Flowers: "I'm out of contract and teams aren't in a position to offer contracts, and it looks at this moment in time as though it could be a long spell without football."
Monday 4 May 2020 09:03, UK
A 23-year-old defender on loan at Northern Ireland Premier League side Larne FC might be the first of hundreds of players whose contract situation could leave them with no job or income.
Harry Flower's loan deal expired on May 2 and, with the game in Northern Ireland suspended and Larne FC furloughing their staff like the majority of other clubs, he has had to head home to England and an uncertain future after his contract with parent club Solihull Moors of the National League also came to an end.
"It's worrying," he admits. "I probably count myself quite lucky that I haven't got a family to put food on the table for, because I imagine that if you have then it's tough, you're in a position where you're not just thinking about yourself, you've got to think about everyone else around you.
"But I can imagine there'll be a lot of players in this position in the next couple of months and that'll be in a lot worse off position that me."
And that's the situation that is starting to worry a large number of players in the lower leagues, whose contracts are scheduled to come to an end on June 30th with no advice yet on what will happen to them and, of course, when football might return.
Harry's first port of call was to the Professional Footballers Association when he realised he would be without a club for the first time in his career, and he believes the Union is bracing itself for a tide of similar cases.
"That was one of my first things, obviously, speak to the PFA and just see what they said about the whole situation," he says. "And the person that I spoke to did mention that I wasn't the first person to call and I probably won't be the last.
"Obviously there's nothing in place, the government haven't put anything in place for lads out of contract in terms of football.
"It's going to be tough for everyone, there's going to be a big pool of players who are out of contract, clubs are going to want to cut costs and budgets are obviously going to be smaller next season, there's no doubt about that.
"So there's going to be a lot of people in this situation, and it'll be interesting to see how people go about it in terms of when leagues start again."
The defender, who started his career at Burnley, was enjoying his time in Northern Ireland and made 28 appearances for a Larne FC side, managed by Tiernan Lynch, who found themselves just three points off third spot in the table following a six-game winning run that included victories over Linfield and Glentoran for the first time in 34 years.
Harry became something of a fans' favourite at Inver Park but hasn't kicked a ball since the start of March and is resigned to playing the waiting game while the authorities at all levels try to work out when football will return and what it will look like.
"I'm out of contract and teams aren't in a position to offer contracts, and it looks at this moment in time as though it could be a long spell without football," he said.
"There's talk about January and things like that, but that could mean you've got six months where you haven't got an income and it's a long time without a job.
"Teams are worried about when the league is going to start, when they're going to be able to get fans in stadiums and things like that, but when you're at the level of the National League and League Two, to a certain degree, I just don't think that football is viable without people paying to get into the stadiums."
Flowers is determined to find himself a new club at some stage but in the meantime he'll be doing what most of his colleagues in the game are doing, working on his fitness in isolation.
While it's a lonely road right now come the end of June there may be many more players going through exactly what he's going through with no one able to provide any answers or solutions for a contract issue that threatens to pose another major challenge to the football authorities.
