A similar but worse story happened in France. In 2014, Luzenac AP, a team from a small village in the Pyrenees, were crowned champions of the 3rd tier. They were however barred from Ligue 2 because of their stadium, and this despite having reached an agreement to play in an eligible stadium in Toulouse. The commission still refused to accept them for whatever reason. Some members from the board, including Fabien Barthez, resigned. They had to sell their whole team and were barred from even playing in the 3rd tier and were forced to start again in the 7th tier. They now play in the 6th tier.
Hey Zealand. This is the latest iteration of these issues. My team, Yeovil Town (just around the corner from Taunton) were repeatedly denied access due to a range of reasons, including the impressive slope on our old ground! Other clubs were voted in. Yeovil’s story recently is extraordinary… promoted all thr way to the Championship then relegated all the way back to the National League South! We had a wonky owner, now replaced by a good’un 🎉 Now, we have won promotion back to the National League. On our way back up like the archetypal phoenix! Maybe a video in the making…
I'm from Gateshead and the council is in PR emergency mode right now, with an election coming in less than 10 days. Their socials are getting hammered with abuse! Also Gateshead is in the North East, it's quite literally what is on the other side of the Tyne Bridge from Newcastle.
would you be prepared for your taxes to go up instead so they dont have to sell that stadium? cause that's ultimately the choice councils are being faced with up and down the country because they've had their central government funding cut to the bone
I dunno what the gateshead council expected when they screw over the local club's possibility of joining the efl, even if the finances can screw the council, you ain't getting re-elected
That's not the way it works in the UK. Unless your chairman is a tory donor and you are putting on the Olympics, which is how West Ham managed to do it.
@@lordpelagius5078 Pretty sure most councils are in millions of pounds of debt because money magically goes missing. Like in Keighley, where our train station was given a few million to make it not look a shit hole and yet, all I've seen in terms of "work" done over a full year and half was one dickhead painting the same window frame for a WEEK so he could flirt with the cafe worker on the other side of it. Councils ARE the government, they're your local government and they're just as corrupt as the cunts in London. Full of the richest, oldest people in the area giving out contracts only to people they know.
This looks obvious but is actually quite tricky but, in short, the real villains are the UK Government and, to a lesser extent, the EFL. Gateshead and their council agreed a lease for 10 years. The issue is the lease had a clause which nullifies it of the council sells the ground. The council are having to sell because the UK Government have been increasing the statutory requirements of local councils whilst cutting their funding - effectively focusing them to close vital local services like libraries, leisure centres and sport facilities. The EFL are the villains because they decided this clause wasnt good enough very late in proceedings and didn't give Gateshead much chance to find an alternative arrangement. That being said, I dont know many groundshares that likely would agree to a 10 year guaranteed agreement so I doubt this would have made much of a difference...
Well said. Although you forgot to mention the UK govt will also not introduce the rule that exists in many European countries whereby a new landlord must take over any existing tenancy as per the original contract.
bluntly there is a massive crisis in local government funding leading to them selling anything they own the council owns the stadium and needs the money this is ultimately caused by the austerity in the uk of the last 14 years
As a Brest fan, I feel ya. Being fucked over by the council and thus not being able to properly take part in a competition next year after punching above your weight due to a problem with your stadium is relatable
As a fan of Southend United. We all hate the national league. They're also backing the prem with the FA cup replays. But it's ridiculous that gateshead can't get promoted because of not being able to guarantee to stay in their ground for 10 years when Coventry get kicked out of their stadium everyb years
For some added context Gateshead is right next to Newcastle like the Gateshead stadium is probably no more than a mile from st James park. So because they’re in between Newcastle and Sunderland they have a pretty small following. The stadium is also used for athletics events and stuff like that
I'm an Oxford United fan, a club who don't own their own ground but lease it from the previous owner Firoz Kassam. We are currently looking to build a new, 4 sided stadium (if you know, you know), on the northern outskirts of the city before the lease expires in 2026 but no chance that we'll be kicked out which is yet another case of double standards being at play in the world of football.
Gateshead lad here. One- we're in the NE of England. Over the river from Newcastle. Two- the management of the FC had been tragi-comical for a while. I'm not surprised that either the club or the council dropped the ball here. Both are incompetent. Three- the stadium is an internationally known athletics stadium. The ridiculous thing is that very few EFL clubs can GUARANTEE a ten year tenure at their grounds. Currently NUFC aren't 100% sure of their location fur the next decade. Tbh it feels like a handy excuse to not allow the Heed into the EFL possibly to cover doubts over recent governance but that's just me guessing.
