The Southport manager hit out at the league’s board of directors, calling their handling of Covid-19 ‘chaotic’.
Following the Ports 2-0 loss against Torquay in the sixth round of the FA Trophy, the comments were made in a post-match interview that’s still up on the clubs website and YouTube channel.
It ends 0-2 here at Haig Ave, as The Port exit the FA Trophy. pic.twitter.com/Qmi8P6KIm5
— Southport Football Club (@southport_fc) February 6, 2021
Having been booked on the side-line during the game, the Southport boss didn’t pull any punches when it came to his thoughts on how the board of directors of the conference had handled the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s just unbelievable how badly the whole situations been run… I can’t believe we have got a chairman who says nothing at all.” Watson said.
Watson was yet again critical of the board when mentioning the financial aid that the National League clubs have been granted.
“They know all our budgets for the start of the season, and as a company/league they actually manage everyone’s finances … and now that’s all out the window, it’s all completely gone, do what you want. They’ve actually created this chaos, this carnage.
“There are some teams in the Conference Premier who get crowds of 600, and they get £84,000, you get a club like York City, a big club in our league getting 2000 (fans) and they get £36,000, how does that work out? It doesn’t work out!
“They’ve misguided us at the start of the season when they told us we have grants and they’ve been proven wrong.”
The Liverpudlian, also went as far as to accuse the board of directors of the conference of ‘bullying’ the clubs with fines and sanctions.
“Now it’s bullying, if you don’t do what we’re saying we’re going to fine you. So you’re going to fine clubs who potentially are going out of business, because their grants, which they promised (the board) haven’t gone forward.
“To now start throwing sanctions and fines at football clubs who they’ve already put in financial chaos sums it up. The board of directors of the conference have actually thrown all these clubs under the bus to save their own skin.”
During the post-match interview a frustrated Liam Watson also made a shock statement, announcing that his club will not play in the league again, citing his players wellbeing as the main reason.
“There’s no consideration for any of the health and wellbeing of the players. They stopped the league for 14 days as a board they’re going to come up with a resolution for it. Were still waiting for it.
“We won’t be playing at Brackley on Tuesday, as a club we’ve already agreed and signed a statement and as far as I’m aware we won’t be going to Brackley. We don’t want to put the players at risk. There has been talks that they’re bringing testing in, why are they bringing testing in now? Why hasn’t that been in place all along?”
This comes after a statement from the board, announcing that they won’t be testing players at National League standard earlier in the season.
The 50-year-old continued:
“As far as I’m concerned, in my mind this is our last game of the season. I can’t see a resolution. If I was a director on the conference board now, me personally I’d just get up and resign and walk out because what they’ve done to all of these clubs is nothing short of an absolute disgrace.”
As of yet, there has been no official statement released by Southport on their official website or Twitter, regarding their league tie away against Brackley Town tomorrow.
By Cai Hilditch-Roberts.
(Video courtesy of: Southport Fc’s YouTube channel.)
(Photo courtesy of: Graham Hogg.)
