LONG WAIT GOES ON FOR BARROWCELONA
Our loss would be greater than Liverpool’s
NEVER mind Liverpool, National League leaders Barrow are the club with perhaps the most to lose from the coronavirus pandemic.
That is the view of their chairman Paul Hornby, with his revitalised team on the brink of a return to the Football League after an absence of almost 50 years.
The Cumbrian side were four points clear at the top with a superior goal difference to their rivals when football was stopped.
For Barrow, as is the case with so many clubs, the sporting lockdown is a financial disaster.
And if the season is declared null and void, their dreams will turn into a nightmare.
“Good luck to Liverpool, who deserve to be Premier League champions, but Barrow’s loss would be far greater if this season’s efforts count for nothing,” said Hornby, one of a group of local businessmen who bought the club 18 months ago.
“They’re much richer than us and they could easily win the title again next year, while I’m not sure we could.
“And while I understand their fans have been waiting 30 years to be crowned champions, for us it’s 48 years.
“Most of us can’t remember Barrow in the Football League and those who can, never thought we’d get back.”
Hornby and his fellow directors have been doing their sums since football shut down – and the answers make for grim reading.
“Like the EFL, the National League are hanging on what the Premier League do, but the big issue is that while the big clubs are sitting on millions of pounds, the rest of us are not,” he said.
“We will be about £150,000 out of pocket by not playing our last four home games and, for us, that is massive. In our position we were
anticipating sell-outs as the season reached its finale, representing around 20 per cent of our turnover for the entire year.
“We’re left with a very black hole in the short term and HMRC are still expecting us to pay taxes with absolutely no concessions from them at the moment.
“Players contracts usually last from July 1 to the end of April but if there’s an extension, we’ll have to carry on paying them through the summer, costing us roughly £5,000 per week. We’re in an indefinite state of flux.” Manager Ian MASTERMINDS:
Hornby and Evatt
Evatt has transformed the team to such an extent that they are nicknamed ‘Barrowcelona’ by locals.
“We’re all extremely worried,” said Evatt. “It’s the uncertainty of it all which is killing us.
“To go into a nine-game season with promotion on the line I would argue is unfair and against the integrity of the competition.” Hornby claims Barrow should go up whatever happens. “We have led the league since October and not too many clubs would dispute we’d be worthy champions,” he said.
“We’ve played around 80 per cent of our fixtures and if a league game was played for 75 minutes the result would stand, so the same logic should apply.
“The saving grace for us could be Bury’s demise, which means the Football League is one club down. I would argue we are natural replacements.
“We just want to go up and if that happens, the town of Barrow will be in a frenzy.
“If we miss out, not only will our £750,000 investment go down the tube, I think a lot of us will be resigned to never playing in the Football League again.”