Point 3 is a worry for me, what can be done to make athletic stadiums properly self sufficient? It's disappointing that athletics generates such little attention outside of the Worlds and Olympics (and occasionally Commonwealth games)
Gateshead Council's revenue has fallen by about 68% in the last 10 years and they (like many other councils) have a lot of debt (about £700M). About a quarter of their spending goes towards debt financing. The stadium hosts high level athletics and the council cannot afford the upgrades needed to continue running those events. As a result the council are looking at a range of potential options for the site.
For some added context, the stadium is a money pit. The stadium loses over £850,000 a year and the council are under immense pressure to find savings, thanks to government cuts to council budgets. They’ve already shut down and plan to sell off 3 leisure centres.
this is the blunt end of 14 years of austerity leading to a crisis in local council funding like unless they want to council to either tax them to the hilt or literally go under im not sure what else the council can do
I'm from the Calder Valley and there's a hot button crisis issue with Calderdale Council desperately trying to offload Shay Stadium, the home of FC Halifax Town & Halifax RLFC. Because of the Governmental situation over here, councils are bankrupt and desperately trying to do anything to raise money. The reason this puzzles me is that FC Halifax Town are one of the other five teams in the National League Playoffs, and the local news around here is that Shay Stadium may not even exist in ten years., if the council feels the need to sell for development The council want the football and rugby league teams to buy it/co-share it, but that seems dubious at best. It makes me wonder how FC Halifax Town were able to make the ten year stadium guarantee?
Coventry’s situation was massively different! The Ricoh (now the CBS) Arena was built as Coventry’s home, but the owners at the time, SISU, stopped paying the bills on route to nearly putting the club in administration! The 10 year tenure rule was effective put in place try and avoid a Coventry situation. For Gateshead, the council are trying to sell the stadium/find new operators and they claim they can’t accept a change in tenancy agreement will negotiations go on with potently buyers of the stadium as it would change that deal. It’s a ridiculous situation regardless of the reasons though.
Gateshead is the only football team that play there, but it's main purpose is an athletics stadium. Which is likely part of the reason why the council doesn't want to provide guarantees for 10 years in the future, especially if they're trying to sell the stadium. A few seasons ago they had to play at different grounds in the north east for the last 5 games of the season due to the pitch being unusable. I remember them playing at the Riverside at that time, which may have been taken into account during arbitration. Disappointed for Gateshead though, they're a good lower league side and have never been in this position before. And, unfortunately, with their lack of resources, might never be there again.
Why play at Riverside when St James Park, Stadium of light and even clubs like South Shields, Blyth Spartans and Darlington are all closer. Is it due to the money cost of rent?
@@ian_r125 the Riverside holds 33,000 so it was far too big for them as well. It was likely due to the short notice request that neither Newcastle or Sunderland could accommodate. The request was made towards the end of the season and they also played at York City. So they were clearly willing to play wherever was able to host them.
Yo Zealand, I'm from near the area. Gateshead has a really crappy stadium that is mainly an athletics track in the middle of a run down and dying town centre. The UK councils are really struggling for money and regional development so it's no surprise that the council can't guarantee it. It's the fault of the wider economic situation in the UK and the levels of debt in local councils is genuinely staggering. Really really bad. Btw Gateshead is opposite Newcastle, it about 2 miles away from St. James' Park.
I fell in love with Gateshead FC this year's FM save. Amazing ground with ~10k seats and that amazing logo with the "ugly but cool" Angel of the North statue. A real shame that they don't get the opportunity to progress and use their awesome stadium to the fullest...
The stadium isn't amazing, it's the worst footy ground I've visited in the UK and I've done 100+. It's built for watching people run round an athletics track in Summer, not a footy match in winter. For anyone that visited the old FC Bayern Olympiastadion, it's like a worse version of that.
Gateshead is the opposite side of the Tyne to Newcastle. Two towns divided by a river. It's a really unique thing in the UK I would highly recommend a visit if you come back to the UK even if it's just because you're going to see Sunlun.
@@bhvillaman4401 yes London is London on both sides of the river so is Shrewsbury Liverpool you're right with Birkenhead but like Birkenhead doesn't offer a lot while Gateshead while not as big as Newcastle has the Baltic and The Metro Centre at least. My point was that Newcastle and Gateshead are different cities divided only by a rather thin river
@@bhvillaman4401 it's also different Councils that operate each side of the Tyne so there really is a difference in how each is cared for and developed. I live in London and work on the Thames trust me I'm very aware London is on both sides of it. 😂
A few quick points. 1. Gateshead International Stadium is an Athletics stadium, not sure if they would create clashes but everyone who's been says it's an awful stadium for football, because of the lack of atmosphere in massive stands, away from the pitch. My theory is the council might believe that Gateshead FC's opinion is that it's not a great ground for football and will try to move away within the next 10 years. 2. If Gateshead aren't in the playoffs, why aren't Aldershot, the team that finished 8th invited in? 3. I believe you're making an assumption that Gateshead have only just applied for the 10 year lease 4. Gateshead is in the north east, near to Newcastle, but people can be forgiven for not knowing that. Maybe they should ground share with Newcastle Falcons and Newcastle Thunder.
