How bigger clubs can help lower league strugglers through coronavirus crisis

However the good news for those clubs able to survive is he expects a post-virus boom in attendances.

English men’s and women’s professional football has been suspended until April 30 “at the earliest” to help contain the spread of covid-19. Struggling clubs will be deprived of vital revenue.

Even before the outbreak, this had been a difficult season for some Football League clubs, with Bury expelled because of financial problems and others unable to pay players’ wages on time.

“It’s hard to see without some sort of intervention by the Government, Premier League, EFL and PFA how we can avoid clubs going out of business during this outbreak,” said Prof Cannon, Professor Emeritus at the University of Liverpool Management School.

“Bolton went very close (to extinction) earlier in the season, and that’s a club with a great tradition and history.

“It would require a tremendous effort by the richer club and that would mean changing the rules a bit. When (Everton chairman) Bill Kenwright tried to inject £1m into Bury earlier in the season he was prevented by the rules. It’s a different environment in the lower leagues, and to allow for a season or two for the richer clubs to be more directly involved in helping the smaller clubs would be of huge benefit.

“There also needs to be more help from the Premier League and the PFA (the players’ union), which is not short of a few quid.”

Under Football League (EFL) rules designed to protect the independence of its clubs, an individual club or director cannot directly subsidise another club.

Prof Cannon hopes the publicity around Bury’s demise has led to a greater appreciation of the importance clubs play in their communities. The League announced this week it had set up an emergency £50m relief fund, while one National League director estimated the top level of English non-league football would need £20m of assistance.

“I don’t think £50m will be enough on its own but it’s a big gesture that shows the EFL has learnt the lessons of Bury,” commented Prof Cannon.

“On a local level, I get the impression there is an appetite to help. Where I live, on Merseyside, you can see the importance Tranmere Rovers has to the Wirral community and I am sure it will do what it can to help the club survive. The same will be equally true of clubs in Yorkshire.

“I don’t think we saw that attitude with the Bury situation, although that was a more complicated set of circumstances.

“While I didn’t take any pleasure in it, in retrospect it might have come at a good time in terms of creating a recognition and an understanding of the importance of a football club to its wider community.

“Five million people play football every week. The only disappointment my grandson had about being off school is his football fixtures have been cancelled!

“This government talks about protecting cafes, hotels, restaurants and so on, but it has also made enormous play of the importance of towns, and in many cases the local football club is an important part, we saw with Bury how important these clubs are to the wider community. It was about more than just losing a football club to that town.

“The work big clubs do in their communities is very high-profile and important but in towns and cities across Yorkshire you will find clubs working with schools, the disabled and so on binding communities together.

“The Premier League already contribute a percentage of their income to the clubs lower down through solidarity payments but there will need to be more.

“I’m an Everton season ticket-holder and my money for next season is due at the end of the month. I’ve not heard anything different yet. That shows there is a big injection of capital coming into these clubs in the next month or two. That’s a big buffer.

“Most of the Premier League clubs’ income is pretty secure and, importantly, up front.

“You sometimes hear it said gate income no longer matters much to the biggest clubs, but even for Manchester United it’s a third of the income. The pre-season tours are the gilding on the gingerbread.”

There is light at the end of the tunnel for those who see it through to the resumption. The longer the inactivity goes on, the closer Prof Cannon thinks we will get to the situation seen at the end of the World Wars, the last time English football was suspended indefinitely for a prolonged period.

“When football resumed in 1919 there was a big surge of interest, and in 1945 it lasted until the mid-1950s,” he pointed out

“I think we will see that much more in the lower divisions because the Premier League grounds are sold out most weeks as it is.

“In places like Bradford and York I think we will see a renewed commitment to the community and the best expression of that will be football.”