Hereford FC manager Josh Gowling has been interviewed by Ian Herbert for the Daily Mail.
Should Hereford lose their FA Trophy tie at Aldershot it will mean the season is over for the Bulls. And with no money coming in until next season the football budget will be tight.
'A lot of the other clubs felt that with no Covid testing and no grants forthcoming, they would not play fixtures,' he says.
'Teams were not turning up. Eventually clubs were emailed and told there would be sanctions — fines, or even expulsion from the league. There was also talk of giving points to clubs that missed out on those games.
'But can you fine clubs because they didn't want to continue because there is no funding? Clubs didn't know the repercussions of playing. We feel a bit misled, having been told there were grants for us to continue. It has meant that we, as divisions, have wasted £10m of charity money that could have gone into good causes like mental health.'
The article suggests that wages in the National League are between £350 and £1500 but says Hereford are nowhere near the top end of that scale' . However for Gowling's players their income from football is important.
'Lads sign up for something here and then it changes dramatically. That's probably hit the older ones harder. They have their families and are the providers. Football does have many transferrable skills but as an employer looking at a footballer, you ask them what they've done and they have no work experience. That's hard.
'At the end of the day I work for them, they don't work for me. Obviously I need to get results but I want to develop players and take them forward.
'I'm the first black manager at Hereford but they just see me as someone who is young, hungry and wants to be a manager.'
Because of Saturday's Trophy game players can not be furloughed.
'The club have got to find the money to pay the players for the time we're still in the Trophy. Hopefully that will be a few weeks yet.'