Shocking state of affairs. I live in Gateshead...yes, its a shithole but its my shithole. Gateshead were refused entry into the league years ago for i think the same reason. Also, Gateshead is literally other side of the river to Newcastle. I can see St James Park from my living room window :)
Hey Zealand. I would like to give you an idea for a video, if I may. In the german 4th League (Regionalliga West) Alemannia Aachen is playing tomorrow in a derby vs. Bocholt for the promotion in the 3rd league. The main thing at Alemannia Aachen is that they play almost every home game with full stadium 25k+. Tomorrow should be even more than 30k at the game. Love ya‘ and take care!
I don't know the ins and outs of this, but I do know the way English local councils work. I have a lot of respect for the folks who give their time up to work as elected officials in local councils, but the local civil service attracts some of the most callous, pedantic, self-important petty jobsworths you could ever hope to meet. It's a soul-crushing experience to work with or beside them. Some grey-hearted sanctimonious bureaucrat has seen this and couldn't fit it into the mental box required for them to tick the right boxes and has banished it to administrative hell rather than applying a bit of initiative and case-by-case thinking. Simple as that.
Hi Zealand, Gateshead fan here this is so refreshing to see someone with a solid following talking about this thank you very much. We also will still be at Wembley next month in the FA Trophy Final, so hopefully we can have our special day after all this.
Gateshead is almost Newcastle, essentially share an urban area. It's a big enough area that it should have more than just the one team in the top 4 leagues
Baffling to me how they already exclude them from the play-offs. The problem only really arises if they actually win promotion and that hasn't been achieved yet. Might as well ban them from playing National League at all since technically they could win promotion.
I think this comes down to the fact of GOVERNMENT regulation, National League clubs are not covered by the Sports Grounds Safety Authority which replaced the Football Licensing Authority which was set up in the wake of the Hillsborough Tragedy to regulate the grounds of the top four divisions of English football. Local Authorities often have an antagonistic time with small clubs Wimbledon being forced out of the old Plough Lane by Merton Council after refusing renovations to meet the FLA regulations is a notable example. Maidenhead United being denied permission to build a new stadium at Braywick Park is a present example. Gateshead by the way is in the North East less than 5 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne.
Being an American and having visited Newcastle before, I went to a Gateshead match last year when they made the ISUZU cup final, they have a great set of fans and they were hospitable to me. It breaks my heart that this happened to them and I hope I can be their “good luck charm” again when they smash solihull in the final this year. Up the heed ! (I’d like to say when I watched them they hadn’t won a game in two months and smashed Gloucester city 5-1.)
I love that Zealand is a self confessed Sunderland fan, but doesn't know where Gateshead is... (it's 13 miles North West of Sunderland, right next to Newcastle for those unaware)
Playing devil's advocate: A 10-year guarantee backed by a council when it's likely they would get relegated again and thus not have the most solid monetary grounds would put them in a financial bind. And even as football fans we should be disgusted when taxpayer money is used to subsidize rich people and the sports teams they own. In the US, franchises take their cities hostage, threatening relocation unless they get all kinds of sweet deals for their stadium, tax breaks, etc. And who pays for it? People who pay their fair share of taxes (i.e. not the rich folks who benefit).
They've said they aren't (probably as it is at best worth the value of the land and probably a bit less as a developer would have to pay out anyone with a lease in order to knock it down) but they ARE looking for someone else to run it, who would presumably want to do so at a profit.
It's understandable that there are concerns around teams not being able to secure their home grounds, and as such not being able to guarantee the playing of fixtures. But man, it's gotta feel rough for Gateshead and their fans.
I wanted to play devil's advocate, but I can't. I can however provide a remediation plan: The EFL should specifically designate funds to procure stadium time for teams that earn, through playing, the right to progress into the EFL. Why they punt this responsibility back down to the non-league is beyond me. The Prem does parachute payments, and should be doing about 5x more to push money back down the pyramid, but the EFL should also to the minimum to ensure that they are able to actually take on board teams promoted into their league. If they want to relegate teams, then they need to also make space for promoted teams. How you design this financially so that teams neither can 'take advantage', nor defray their costs permanently is something for other beancounters to figure out.
So every level of football in England is corrupt... I am shocked... Imagine if multiple teams broke the rules, and Manchester City broke those same rules ten times over and they just keep not getting punished at all. Teams with more than a hundred years of history could just stop existing, but that's okay because "MONEY"
This sucks for Gateshead (which is in the North East, by the way, near Newcastle - the stadium's other tennants are Newcastle United Women) - however, of the four teams that remain in the playoffs in the National League, three of them have never played in the EFL before. So hopefully we will still get a cool story out of the National League.
