So Who Wins The National League?

**spireitematt** · 24-06-2021, 21:25

(24-06-2021, 13:23)Devongone Wrote: The NEED for penalties is usually to avoid fixture pile-ups caused by divisions with too many teams. 24 teams and 46 games is ridiculous, no wonder we can't fit in a winter break ......... and our game is full of heavy-calved plodders.

If extra time doesn't break the deadlock, reduce the teams by two players a side and keep doing that every ten minutes until a golden goal is scored.

Penalties are fake excitement anyway. They might be a bit more exciting if the goalie was allowed to do anything he liked so long as he remained inside the six-yard box.

Winter break doesn't really affect Championship, L1, L2 or non-league, it affects the Premier League teams and players more. The biggest fixture pile-ups for teams outside the Premier League is the great British weather.

The English teams who are in the Champions League and Europa League complain about fixture congestion but that is down to the format of those competitions as they used to be 2 legged rounds where they are now group stages and each team plays 6 games in the group stage. What I find amusing is these teams complain about fixture congestion but when they get a week or two off they go to Dubai to play a friendly.

A lot of the leagues in Europe have 18-20 teams in a league, so I agree 24 is a little excessive, so is the 46 game season. If you play 46 games and have a cup run you are playing 50+ matches. Premier League clubs play 38 games and if they are in Europe or have a good run in the FA Cup or League Cup then they could easily play 60 matches.

I was very surprised to see Hartlepool get promotion via the playoffs, I really thought Stockport and Torquay were better but I guess the playoffs show you that it's a lottery as is penalties. Next season will be even tougher for promotion, Wrexham, Southend, Grimsby, Stockport, Torquay, Notts County, ourselves. The FA or Football League did talk about a 'League 3' a few years ago and you could technically say that the National League is 'League 3' especially with the amount of ex League clubs in the division now.