Portsmouth Trust: Premier League and EFL have £1.5b in the bank - use it to save football clubs folding amid coronavirus crisis

That's the call from Pompey Supporters’ Trust chairman Simon Colebrook, who fears some Football League clubs won’t pull through the suspension of the football programme.

As it stands, the coronavirus crisis has forced the postponement of all Premier League and Football League fixtures until April 3.

The likelihood is that timeframe will be extended as the world struggles to cope with the global pandemic.

As a consequence, League One and League Two clubs are being deprived of crucial match-day revenue, while required to continue paying wages.

With some having five home games remaining, any cancellation of the campaign could have a catastrophic effect on finances.

Colebrook believes Pompey, through owners Tornante, will be able to absorb such losses, despite the absence of regular match-day income.

But he’s concerned others could be driven out of business.

He said: ‘Firstly, the suspension is the right thing. Despite what Bill Shankly said, football is not more important than life or death.

‘In terms of its wider ramifications, potentially it is very, very serious if you look at clubs in the lower two divisions, some of which are living a very hand-to-mouth existence in terms of their match-day revenue.

‘Clubs already in difficultly are Macclesfield, Oldham and Southend. They're the ones publicly known about, I’m sure there are others very much on a knife edge in terms of their finance.

‘I am very concerned about how some of the smaller clubs will survive through this period because if it goes on for 13-14 weeks, as the government is saying, that's three months with no income but still having costs – and that’s potentially devastating for those clubs.

‘In turn, a lot of club owners at this level are funding clubs through a separate trading business. Those trading businesses are going to have issues as well.

‘I wouldn’t want to make doom and gloom predictions, but it’s difficult to see how we are going to get through this completely unscathed unless there is some external support either from the EFL, Premier League, FA or the government.

‘The Premier League’s operating company has £1.5b in its bank account in the last published accounts at the end of the 2018-19 season.

‘The Premier League clubs collectively, if you add up all of their bank accounts, have £1b. Now that is heavily skewed, Manchester United alone have £300m in their bank account, while I think the lowest is Brighton, who have nothing. It is not evenly spread.

‘Even the operating company which runs the EFL had £82m in its bank account at the end of the 2018-19 season.

'In my opinion, funds are there to support football clubs through this period of difficulty.

‘Even if it’s a loan spread out over a few seasons, a couple of thousand pounds to a League Two club could be a life saver.

‘I would hope it is something we will discuss at our next Trust meeting to feed back through the Football Supporters’ Association as a suggestion.

‘Even if those bodies are not willing to give money, at least lend it to see clubs through this period.’

The FSA’s head of supporter engagement and governance, Ashley Brown, sits on the Trust board, having twice been chairman.

Meanwhile, Colebrook has been impressed with Pompey's communication during the coronavirus crisis, in particular from chief executive Mark Catlin.

He added: ‘I think the club have been very good in the way they have dealt with the situation.

‘They have been clear with the fans and taken a calm approach, it’s very easy to get quite panicked about the scenario.

‘As soon as Pompey have known about the situation, they have communicated it clearly and well – I cannot fault it.’