Thomas and Whiting provide update on Cobblers' financial situation as pandemic continues

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas says the club are 'working very hard behind the scenes' to prepare for all eventualities and limit the financial impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Businesses across the world have been hit hard in the pocket by COVID-19 and football clubs are not immune, particularly those in the lower leagues who rely heavily on gate receipts.

The current season is suspended until at least April 30 but there remains a lot of uncertainty over when, if at all, it will resume, though the EFL and FA have amended the rules to allow it to continue into June and beyond.

On the club's current situation and future plans, Thomas said: "This is a very, very unprecedented and difficult position for everyone in terms of the pandemic and our thoughts go out to the people who have been really affected by it.

"We're doing what we can as a club to help while also ensuring the club can continue going and is ready to play once we're in that position.

"At the moment we're OK but we're planning and working very hard behind the scenes to figure out what the future looks like in different situations.

"James (Whiting) has worked very hard on the finances in terms of giving us various scenarios - 'if this happens, this is what it'll look like and if that happens, this is what will happen' etc.

"So there's a lot of planning going on behind the scenes and we're also looking at the government's programmes to help the club.

"We don't want to rush into anything because we have to make decisions based on what's in front of us and we don't yet have all the information.

"Nobody really knows what's going to happen but one thing we are doing is making sure we're ready to move once lockdown is lifted and we start seriously talking about games restarting."

The club confirmed that most employees have been placed on furlough leave while the football season is on hold, though they will 'top up' all salaries.

"It's been a breathless period since it started and new information came out very quickly at the start," added chief executive James Whiting.

"We've had a period of time now to get that information together and to liaise with the EFL and we're getting to the stage where we feel we have all the available information to make the right decisions to safeguard the business.

"We're now getting through that in terms of the furloughing and the implications of that and things are starting to stabilise.

"It's now getting to the next stage and looking at when things may turn to some kind of normality and hopefully enable us to play these games and then we'll put a plan in place for that period."