English football: how the lower leagues are desperately seeking cash

Cash-strapped clubs in the English football league are in desperate need of financial support to prevent many of them from going out of business as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the sport.

Premier League sides Liverpool and Manchester Utd. had put forward proposals for ‘Project Big Picture’ - part of which would provide the lower league sides with £250m to help them cover their losses - but that plan has been rejected.

Lower league clubs now fear they may not be able to hold on much longer. Leyton Orient FC is one of those clubs.

“If you look at our original budget for this year, on match day alone because there are no crowds we lost £900,000, just because people didn’t turn up,“ explains Nigel Travis club chairman. “If you take in non-match days when we rent out the function room at the stadium, we lost £200,000. On top of that you have to remember we are paying a lot of money to support COVID-19 protocols.”

Watch the full report by Angela Barnes in the video player above.