Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor believes ‘self-interest’ and ‘agendas’ will guide National League funding crisis

Clubs have been told that no further grant funding has been made available by the DCMS. As a result the National League have requested that clubs provide their views on how they want to proceed and have presented them with three options.

Option one is for clubs to take out a low-interest, long repayment period loan from the £11 million package allocated by the government.

The second option would see the National League take on the loan themselves and provide grants directly to clubs though this is likely to impact future central funding payments.

The final option is to suspend the season indefinitely which would allow clubs to access the government’s furlough scheme to reduce losses.

On Thursday, Pools released a statement announcing that they were in favour of option two providing more clarity was given.

Challinor is desperate to continue playing with Pools sitting second in the National League table, but admitted that had his side been struggling he may have had a different viewpoint.

“Everything is going to be guided by self interest and that’s quite natural," he told The Mail.

“We obviously want the season to continue but I’m open and honest enough to say that if we were sat second from bottom rather than second from top then our views would be different.

“Clubs are coming out and saying things are the ones who last season had different agendas and wanted the season to continue or go onto points per game or elite status so that they had opportunities to get promoted and get into the play-offs. You reap what you sow a little bit.

“From our perspective, I echo what the club has said around option two. We just need to know what option two looks like in terms of the detail and how that works out."

Following a National League board meeting on Friday, it was announced that National League North and South fixtures would be suspended for two weeks.

While Challinor is glad that Hartlepool are allowed to continue playing for the time being, he sympathises with the predicaments some clubs have been forced into this season.

National League North and South clubs in particular were hit hard by the initial distribution of the National Lottery grant designed to cover the costs of matches being played behind closed doors for the first three months of the season.

Pools were given £285,000 from the grant while clubs who boasted the largest attendances in the sixth tier were only handed £108,000.

“Hopefully there is some middle ground or agreement made in the next two weeks where people are satisfied and we can crack on and move forward,” he added.

“As long as things are right with the clubs because no one wants anyone getting in financial trouble from this and more importantly health wise so we’re not at any greater risk than we have been previously.”

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