In yesterday's blog I mentioned football and a report from King's Lynn that they are struggling for survival. Of course I cannot comment on King's Lynn but I feel I am qualified to talk about football in general, having pent most of my life involved in one capacity or another with the sport.
For many years, I was chairman of Hethersett Athletic Football Club, helping to run youth and adult teams. The cost of running even a relatively small village football club continually rose. It soon became apparent to us that to rise in the adult game above the most basic status would involve paying players. And as Shakespeare said "there's the rub."
The amount of money that even a small club has to raise is considerable. Add in lockdown and I can see how and why some clubs are really struggling. I was always and still am very much against paying players to play local football. I played football (occasionally) for the love of the game and not for financial gain. But that seems to have gone out of the window.
Many clubs in Norfolk and throughout the country are being crippled by wage bills and other costs and, with no fans going through the turnstiles, I can see many failing to survive lockdown.
This is a sad state of affairs as I can see local football imploding and that would be incredibly sad. The same applies to a lesser extent to cricket where top local teams now pay players (many of whom come from overseas). You can reach a certain level but once you want to push above that level you are almost duty bound to pay players. It really is a chicken and egg situation. I just hope that sport can survive the lockdown.