Curle admits financial impact of coronavirus could reduce Cobblers' future budget

The financial impact of a prolonged suspension to the football season could take between two and four years for the Cobblers to fully recover from, manager Keith Curle has revealed.

The financial implications of the current postponement of all fixtures in England has been well-documented in recent weeks and things are unlikely to improve any time soon.

There will be no football until at least April 30 and a resumption on that date looks remote given the country is currently in the middle of a three-week lockdown, causing fears to grow over the financial state of clubs in the lower leagues.

"We're quite lucky in a way because this season we've had a financially-strong season," said Curle when speaking to talkSPORT, referring to Northampton's FA Cup run which earned them close to £700,000.

"We showed good housekeeping at the beginning of the season and we had a plan in place that saw us become able to operate without a massive financial burden on the chairman and the owners.

"We've done OK on the pitch and we had a couple of good cup runs so financially the club is in a good place in the short-term."

But although the Cobblers are better placed than many of their rivals to deal with the current situation, they are far from immune.

"The longer it continues the more money the club will lose and the chairman knows he'll lose money every year and that'll have an impact on next season," admitted Curle.

"It will take two, three, four years for this to level out and ultimately we have to show good housekeeping and if that means there's another reduction (in the budget), so be it. The bigger picture is that the football club needs to survive.

"We need to do what we need to do to survive and that's at all levels, but it's difficult to make snap decisions now because we don't know how long this will last.

"There's a realisation now that, although football is massively important to a lot of people, but it's nowhere near as important as people's lives."

Asked if the Premier League could do more to help clubs in League One and Two, Curle added: "Football at the top end is awash with money and this isn't me sounding bitter or anything because good luck to them, but some of the money that players do get paid is astronomical.

"There's also other money within football that goes missing. There's money to agents, and I know they're part and parcel of the industry, but that's money that will never ever come back into the game.

"There should be a cap because you get agents walking out with millions of pounds and that money is never going to come back into the game."