Millwall chief executive assesses club’s financial position amid football postponement

Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh has said the club’s ‘been hit hard’, after all football in England was postponed until April.

Both Premier League and Football League fixtures were postponed until April 3rd this week, due to recent global events. It’s left a lot of teams facing a lot of uncertainty in the coming weeks, with many clubs in the EFL fearing for their future.

With football being postponed, it’s left many teams without a reliable source of income for the foreseeable future and with player and staff contracts still to pay, teams like Millwall find themselves in a very precarious position.

Speaking to News At Den about the financial hit that Millwall have so far taken, Kavanagh said:

“We’re like all other businesses, we’ve been hit hard, but our income stream just stopped overnight. The hardest thing is cash flows. We’ve got a strong owner and most fans have been decent and fair with us.

“Obviously people are asking for refunds for Derby. We will do those but at the moment the advice is to work from home so I haven’t got a finance department.”

The outbreak of coronavirus has caused a lot of global uncertainty and no industry seems to have been effected as much as the sporting one – in football, all of Europe’s top leagues have been postponed, as well as the postponement of Euro 2020 until 2021.

“We’re talking to the EFL because like other clubs we’re all in the same boat and we’re all faced with a scenario in which all our businesses have been shut down around us,” said Kavanagh.

“John’s in the States, I’m talking to him daily, I just had an hour with him [Tuesday afternoon]. He’s in good spirits, he’s obviously frustrated and like everyone else he’s mindful of the worldwide situation. He also wants us to be in a position to get going again as soon as we can.”

Can you get 15 out of 5 on this Millwall quiz? Have a go now!

1 of 15

Is Marvin Elliot still playing?

Yes No

The verdict

These are tough times for everyone, but the football industry could suffer hugely in the coming weeks. There’s a lot of teams facing uncertainty, and only time will tell what’ll come of them.