Coronavirus: Declan Devine says Derry City would be nothing without its supporters

The FAI made the decision to suspend all League of Ireland games until at least March 29th in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus and Devine has welcomed the decision.

There had been suggestions that games could be played in front of empty stadiums for the foreseeable future, however, Devine doesn’t see the point in playing matches without the backing of supporters who are the “lifeblood” of the club, claiming it would have major financial ramifications for many League of Ireland clubs.

“Personally, I’m against playing games behind closed doors,” said Devine. “Now that’s my initial reaction, We’ve got to see where the next few weeks takes us but we’ve got to understand that football in Ireland is very much fan based, that’s the biggest revenue aspect.

“We’re fortunate that we have a very big sponsor in Paul Diamond (Diamond Corrugated) and other sponsors who help fund the club on a daily and weekly basis but the be all and end all is putting bums on seats.

“And if you’re going to play games with no atmosphere and nobody watching then, really, what is the point because you’re not getting anything apart from results. We said when we came in that we’ve got to build the club and make sure our support base is coming to games to back us and they have been. To take them out of the equation is like cutting off our right arm. We’re nothing without our support.

“I’m sure a lot of clubs in Ireland are in the same place. We need our support, we need our backing and playing in front of empty stadiums, for me, is a big no-no.

“Whatever chance we have of sustaining a professional football club, we’ve got to make sure those policies are put in place and a big part of that is making sure that the stadiums are full.

“For me it’s very much into the unknown, but I very much favour a couple of weeks break with the knowledge that we can potentially extend the season if needs be.”

During the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis, the League of Ireland stopped for a month but Devine expects the impact of the coronavirus to be much worse.

“It was suspended for a few weeks due to the foot and mouth disease but that was something which was very easily controlled through using mats and people were cleaning their feet and you were going through checkpoints. It was easily contained and there was a plan in place.

“This is a different level. You don’t even know if you have the disease for a number of days so the scary aspect is that nobody knows.

“Of course we’re heeding the warnings from those who are passing it down to us but ultimately nobody knows the extent of this and it can affect anybody. It could affect nobody but I think the right decision has been made in terms of suspending everything at this moment in time.

“The big thing for us is making sure we stay healthy and stay fit but we also have to be ready for when football comes back.

“Hopefully the coronavirus can be contained and they can come up with a solution to this. Where we’re at at this moment in time, we can’t look forward. We’ve got to take guidance off everyone and we can’t really plan as such.”

For Derry there is the added concern of potentially having their training base, the council-owned Brandywell Stadium, closed in line with government measures.

“We have got to get clarification to understand where we go from here,” continued Devine. “That’s in terms of where we are going to train, do we continue to prepare for games coming in the next week or two? At this moment in time we don’t know when that is.”