It's business as usual for Maidenhead United but Griffin expects disruption over coronavirus

It’s business as usual at Maidenhead United this week as they prepare for the visit of Stockport County for a crucial National League clash on Saturday. But chairman Peter Griffin admits that in his ‘heart of hearts’ he believes the spreading coronavirus could lead to matches being played behind closed doors before league matches are suspended for a period of time.

However, Griffin acknowledges this is a far bigger issue for the country and accepts football – and sport in general – should take a back seat to help contain the virus.

He added that the Magpies are following the latest advice from government and the league and will continue to play football until they are told to stop doing so.

“It’s business as usual for the time being,” said Griffin.

“But obviously this is in the news all the time and events are running their course.

“There’s an inevitability that the virus is spreading and I guess, in my heart of hearts, I expect there will be some cancellations. Whether that’s big events, outdoor events or all events I don’t know.

“But, if you look at what’s happened in other countries, where maybe the conditions are a few weeks ahead of us, then it seems to be that things are being shut down to try and contain it.

“We all love football and we do this because we enjoy it.

“But something like this is far bigger and we’ll just follow the league advice and use our common sense.

“Sometimes you don’t want things to be cancelled and you want things to go on as normal, but this is a far bigger issue for the country than anything related to football.”

There’s no real advice ‘from above’ at the moment, however – looking across Europe at countries like Italy, France and Germany – there’s now an expectation that games from the Premier League down will soon be played out behind closed doors while it’s not out of the question that leagues will be temporarily suspended.

“There’s no advice for us at the moment which is not surprising because no one really knows what is happening,” said Griffin.

“But, this just shows how important sport is at the end of the day, which is not that important in the grand scheme of things. When push comes to shove there are far greater issues at hand. We’ll just go with the advice when it comes through. We’re in the phase now where we’re anticipating what’s going to happen. In Italy, unfortunately, they’ve had to put the country into lockdown to try and get a two or three-week period where the condition doesn’t spread.

“At the moment we’re not quite there, but there’s an expectation we might have to do something more draconian and that might mean games being played behind closed doors. Then the government advice could become stronger than that and we might have a period where no games are played at all.

“There could be a hiatus of a few weeks or it could be a longer. We just don’t know.

“It’s completely unchartered territory.”

Financially, Griffin thinks clubs at Maidenhead’s level – and right up to teams playing in the Championship – could struggle for a time without the regular income of gate receipts.

“For a lot of clubs finances are precarious at the best of times, and, if you have a month where you’ve got no income coming in it’s going to effect everyone,” he said.

“A lot of clubs would find that very uncomfortable. But it’s not just football, it’s every business in the country, travel, hotels, bars, restaurants.

“Financially I’m sure it will be disastrous for many but we’re really in unchartered territory.

“I look at the football club and think, yeah, we would be badly affected but I think some clubs would struggle more.”

“I think we will be in for a rough time but once this condition bottoms out things should get back to normal quite quickly.”