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Gillingham chairman admits club faces very real threat of folding in next three months

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally admits club faces very real threat of folding in next three months when speaking with Sky Sports earlier this week.

He has said the League One side are at risk of running out of money amid the financial implications of the coronavirus outbreak.

Following the suspension of football across the country, concerns grow on how much it will impact on lower-league clubs.

It’s reported that the British government has pledged £330billion to help small British businesses deal with the crisis, support clubs in the lower divisions of English football are eligible for.

Despite this, Paul Scally, speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News, said: “Assuming we can come to an arrangement with HMRC, not so much defer payments but have a holiday of not paying any HMRC payments for the next three months we can then use that money to keep the staff going.

“Obviously staff will have to come to arrangements with their own mortgage companies, banks or car loan companies to maybe have a holiday of three months of not paying payments there.

“So, if we can give enough money that staff can buy essentials like food, put petrol in their cars so that they can get around [and] look after their families then I think we can probably last two or three months.

“After that the cash we do have will run out and I don’t have any solution past two or three months.”

Barnet recently announced that they are making 60 non-playing staff redundant for “emergency measures to preserve the club.”

Owner Tony Kleanthous called on the Premier League to create a financial rescue fund for clubs lower down.

And former footballer turned manager Jamie Redknapp also called on more to be done from those at the top of the game.

Speaking on The Debate, he said: “When the world is better and we can all reset, it’s vitally important the Premier League and other clubs help and do whatever they can to keep clubs going.

“So many smaller clubs could go out of business from this, they are going to need a bit of help. It wouldn’t harm the Premier League clubs, given all the money the league creates, to agree to do something.”

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