2019–20 Wessex Football League

The 2019–20 Wessex Football League season (known as the Sydenhams Football League (Wessex) for sponsorship reasons) was the 34th in the history of the Wessex Football League since its establishment in 1986. The league consisted of two divisions: the Premier Division and Division One. The season was abandoned on 26 March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wessex Football League
Season2019–20
Championsnone
Relegatednone

The constitution was announced on 19 May 2019.[1] This season, the Premier Division champions were to be promoted to Step 4. The runners-up in this division and ten other Step 5 divisions in other leagues were to be ranked according to PPG (points per game), and the top four in that ranking would also have been promoted. The remaining seven runners-up would have competed in "winner takes all" play-offs with seven clubs finishing bottom in Step 4 leagues, the winners being placed at Step 4 and the losers at Step 5 for 2020–21.[2]

The bottom clubs in all 14 Step 5 divisions were to be ranked according to PPG, and the 12 lowest-ranked clubs were to be relegated to Step 6.

In Division One, the top four clubs were to be promoted to Step 5, with the bottom two liable to relegation to Step 7.

League suspension and abandonment

Despite other leagues suspending all matches from 13 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wessex League continued to hold matches on 14 March. On 16 March, the Football Association decided to postpone all matches across all their competitions until 3 April, and a league statement confirmed the postponement of all matches for the foreseeable future.[3]

On 26 March 2020, the league season was formally abandoned, with all results being expunged, and no promotion or relegation taking place to, from, or between the two divisions.[4] On 30 March, sixty-six non-league clubs sent an open letter to the Football Association requesting that they reconsider their decision.[5]

Premier Division

The Premier Division remained at 20 clubs after Sholing were promoted to the Southern League, and Andover New Street and Bemerton Heath Harlequins were relegated to Division One. Three teams joined the division:

Team Solent F.C. were renamed Solent University F.C.

League table at the time of abandonment

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Alresford Town 30 22 2 6 74 41 +33 68
2 AFC Stoneham 31 20 4 7 67 35 +32 64
3 AFC Portchester 28 19 2 7 72 40 +32 59
4 Christchurch 26 18 3 5 58 20 +38 57
5 Lymington Town 30 16 4 10 67 44 +23 52
6 Horndean 28 14 8 6 63 38 +25 50
7 Bashley 29 15 3 11 58 41 +17 48
8 Fareham Town 27 15 5 7 69 46 +23 47[lower-alpha 1]
9 Hamworthy United 31 14 5 12 70 57 +13 47
10 Hamble Club 30 14 4 12 47 51 −4 46
11 Portland United 27 13 5 9 65 42 +23 44
12 Fleet Town 29 10 7 12 58 53 +5 37
13 Tadley Calleva 28 11 3 14 48 59 −11 36
14 Baffins Milton Rovers 23 11 2 10 44 40 +4 35
15 Brockenhurst 28 10 4 14 51 49 +2 34
16 Shaftesbury 30 7 3 20 38 79 −41 24
17 Solent University 28 5 5 18 46 97 −51 20 Resigned from the league after the abandonment
18 Bournemouth 27 4 4 19 23 65 −42 16
19 Cowes Sports 30 3 5 22 39 84 −45 14
20 Amesbury Town 28 3 2 23 30 106 −76 8[lower-alpha 2]
Updated to match(es) played on 20:33, 15 March 2020 (UTC). Source: http://full-time.thefa.com/Index.do?league=274386
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
Notes:
  1. Fareham Town had three points deducted.
  2. Amesbury Town had three points deducted.

Division One

Division One was increased from 19 clubs to 20 after AFC Stoneham and Amesbury Town were promoted to the Premier Division. Three clubs joined the division:

League table at the time of abandonment

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 United Services Portsmouth 28 20 4 4 86 33 +53 64
2 Andover New Street 25 18 3 4 75 44 +31 57
3 Bemerton Heath Harlequins 28 17 3 8 80 38 +42 54
4 Hythe & Dibden 24 16 6 2 67 29 +38 54
5 Downton 28 16 5 7 62 40 +22 53
6 Alton 28 15 5 8 54 44 +10 50
7 Newport (IOW) 26 15 3 8 73 36 +37 48
8 Whitchurch United 31 12 3 16 55 59 −4 39
9 Laverstock & Ford 25 11 5 9 53 43 +10 38
10 Petersfield Town 25 9 8 8 33 27 +6 35
11 Andover Town 31 9 8 14 42 57 −15 35
12 Verwood Town 27 9 6 12 47 58 −11 33
13 Romsey Town 24 9 4 11 54 60 −6 31
14 Ringwood Town 29 6 10 13 50 66 −16 28
15 Fawley 29 6 6 17 43 69 −26 24
16 New Milton Town 29 4 10 15 29 71 −42 22
17 East Cowes Victoria Athletic 25 5 5 15 30 64 −34 20
18 Totton & Eling 22 5 3 14 24 55 −31 18
19 Folland Sports 28 3 5 20 29 93 −64 14
20 Pewsey Vale 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Resigned from the league
Updated to match(es) played on 20:37, 15 March 2020 (UTC). Source: FA Full-Time, League Official
Pewsey Vale resigned from the league in November 2019, and their record of P14 W1 D1 L12 GF10 GA61 Pts4 was subsequently expunged
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

References
  1. "REVEALED: The provisional Step 1 to 6 Club Allocations for 2019-20". Non League Paper. 19 May 2019.
  2. "EXCLUSIVE: FA outline second phase of Non-League restructuring". The Non-League Football paper. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  3. "Fixtures suspended". Wessex League. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  4. "Coronavirus: All football below National League to end". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  5. "Sixty-six non-league clubs send open letter to FA over expunging season". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
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