Floodlights in the winter are a luxury that many football clubs can no longer afford

The 3pm kick-off finishing under floodlights during the winter are an English football tradition, but they may need to be sacrificed.

Some time in the distant past, a little over 20 years ago, I was talking to someone from a non-league football club about a game for which we had hired their pitch. At a point in the conversation, the subject turned to floodlighting and I, in all innocence, asked if he could switch them on a moment so I could see how they worked.

‘You’ve got to be joking’, was his reply. ‘It costs a couple of hundred quid just to switch these on.’

Some caveats are required here. I have no evidence that he wasn’t just saying that to shut me up (entirely plausible). Furthermore, with LED lighting, floodlights are considerably more energy-efficient than they were then, with many clubs having already replaced out of date, more power-hungry options.

But the fact remains that just staging a football match can be expensive – and it is about to get considerably more so.

The effects of the cost of living crisis on supporters have only barely been touched upon by clubs, but one area in which there has already been movement is on the subject of floodlighting matches. At the end of July, the Isthmian League – one of the regional leagues that make up the seventh and eighth tiers of the game in England – issued a statement confirming that clubs had been given permission to bring kick-offs forward during the winter from 3pm to try and limit the amount of money spent on utilities.

There are, of course, conditions. ‘Decisions should be made between both clubs, the League Office should be informed as early as possible, and changes should be publicised to ensure that players, officials and supporters can have time to make appropriate plans,’ according to their statement on the matter. But it was notable that a league had thought forward on this subject to the point of issuing such guidance before a ball was even kicked.

This subject is now starting to filter through to the EFL. With energy prices expected to treble or even quadruple over the course of the coming winter (newly-released plans for government assistance for business this winter are patchy), there is a growing feeling that matches cannot continue to kick off at three o’clock in the afternoon when the cost of doing so is prohibitively high.

Of course, this problem isn’t just limited to floodlights. Heating costs are also set to soar and this money can be saved by…