Where do Hartlepool United players stand in terms of their contracts following pay reduction and National League suspension due to coronavirus?

The National League season is currently suspended with reports emerging that it is set to be voided.

As it stands, all but six of Pools’ players are out of contract at the end of the originally scheduled season on April 25.

But the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and the lack of any matchday income for the foreseeable future has seen Hartlepool cut all staff and player wages by 20 per-cent.

Matchday staff will be made redundant with more to potentially follow in order to help the club manage its finances through this difficult spell.

But when it comes to player contracts, there is at least some form of clarity.

“The easy bit is the contracts which are due to expire because there is a line in our players’ contracts which say a date but then there’s a caveat which states ‘or seven days after your final game’ so that is covered,” revealed Hartlepool chief executive Mark Maguire.

“In terms of contracts for next season, 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.”

Pools currently have five players in on loan with Macauley Southam-Hales, Timi Odusina, Rob Harker, Mark Shelton and Gary Liddle which would complicate things further if the National League season were to continue.

“There are significant complications around loan players and whose responsibility they are if they’re not playing football for a couple of months,” Maguire added.

“You would hope that clubs would start to act reasonably with each other instead of applying the letter of the law.

“Should we pay them for five, six weeks now and if it starts again, pay them again for a five, six week period or is there a common ground?

“Every club will be in a situation where they’ve got players in on loan and out on loan and ultimately some reasonable discussion will take place.”