Matt Maher: Future remains uncertain for lower leagues

But further down the sport’s pyramid there is no time for celebration. Whereas their counterparts in the top two divisions now have a plan and clear guidelines for how football can work without the presence of supporters, elsewhere uncertainty remains the only certainty.

Leagues One and Two both curtailed their seasons (play-offs aside) last week, but while the process was lengthy and frequently criticised, in many respects it was the easy part.

The difficulty now is developing a plan for next season at a time when it is still impossible to accurately predict how the national health situation will look months from now.

Clubs are working to an estimated start date of September. But whether supporters will be allowed to return to grounds by then, even in significantly-reduced numbers, no-one can say for sure.

Without fans, many might see little point in restarting, yet the economic pressure is considerable.

“I think clubs will go like dominoes,” Blackpool chairman Simon Sadler warned this week. “Once one goes many will start to go. The money in League One and League Two isn’t there to support football without fans.”

Some might have found encouragement in the words of Villa chief executive Christian Purslow, who this week reiterated his belief the Premier League is duty-bound to assist the rest of the game.

Purslow described the top flight’s return as ‘important for the whole of English football’ before, adding: “Football in England has suffered very significant losses, particularly in the pyramid below the Premier League.

“If the Premier League fuels English football we need the Premier League to protect its revenues because that is at the centre of the football ecosystem that, while very rich at the top, is struggling hugely below.”

The hope will be Purslow’s sentiment is shared by other Premier League executives. Top-flight clubs have already advanced parachute and solidarity payments for the end of the season but for many clubs in the EFL that will only have delayed the problem, hence Rick Parry’s warning of a £200m collective black hole by September.

While clubs will have done what they can to ease their own situations, the chances of the EFL plotting a way through the crisis alone was always unlikely. The Premier League’s assistance remains imperative.

The outlook in this region remains tough – but better than most. Shrewsbury Town and Walsall are among the best run clubs in the third and fourth tiers.

The Saddlers record a profit every year while Shrewsbury made more than £2million in the last financial year.

That latter figure, however, is the amount chief executive Brian Caldwell fears could now be lost before the end of 2020.

It is a hefty blow and while Shrewsbury might be well placed to absorb it, many other clubs are not.

For the Premier League and Championship, this week represents another step along the path to normality – a journey they are now taking with increasing confidence.

For Leagues One and Two, the route to a return later this year is still unsteady at best.