Call the season now, says club director

‘We have played 75 per cent of the season, surely that’s enough?’

There is no prospect of football resuming any time soon. Picture: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

Cowdenbeath have called for the Scottish Professional Football League to declare the season over and for current league positions to count as the final standings.

The Fife club sit in the Ladbrokes League Two promotion play-off places but finance director David Allan would rather have the financial guarantee of end-of-season payouts from the league than a possibility of going up.

There is growing pessimism over the prospect of fixtures being resumed before Uefa’s 30 June deadline and Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows also feels finishing the season is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

Allan is strongly against voiding the campaign but would like to see time now being called on the campaign

“Calling the season gives us certainty,” the Cowdenbeath director said.

“Whether it’s about the money or not, let’s just call it over. I am not one that goes for the void route. We have played 75 per cent of the season, surely that’s enough? Otherwise you are getting into the realms of the Dallas scenario – Bobby Ewing’s dream season where we just forget about it. I am not keen on that.

“We are fourth in the league, if we get fourth-placed money then that would be very helpful. We are not going to take legal action if we don’t get a play-off.”

Cowdenbeath have paid wages for March but have staff who are still working and cannot be placed on furlough leave as part of the government’s financial help, while their part-time players have more than two months of wages to come before the normal close season.

Allan told BBC Radio Scotland: “In the last week or two, two or three times we have gone to speak to the players, the world changes, we have to keep changing with that.

“For some of them it’s their main income, their only income for some, and it’s vital. We paid 100 per cent this month, it buys time to sit down and have a look at things and look at the scheme and how it works.

“Now we have to look at April and May, that’s the two big months. Players contracts after 10 June, where we are going from there, I don’t know.”

For Motherwell chief Burrows, how to end the season remains a vexed issue. “There is still a big push by some to have the games played at some point,” Burrows told Radio Scotland’s Off The Ball.

“Whilst that is still on some people’s agenda, I think it’s all up for grabs at this point.

“It’s on my agenda in the sense that I think it’s the right way to handle it, but given the timescales involved, with every day that passes I think it becomes more unrealistic in that sense. The contracts issue is one of the key subjects we need to talk about if we are going to play these fixtures at some point. That’s the hardest thing to square.”

Many players’ contracts will expire on 10 June. Clubs are facing up to major challenges of paying wages and other costs while their gate money has dried up.

Burrows said: “Motherwell are OK in the very short term but it would only take a couple of things to change for that not to be the case or for this to drag on for a longer period of time. As numerous football clubs have said publicly, the longer this goes the more difficult it becomes for everybody.”