IFollow Shrews talks to BC about Coronavirus
Town CEO Brian Caldwell talks to IFollow Shrews about the current Coronavirus concerns, and the EFL's decision to suspend football until 3rd April.
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“Things are ever-changing as we have seen with the last 24 to 48 hours,” said Brian. “Games are now suspended, so we will have to take stock and see what happens in the meantime. We have no further information in terms of fixtures other than games are off until at least the third of April.
“We understand the decision. Public health and safety is more important than anything else. It is a difficult situation and you do have to be wary about supporters traveling to games and potentially getting the virus.
“The EFL and the Premier League seem to have taken the decision themselves by the look of things. We don’t know any more than what has been put out in the public domain.
“We had the email this morning with the statement that was going out to the media. Games have been postponed so that may mean we try to catch up with the remaining weeks of the season – at this stage, we just do not know.
“Financially it will be a hit for us. We did have two home games in the next two weeks and that is a concern. The one benefit we do have as a football club is that we do have a healthy bank balance, but I do worry about other clubs.
“We are also seeing a hit on our conferencing and events side of things. Things are being cancelled by participants because of the Coronavirus - we are taking a hit on both sides.
“Tickets bought for these games will still be valid for whenever it’s re-arranged. We don’t really know what is going to happen moving forward. At the moment, the games are postponed and we have to wait for EFL guidance.”
Town’s CEO also provided an update on the Town first-team and how they plan to work during the postponement period. He said: “I spoke to Sam this morning and he has taken the decision to give the lads a week off.
“We don’t want any of them going abroad or anything but he wanted to give them a week off without us having a game. We have a couple of injuries too so the break will benefit them.
“It will be difficult for the lads as they do build themselves up for a game. Hopefully they use this time well to rest and recuperate as best they can.”
Salop Manager Sam Ricketts also added: "It’s something very surreal and unprecedented. We will have to take it day by day and see what happens. We will now formulate plans with players and look forward.
“We can’t plan too far ahead as the situation is ever-changing. It’s disappointing that it’s come when we have Saturday-to-Saturday games but we can’t do anything about that.
“We will now have a few days away from training. We want to give the players a few days to recuperate and rest - we will then get back into training in preparation for the upcoming games.”