Doubt over funding remains an issue for the Rebels
Jon Underwood claims funding remains an issue for the club as they seek to get through the next few months while playing matches behind closed doors.
The Rebels received a grant from the National Lottery earlier this season to cover the first three months of the campaign to December, but as yet haven’t had any concrete news about what they’ll receive for the coming months or in what form it will come.
Maidenhead’s CEO Jon Adams believes clubs will have to apply for funding this time around and there have also been suggestions the aid might be a mix of grants and loans.
The Rebels received £30,000 a month for the first three months of the season to December, but – although the club has received verbal assurances they will receive more financial aid – they don’t yet know if they’ll receive anything in time to pay the players at the end of the month.
“We kept this out of our statement this week because safety was the main issue, but funding has been an issue for us all along,” said Underwood. “We can’t have fans in and we’re a long way from that happening. If we can’t have fans in the ground, we can’t pay the players, it’s as simple as that. We had funding for October, November and December, but we’re sat here still waiting to hear what’s going to happen for January.
“I think there is going to be a statement from the league coming out on January 18 about the latest set of funding that was promised for sports and the allocation we’ll be getting.
“We’ve been told verbally that it’s going to get sorted, but that’s not enough at this stage. We’re a week into January and have no concrete news on how we’re supposed to pay our players this month.
“Chester in the National League North have come out with a statement about the funding last week (January 6), and a number of clubs have complained about the initial amounts that were handed out, saying they weren’t fair.
“There’s an inquiry into that that still hasn’t been resolved.
“Of course, the funding is still a concern for us.”