Fraserburgh chairman Finlay Noble feels players need supporters back in football grounds.
No fans are likely to be back in Scottish stadia this year at present, unless a lessening on the Covid-19 restrictions from the Scottish Government comes about.
Figures within the game have raised the issue of the hospitality industry being able to welcome dozens of people into indoor facilities, whereas football clubs have been barred from hosting paying customers in outdoor, ventilated arenas.
Lower-league clubs, including the Highland League, will feel the financial pinch because of the lack of footfall. These clubs more than most rely on revenue from people through the gates and from hospitality.
But Noble, who has had to plan a way through this for his own club, sees players needing the support – and criticism – from the stands just as much.
Noble said: “Just now it’s the uncertainty that’s an area we’ve not been in before. It’s unprecedented. You’d have to go back to World War II to get anything similar and even back then there was still football matches being played with crowds.
“The restrictions on movement, it’s a different game. You watch the TV and see the games – players need supporters to gee them up, criticise them, boo them.
“One of the positives may be that young players don’t have supporters on their back, so they can ease in to the games a bit better. There’s no fear of getting criticism because it must be playing on their minds.
“If you’re a goal down chasing a game, or if in the last two or three minutes you get a corner, the crowd’s shouting. You miss that. Football needs crowds and crowds need football.”
The Highland League has taken a lead on numerous through this current situation, including being the first league to propose declaring a league champion in March and thus ending the season.
That meeting six months ago saw Brora Rangers named as title winners and at least allowed the league to get its ducks in a row, before any issues regarding promotion arose, which were ultimately rendered moot.
Again here they have taken the decision to hold back the start of the season for six weeks until at least November 28, rather than have it taken out of their hands.
Noble added: “It was a unanimous decision. We’re one of the few leagues that the management committee has a representative from every club. The Lowland League have got a board of six – if we had a board of six it’d be a difficult decision to make.
“Everyone turns up, everybody’s got a say. If they just want to listen they can. We just felt it was the right thing to do. All the information we were getting said it wasn’t going to get any better any time soon.
“We didn’t think for a minute we wouldn’t be starting the league at the normal time. We find ourselves in October and November even and not playing, we certainly didn’t think that. Even if we did it wouldn’t have changed our decision; the one thing with the Highland League is when the chips are down, everyone sticks together. Long may that continue.”
