they massively care for us at our level.”

Di Paola said he was not particularly for or against using points per game to work out promotion or relegation, but said it was unfair to use it unless it was set in stone before a season began.

He added: “There will be pressure for it to be used more widely this season but no-one wants to take ownership of the policy.”