Covid KO games hit clubs hard
LEAGUE clubs will be in need of a fresh financial bailout if Covid continues to deliver the rash of postponements witnessed last month.
That is the dire warning from leading football finance expert Rob Wilson.
Wilson, head of finance, accounting and business systems at Sheffield
Hallam University, warns under-pressure clubs will struggle as a result of their cash flow effectively being turned off.
As many as 14 League One and League Two matches were called off on Boxing Day. A further 15 fell foul of the pandemic three days’ later.
At a time of year when most clubs anticipate bumper festive gates and a greater spend from punters within the ground, the past week has been little short of a financial catastrophe.
It has also left all clubs facing a fixture backlog.
And with so many teams living a hand-to-mouth existence, the next five months could prove a step too far for clubs who have already been bailed out to the tune of £250million
since the onset of the crisis. Wilson said: “For those clubs who have played matches over Christmas, there would have been a marginal loss.
“A team that ordinarily attracts 6,000 fans might have expected to have got 8,000 through the gate at Christmas. They will still have got those ticket revenues in – but the lost sales inside the ground won’t be coming back. That’s gone.
“For those clubs that didn’t play, this is just a disaster. It’s cash flow which is the biggest problem because so many of them live a hand-tomouth existence.
“If you have two or three games cancelled then where is the revenue coming to pay the players at the end of the month?
“Will some clubs be going with a begging bowl to the Football League looking for another bailout? It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
“These are very, very worrying times.”