Up to sixty EFL clubs could go out of business in the next year, warns Huddersfield Town chairman

The Terriers players return to small-scale training tomorrow in preparation for a resumption of the 2019-20 season behind closed doors in the summer.

While Hodgkinson insists that Town are happy to complete their commitments, he has also stressed that making decisions to secure the long-term future of the game amid its gravest financial crisis is far more important.

Hodgkinson, whose club are currently receiving parachute payments and are likely to be better placed than most to cope amid the financial storm, said: “The season should be completed when it’s safe to do so and there should be relegation and promotion.

“Everyone has worked hard; we are three quarters of the way through the season.

"We are on board with that, but there’s a much bigger issue that needs to be discussed in tandem with that.

"We are being asked to fund costs to cover the season, testing and other additional things, which is absolutely fine – I have no issue with that at all!

"But there are clubs further down the pyramid, who aren’t in the same situation as us, being asked to do the same thing, but there’s no solution in place to tell them whether that extra expenditure will take them further down the road to going out of business; that’s the reality of it.

"Let’s not pretend that football didn’t cause this problem, it did. Football has created the position we are in. What we have now is the opportunity, with this COVID-19 pandemic, is to get football back into a place where it’s run better.

"Football has caused this problem and football should fix it. If this isn’t solved, you could be looking at 40, 50, 60 clubs in the pyramid ceasing to trade within the next six to 12 months; that’s how big this problem is."