Thats's incorrect, Newcastle women play at Kingston Park, Newcastle and formerly at Druid Park, Newcastle. They have played in Gateshead a couple of times but aren't tennants. Newcastle play an annual pre-season friendly there.
Altrincham fan here. An absolute joke of a decision but still, at least Gateshead got a tangible reason. Altrincham were thrice denied entry into the Football League as Conference Champions simply because the League preferred the club that finished bottom of the Fourth Division - yeah, it used to be even more f'd up.
It sounds like the usual administrative clumsiness that UK local authorities are renowned for, and it sucks to see Gateshead FC stuck in a mess they have no influence over, except if they were to negotiate a lease elsewhere which could disrupt their local support or their financial stability (Kingston Park is the first option that came to mind).
What makes this even more ridiculous is when you realise gateshead of the national league can fit 500 more people into it stadium than bournemouth of the premier league can
The EFL really does have it's head up their own butt. There are teams that are below the National League that use field turf to limit cancellations and save on stadium upkeep. But when they make it into EFL they have to tear all of that up and switch over to grass, which increases their chances of having to reschedule matches due to water logged pitches and other types of field damage. There's a team that has had to play games almost every other day because of these types of postponements.
The National league doesn't force that on them. Halifax are in the opposite position, having had loads of issues these last few seasons with their grass pitch, and if they go up the EFL will make them do the work anyway.
At least Gateshead is in the FA Trophy final, I know that pales in comparison to a chance of getting promoted (More money, more coverage - therefore more money) but them winning the FA Trophy will be a statement win. Showing the EFL to piss off and put some respect on their name, but that is just my 2 cents on the matter.
If you want to get angry about a similar situation in a much worse and horrible way, look uo Luzenac AP and how they got completely shafted by the French football association
dont even need to watch it alll to know the reason is city council wants to sell the stadium :) its the bane of most small/broke football clubs their stadiums are on prime real estate zones
Not sure who would want to buy this stadium for anything other than hosting Gateshead FC or demolishing it, its right next to st james park and a few other big venues,
Oooo Zealand you do not understand the sheer sadistic nature of local English councils. They are designed specifically to stem any joy or efficiency within their area.
Gateshead council is will known for being useless and loving the red tape nonsense. Would be a huge opportunity for Gateshead if they were to get into league 2
Aldershot Town fan here. In this context if the place was passed down, we would have had the chance to go up. We fucked elsewise, but regardless we all hate the NL. Southend do for their deduction, Gateshead for this saga, they refuse to aid the clubs, they also asked the clubs to agree to the new FA Cup rules with no replays. At this point, just fuck 'em, about as bad as the Prem a lot of the time. You think Premier League refs are bad, fuck me, National League fucking suck!
As someone who lives in Gateshead I can say the local council is a nightmare to deal with and hates their local club. Long story short the council does not want to run the stadium anymore and have let the ground fall apart looking for someone to take it over but no one wants it
If only there was a system that rewarded teams for success so that they might be in a situation to make more money in the future so that gateshead could buy their stadium
@@IRBaron Haha classic bureaucracy - "You can't get the money you earned until you get promoted. You can't get promoted until you get you stadium in order. You can't update your stadium until you get your money" and repeat
Maybe it's because I'm an American... but move the team. Gateshead doesn't deserve the team, the economic revenue, the positive vibes. Who wants a team nearby? Sign them up.
Man City can literally violate every fair play and finance ruling and stay in the league scot free but no, Gateshead can’t join the league for rising above every obstacle on sheer footballing merit. #EnglishFootballLogic
As an Altrincham fan i find it hilarious. Gateshead are nowhere near ready to even entertain EFL status. Their attendences are abysmal and their stadium is a joke. Its a hideous place to go for all the wrong reasons. Since they are run like a circus i have no sympathy for them. Maybe they should be run properly like my beloved Robins🔴⚪️🔴⚪️🔴⚪️🔴
@@mikeyjk6813 It's a similarly sized town to Gateshead, but instead of being on Newcastles border it's on Manchesters. Their team also made the play offs, except they have their own ground, which they can afford to get into condition for the EFL.
Gateshead's stadium is dire to watch football in, you're so far away and the stands are separated so it's very quiet. I paid to watch the Gateshead vs York livestream this season and you could barely see the play at the far end. Still a massive injustice to ban them though
Apparently the stadium experience is pretty horrible from what I've seen people saying over the last week. My local team I think like 20 years ago were meant to be promoted to the National League but their stadium wasn't big enough
