Tooting & Mitcham co-manager gives verdict as ‘non-elite’ football shuts downs – and wants government to help funding issues during lockdown

BY SAM SMITH

Tooting & Mitcham co-manager Cornelius Nwadialor has urged the government to sufficiently fund grassroots football during lockdown because of how many players it produces for elite clubs.

Teams who compete in steps three to six of the non-league system have halted their campaigns as the country begins another lockdown.

“The clubs are definitely going to need financial help,” said Nwadialor. “I have always said that without grassroots, you don’t get players – and that goes all the way up to the Premier League.

“If you don’t have the roots, how are you going to get a tree? I think everyone forgets that. Grassroots is a release for a lot of human beings.

“In the past few years, we have been fortunate enough to give opportunities to players who have gone on to sign professional contracts. We have two players at Middlesbrough, we had a player at Reading, we had two at Charlton. We just had a player who went to Poland and won one of their leagues.

“I was speaking to a few other managers who were saying that if we had a little bit more assistance to do what step one and two clubs are doing, that could help us to carry on. But at the same time if steps three and four get help, steps five and six will start asking for the same type of help. I’m sure it’s really hard for the government, so I’m not really going to jump on the bandwagon and start complaining.”

Tooting have conducted regular testing and have not returned a positive test since they returned for pre-season.

Nwadialor said: “It would be difficult for me to say there is injustice because that would be me being selfish, saying: ‘Oh, it’s all about us.’ It’s probably easier for the government to say: ‘From this step downwards, you cease to play, and this step upwards you can continue because you have shown us that you can cope with the protocols’.”

Tooting are in the play-off places of the Isthmian League South Central Division after seven games and have benefitted from other professional clubs having to play their matches behind closed doors.
Nwadialor said: “We have had the most fans [at games] that we have had in the past five years. If we didn’t have a cap of 400 fans inside the ground, we would definitely be hitting double.”

Maintaining momentum once they are allowed to return may be tough, but Nwadialor says they will be learning from the first lockdown and will be keeping regular contact with players. There will be fitness sessions on the video-calling platform Zoom.

“A lot of my players are really upset because they worked really hard to get to where they now are with their fitness,” he said.

“A lot of our players came back unfit. A lot of them had said they had suffered mentally as well.

“I spoke to one of my strikers because he was one of the ones who became overweight during the first lockdown. He told me that he has learnt from that and that he wants to come back even fitter than he is now.

“I need all the players to be like that because there are players who sound like they might struggle through lockdown.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD