Blackpool owner Simon Sadler predicts clubs will go 'like dominoes' due to financial trouble caused by coronavirus

The Seasiders voted to end the season at last week’s League One meeting as an overwhelming majority of clubs backed plans to curtail the campaign and decide the season on an unweighted points-per-game basis.

And Sadler – who recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at Bloomfield Road – believes a long summer is on the cards for a host of clubs, with many likely to slip into financial trouble.

“I think clubs will go like dominoes. Once one goes many will start to go,” Sadler told The Guardian.

“The money in League One and League Two isn’t there to support football without fans. Matchday income is around 60 per cent of our revenues.

“Owners generally don’t have the deep pockets of those in the Premier League and Championship and many now are very likely to be having problems in their own businesses.”

Sadler believes the footballing authorities ought to intervene and supports the introduction of a salary cap.

“Football needs to change or else we’re going to lose it,” he added.

“Having seen how the community of Blackpool responded to getting its club back, I’m well placed to talk about it.

“I don’t want any more people to lose their clubs – they’re too important to the social fabric of the country.”

Sadler is sympathetic to those clubs, most of them pushing for promotion, who were keen to play on.

But, with Blackpool stuck in mid-table and unlikely to feature in the promotion or relegation picture, the Seasiders had to consider the huge cost involved in returning to action.

Sadler, who witnessed the strict measures in Hong Kong, also shared concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

“I’d love to watch football but I really didn’t want to play on. I think it made sense to finish the season with as few matches as possible,” he said.

“Among the other issues, I thought that having 91 teams going up and down motorways was not necessarily a smart thing to do.

“There are clearly still new cases in the UK, and lockdown is being eased fast.

“On the one hand that could be good for the town economically, but I’m really concerned about transmission of the virus increasing, really concerned about my parents, about how many lives could be lost because of people flocking to the town.”