Spiralling travel costs played part in demise of London Skolars in League One

The spiralling cost of travel played a part in the demise of London Skolars in League One.

Trips to Cumbria, in particular, swallowed up large amounts of cash which ate dramatically into their central funding money.

Skolars assistant coach Ollie Bloom explained on X – formerly Twitter – the financial cost of an away game at the likes of Cornwall and Cumbria – Workington, Whitehaven or Barrow.

“An away game for us at Cornwall/any Cumbrian team is around £7,000.

“Two or three of those in a season and your central funding money is gone and then some. Let alone the rest of the season and operating costs. Financially it makes no sense.”

How can League One teams – whose central funding has been cut to almost nothing – expect to fund such an expensive away day and particularly now when they have to survive on seven home gates?

Several clubs, including Workington, Keighley and Rochdale have all implored the RFL to do something about it and there does seem to be movement in that the game’s bosses will hold more talks with the League One clubs.

Two Championship Conference leagues split east and west with 10 teams in each has been suggested, and seems to be gaining more support by the day.