'Nobody knows how long it will last' – Hartlepool United club president Jeff Stelling expresses coronavirus concerns with National League season suspended

This is the situation at Hartlepool United and football clubs across the country at present with the competitive season halted indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Pools club president Jeff Stelling is optimistic the club can make it through the pandemic but there remains a strong sense of unease and uncertainty surrounding the entire situation.

“You’ve got to have concerns because nobody knows how long it will last,” Stelling told the Sunday Times.

“We’ve got a benevolent major shareholder [chairman, Raj Singh] and we have a benevolent minor shareholder, which is me, but the major shareholder is more important and he has promised to back the club.

“How long for? How long can any individual keep digging into his pockets, not knowing when it will end?”

Pools will lose around £100,000 in matchday revenue due to the National League’s suspension of fixtures. While Singh is committed to supporting the club through the crisis – making cuts where necessary – other clubs won’t be so fortunate.

The National League have requested a £17-million support package to help keep its 68 member clubs afloat over the coming months – “probably the price of a Premier League reserve left-back,” Stelling added.

“It’s not big money in their terms, and it would help guarantee the survival of these clubs.

“Somebody has to look after the smaller clubs of the country almost in the same way as being good neighbours we have to keep an eye on the elderly people next door.”

With Pools’ revenue streams running dry for the foreseeable future, cuts are inevitable in order for the club to make it out of the other side in as strong a position as possible.

“The mood around Hartlepool is optimistic,” Stelling added.

“We can survive it [for now] but when you don’t know how long it’s going to last then it’s very difficult to predict how long you can survive. If it’s three months, we will be okay. If it’s six months, I’m not so sure. When normality does return, we need to make sure there is a normality to return to.”