IT has been a crazy last seven days for Guiseley and their Vanarama National League North rivals.

Last Wednesday, the National League pitched three options to its clubs as to how the £11 million of the Government’s Winter Survival Package would be dished out.

Either clubs take on long-term low-interest loans with initial payment holidays, or the league takes on the loan and gives clubs grants, with future league central payments to clubs then reduced.

The final option was to simply suspend the season, something that was forced through on Friday after 12 clubs, including Guiseley, wrote a joint letter the night before.

Clubs' biggest issue were their inability to pay back loans with gate receipts, a huge part of their incomes, still missing.

The clubs believe they started the season on the premise grants, like the £10 million payment by the National Lottery to cover October-December, would enable them to financially play until May.

“It won’t resume without any grants,” insisted Guiseley chairman Gary Douglas.

"When we decided to start the season there was never any mention of loans, it was always grants. We are happy to complete the season if there is grants, if not we will call it a day and write it off.

“To continue the league until the end of the season would cost them about £10 million, if everyone goes on furlough it costs them £14 million. If they do the maths it is cheaper for them to give us the grants.

“My feeling is the National League will continue by taking the loans out and the North/South will be scrapped this season.”

The Lions are in a precarious position if they do get going again, sitting 20th only a point off the drop zone. Douglas is not worried one bit though.

On the reasons for the poor start, he added: "Covid, injuries, suspensions and the budget we started the season with was not strong so we had to recruit what we could.

“We have been playing a lot of youngsters. I am really happy with the management for giving them a real go. We don’t want to go out and spend money on has-beens, we want hungry young lads.

“The crazy thing is we have got everyone back to full fitness and now the season looks like it is going to end.

“I am pretty confident if we do resume that we will finish mid-high in the table. Maybe around tenth or twelfth. If we win three games in a row we are in the playoffs, it is such a tight league. “

Amazingly, the club have raised, at time of writing, £6337 to cover the costs of hosting games behind closed doors.

Unlike, most teams, who have tried to generate the money through chargeable streams, Guiseley decided to post their games live on YouTube for free, asking supporters to ‘pay what its worth’ whilst watching.

“Playing football without fans is dreadful," said Douglas. “If it got cancelled, I wouldn’t be that bothered because we can't have fans back, it is no fun.

“To say we haven’t charged a penny for our games, the fans donating that amount is much appreciated."