The latest monthly COVID-19 meeting between the FA and National League System Step 5 and 6 competitions - including the Toolstation NCEL - took place tonight with discussions about how new tiered restrictions would affect the restart of non-league football.

The FA were keen to stress that their key objective is to "conclude the 2020/21 season and achieve promotion and relegation throughout the system as a result", either by fully completing the fixtures or by relying on a mathematical formula (i.e. Points Per Game).

37 of our 40 teams have today learned that they will be placed into Tier 3 once the national lockdown ends on 2nd December, 2020. The only member clubs who will be placed into Tier 2 are Knaresborough Town, Harrogate Railway Athletic and Selby Town.

The tiers will be reviewed by the Government every fortnight.

Information received by the FA after consultation with the government indicates that NO SPECTATORS WILL BE ALLOWED INTO GROUNDS FOR CLUBS AT TIER 3.

Clubs at Tier 2 would be restricted to a maximum capacity of 300 as before with restrictions also placed on their clubhouses.

The NCEL is currently scheduled to restart on December 8th and 9th but, to gauge the opinion of clubs, we are asking our member clubs to consult with their committees and indicate to us whether their club would be willing to restart playing behind closed doors or would wish to wait until spectators are allowed back into the stadiums.

The survey of our clubs will close at 5pm on Sunday 29th November, 2020.