NON-LEAGUE football fans hoping to get their fix of action this autumn have been told: Don’t hold your breath...

The chairmen of Badshot Lea and Farnham Town are united in their belief that Combined Counties League action will not be resuming any time soon.

Mark Broad of Badshot Lea feels there is so much work to be done that he believes the lull in action could last until October.

And Paul Tanner of Farnham says it could even be 2021 before things start getting back to normal.

Broad has overseen huge improvements at the club, who have moved into a new ground and established themselves as a Premier Division side.

He said: “Clubs have been talking to the FA and one encouraging aspect has been that Steps 3 to 7 look as if they will be treated the same, which is the right thing to do.

“One thing that does seem clear is that we will not restart football again until fans are allowed back. We will not be playing in empty grounds, as we have been seeing on TV in the professional game.

“Fans will have to be allowed to watch matches, to go to the bar and to buy food.

“But if the country suffered a second wave of Covid-19, who knows when that might be?

“At the moment some people are talking about a September restart, but no-one is saying if that’s the first of the month or the 30th.

“Personally, I wonder whether we will even get under way again by October. There’s so much to do.

“The Football Foundation is offering £500 grants to help clubs prepare, but we’ll need more than that. Just take something simple like handwashing. As we have a new ground, we installed air dryers in all the toilets. With the pandemic, we can’t use those – we need to install sanitisers and must have disposable paper towels.

“How will changing rooms work? How can we social distance?

“I read that Havant & Waterlooville, who are playing in the National League play-offs, had to spend £25,000 – they even had to smash down a wall to make their changing room big enough to be Covid safe.

“I can see next season being one step removed from a dead rubber. Yes, we’ll play league matches but I don’t think we would play cup competitions – no League Cup, no Aldershot Senior Cup, no Surrey Senior Cup.

“In my opinion, I’m not sure we’d play in the FA Vase or the FA Cup.

“But we are more fortunate than many clubs – we are financially stable . Our commercial guys have done brilliantly – even with Covid, we have more sponsorship now than we had last season. We have two new kits, we have shirt sponsors, sleeve sponsors, tracksuit sponsors, polo shirts – it’s fantastic.

“For the first time next season, all the sides will be playing in the same kit as the first team. We have 33 youth teams – we’re the biggest club in the area, and we’re applying for the ladies’ team to play in the ladies’ FA Cup.”

Tanner has overseen a similar revolution at Farnham, and next season he will personally run a new development side in the Suburban League.

But when they will see action is open for debate.

He said: “It’s right that we won’t start until we can have fans in the ground.

“We’re lucky – financially we are in a good position. We could play no football for the next 12 months and we’d be okay.

“But others aren’t so lucky. It costs about £350 to put a match on. If the season starts too late, you could be playing three matches in a week – that’s £1,000 or more to find. How many clubs could do that if there’s no money coming in?

“And how many clubs at our level could find enough players to play three times a week?

“It’s okay for the professional clubs on TV – but not for us.

“Our players have day jobs – and how many players are even fit enough to manage three games a week for any length of time?

“We can’t restart until we are confident everyone would be safe. When will that be? September? October? When we are sure the virus has gone for good? Next year?”