Tony admitted the pause will cost the Millers, but stressed that the club have resources to be alright. But the chairman is frustrated at the lack of answers going forard.
“The general population look for the government for direction. We have a body called the EFL and it is up to them to come to us and say: ‘we understand the problems, we are working them out', “We do need answers and we need them quick." he said.
“We heard weeks ago where the Premier League said: ‘we will donate £125m to the EFL and National League.’ But what has happened? They have had meeting after meeting.
“What I would like, and I am sure that a lot of chairmen from League One and League Two would agree with me, is for the EFL to give us direction to say: ‘this is what we are going to do, this is the answer and antidote.’ And we move forward. I know it is not an easy situation. But it is a problem and has to be solved by the EFL. That is their role and they are in charge."
“Because if that is not going to happen, we are going to have anarchy with all the chairmen of League One and League Two clubs doing different things. We do need that direction from the EFL."
“It is the debt which is the problem (for clubs). The alarm bells are ringing as the income is being stemmed and we don’t know how long for. We cannot sell season tickets as you don’t know what sort of season you have got (in 2019-20). We don’t know if we are going to play behind closed doors or whatever.
“Everything is not simple. But the simplest thing is if we do nothing, then the debt will increase month on month and payments will stagger and football clubs will have to go into administration.” he added.
“There has been talk about getting captains together. What they ought to do is get the chairmen together, not the captains. At the end of the day, if any club cannot reduce its bills, it will not meet the debt of payment because the income has been stemmed. If the overheads and costs of running a club cannot be reduced, then the companies –football clubs – will go bust."
“You work out what the income is and we have done cash flows to the end of June and there’s things like loss of crowds and hospitality – a big thing at Rotherham as we can get something like 700 in seating.
“You also take into account sponsorship and a lack of selling season tickets and that means we will have a shortfall of £550,000 by the end of June. I can paint a picture – not just for Rotherham but different teams – that there is a sudden loss in cash flow.
“I had said we will be short in cash-flow terms of £550,000 by the end of June. If games are played behind closed doors up to Christmas, you have got to be talking about a million pounds."
“We have always kept ourselves financially fit, so that if a rainy day comes along, I think we can weather the storm. I do think it is not about weathering the storm, but looking at the storm and seeing what it has brought about and coming in with some form of answers to the problems bestowed on football clubs.”