The pandemic has, and is going to have an a huge financial effect on football, particularly below the Premier League.
Indeed, there have even been a few tabloid claims over the weekend that this has made it harder for Football Ventures to keep up with payments to the Davies family, claims that the club have privately played down.
But they will have been handed a boost from Manchester United. Bolton will not have to pay any outstanding loan fees owed by Ethan Hamilton, who joined the club on a temporary basis in January. In a rare bout of altruism from one of the elite clubs, United made the gesture, as they felt it was unfair to force more pressure onto clubs who would feel the financial effects of the pandemic more than them.
This seems something they’ve instigated rather than us, as they’ve done the same to goalkeepers Joel Pereira and Kieran O’Hara, who were at Hearts and Burton respectively.
We all like to hate Man Utd, but in this case, it’s a nice gesture from them which will have little to no effect on their finances, indeed the combined fees for all three players amount to around £130,000. If the lower levels of English football are going to be able to mitigate the effect of all this, it will need a solution where the Premier League do their bit as well.