OMICRON this, Omicron that, it’s enough to test anyone’s resolve.

Covid-19 is back with a vengeance this winter, with Bradford City’s festive programme decimated by the virus, and Liverpool and Leeds’ televised Boxing Day clash postponed due to positive cases within Marcelo Bielsa’s squad.

But while it is not ideal for the Reds to lose out on the extra revenue that a full Anfield brings at Christmas, they are one of the biggest clubs in the world, so any financial hit from this call off is likely to be no more than a drop in the ocean.

But some of Bradford’s top teams will probably be looking nervously over their shoulders at what the next few weeks, even months, could bring.

While the Premier League was able to carry on after a three-month shutdown between March and June 2020, the effects of the pandemic on non-league football and amateur rugby union were almost ruinous.

Seasons being declared null and void cost the likes of Liversedge an almost certain promotion, and the prospect of playing without fans was not even entertained by most, with that pretty much the only source of revenue on matchday.

But even when supporters were allowed to pay to enter, clubhouses were often closed, at reduced capacity, or offering table service only, costing our sides vital money in the coffers, at a time when they were really having to count every penny.

It was one of the most depressing sights of the pandemic, when clubs even as high up the pyramid as Guiseley were forced to beg their fans for help by crowdfunding, having realistically being left with no other choice.

And as I mentioned above, it caused great controversy on the pitch too. Liversedge were second in the 2019/20 NCEL Premier Division when everything stopped, two points off the top with two games in hand.

When the season was voided in March 2020, boss Jonathan Rimmington blasted: “We’d have won it (the league) I think with the way we were playing.

“The players were pretty p***ed off on Thursday night when they heard the news, because they’ve put in seven months of hard work to get where they are.

“They’ll be ready to go again next year but our backer’s not happy.

“He might join forces with other clubs in trying to take action against the FA.

“Clubs have already paid all their money out on the season (deals, prizes, sponsorship etc) so it’s a bit of a joke really.

“Sometimes you wonder whether the FA have much knowledge of non-league because a little club like us has now got a backer but he could end up walking away after this decision.

“That could be the demise of our club because unless you’ve got hundreds of fans coming down to home games (it’s hard to sustain everything).”

Fortunately, Sedge did secure promotion a year later and those alarming prophecies from Rimmington did not come to pass, but they were the genuine fears of clubs at the time.

The pandemic also caused issues and confusion between the authorities and their clubs.

The National League North and South began last season without fans, with members believing that Government grants would be available to them until games stopped being behind closed doors.

But when only loans were on offer after December, many clubs, including Avenue, called fixtures off, saying the could not continue financially given the lack of security a loan offered.

The National League’s response was to hand Avenue a £2,000 per game fine for each of the three they missed, much to the fury of their disbelieving director of football Martin Knight.

After that decision in March, he fumed: “It is unbelievable and an absolute disgrace.

“They lied to us last October and put our club in financial jeopardy. Their solution is to fine us. That is now a player less we can afford next year.

“They should have said, ‘the league has been abandoned, no harm, no foul’. To then sit down and say they want to fine us £2,000 for each game, it’s a joke.

“Predicated on a lie from the National League, we started the season. When that lie came to fruition, we couldn’t afford to continue so we stopped playing.”

Teams at this level simply cannot afford to lose fans again, and given the amount of money that some clubs put in, they cannot contemplate the prospect of promotion being taken away.

As discussed in a previous column, rugby union was arguably the sport which suffered the most over the pandemic, with the amateur game on hiatus for 18 months.

Aside from the obvious financial implications of that, players simply walked away from the game, either finding other hobbies, or as Bradford & Bingley head coach Hugh Gumbs suggested last week, deciding that families and careers were the priority.

Head coaches, chairmen and directors will all be hoping that union’s traditional Christmas break has come at the perfect time, and that the sport can continue as normal, with all the players and fans present, on January 8.

Nobody quite knows what the next few weeks or months will bring, and beyond the odd Covid postponement, hopefully very little in the way of drama.

But if there is anything along the lines of a lockdown, or fan restrictions, please let’s not repeat the mistakes of last time.