'There’s a lot of anxiety out there, a lot of frustration' - Doncaster Rovers legend James Coppinger on the uncertainty facing players at the end of their contracts this summer

Professional football has been shut down for almost ten weeks due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

While there are moves to get England’s top two divisions playing again inside the next month, with many players returning to training over the next week, the situation is League One is much less clear.

The 23 clubs in the division are currently split on whether to end the season now, or push for a resolution on the pitch.

But what is clear is that there are serious concerns among some clubs that the financial implications of the shutdown, and the likelihood of having to play without fans present in the event matches do take place, will be too much to bear.

Coppinger likened the current situation to that of the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, which saw Football League clubs failing to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds promised to them as part of a lucrative television rights package.

That forced clubs into a period of much more conservative spending, which impacted upon players seeking employment.

“It’s an uncertain time but there will be players out looking to kick start their career and move their careers forward,” he told The Independent.

“There’s a lot of anxiety out there, a lot of frustration. No-one knows what’s going to happen.

“I remember leaving Newcastle around the time that ITV Digital collapsed and it was a similar sort of situation.

“You can’t compare the two but financially it was a time when no-one knew what was going to happen next. As a professional footballer, you didn’t know whether the money would be there for contracts.

“It’s a similar situation now. Clubs are going to be looking to tighten the purse strings and that’s going to have a massive impact on those players on the fringes of certain teams.

“I think there is going to be a huge shift, people are going to be looking very closely at how something like this can pose such an enormous threat to a football club’s survival.”

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