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Huddersfield owner warns up to 60 clubs could go bust

Huddersfield owner warns that up to 60 clubs could go bust in the next 12 months if football cannot sort out its finances.

Phil Hodgkinson, who previously owned Southport, believes football in the lower leagues faces a bleak future unless it can reorganise quickly during the current lockdown.

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EFL clubs will vote this week to decide whether remaining games will be played this season – and the majority of Championship sides look set to do just that.

But there is a big concern over the cost of playing matches behind closed doors with no income coming from fans through the turnstiles.

Because of that, it’s got League One and Two clubs pushing for the season to be ended, enabling them to stay in hibernation to minimise costs.

“The season should be completed when it’s safe to do so and there should be relegation and promotion,” Hodgkinson told The Yorkshire Post.

“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.”

In an interview with BBC Sport, this is what he had to say: “If we don’t come to an agreement there will be no football pyramid. There are clubs I know of that are only still trading because they are deferring wages and [tax] and other creditors. They will need paying at some point,” Hodgkinson said.

“There is an absolutely real, stark probability that if something isn’t agreed now within football to ensure all clubs can pay their bills and get through to the point where income is resumed, you will be looking at 50 or 60 clubs ceasing to exist. Genuinely, I am talking about that many.”

“It will cost each club between £150,000 and £200,000 for testing to get to the end of the season,” he said. “But what happens after that?

“We have been told by the government that there will be no large gatherings until there is a vaccine and that is likely to be in 2021. That means football clubs will lose a vast proportion of their income outside of any broadcast money, which is likely to be significantly reduced or clawed back anyway.

“In normal revenue, we are looking at losing between £7m and £10m. The claw-back for TV is going to be £10m-£30m. That is just us. So, what is football going to do to ensure the entire pyramid survives this? The discussion is being avoided. For the next three, six or 12 months clubs are going to have no income.”

One solution Hodgkinson suggests is reducing players’ wages at every level of the game.

He continued: “The players are not to blame. But the reality is, the players have to be part of the solution because if clubs go bust, their contracts won’t get met anyway.

“They may not like me saying this, but [players’ union] the PFA need to put in place salary cuts of between 30% and 50% for all players at all levels until such a time as crowds are allowed back into football stadiums and income streams return.

“These are ideas. They may not be the right ones. But something has to be done because everyone knows what is coming and people are just sticking their heads in the sand.”

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