Mark Maguire discusses Hartlepool United's contract conundrum

As things stand all football is suspended until at least April 30 due to the coronavirus outbreak but the likelihood is that date will be extended further with no clear indication yet as to when it may be possible for football to resume.

The Premier League and EFL are in a similar position and while they have a desire to conclude the 2019-20 campaign, it is not yet clear when that will be a reality.

It means it is difficult for clubs to plan.

On contract discussions, Pools chief executive Maguire told the Mail: “There’s a difficulty surrounding those because the discussions are obviously still taking place but there’s no clue as to when football will start again.

“The big piece of work which the National League are doing is three fold; one is to see how they can assist clubs in identifying the Government support which is available, two is dealing with all of the questions raised by clubs regarding how to conclude the current season, how that ends, how it impacts loan players and contracts and three to try and come up with some position of clarity on how football will start up again and how it will impact the following season.

“In many ways, because of all of the short term measures announced, there seems to be a way to navigate through the short term but it becomes more important to have clarity for the start of next season because a large chunk of our income comes from season ticket sales which is what we rely upon in the summer.

“Until we’ve got some sort of indication as to when next season will start, we can’t put those on sale.

“My focus is to work with the board to see what we can do to navigate this interim period but also what we do next season to make sure we come out of it stronger and ready to go across the board.

“It’s a really complex and unprecedented time and I know we’re not the only business out there examining it but it’s tough times for sure.”