Time to be thankful for Doncaster Rovers taking the sensible option: Liam Hoden column

Modern football is not built on the sensible.

Instead it’s constructed on a foundation of clubs spending money they don’t have, splashing cash before it has been earned - or ever will be.

It is gambling the future of century-old institutions in a chase for glory where the odds are rarely in their favour. Or risking everything based on the whims or misguided intentions of rich owners who may lose interest overnight.

It shouldn’t be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way.

I have long looked at Doncaster Rovers as the very example of how football clubs should operate.

Sure, anyone following suit would have to stomach accusations of a lack of ambition or raging conspiracy theories as to why money is not being spent.

But it is at times like these when the true value of living within means and striving for self-sustainability comes to the fore.

Over the next few months we are going to see clubs tested financially in a manner which the likes have never been seen.

The coronavirus pandemic has decimated income in a matter of days.

And with the point of the resumption of competition being pushed further and further back, cash streams are hardly likely to flow again any time soon.

It is a dire situation that is going to make plenty of owners and chief executives examine the manner in which they have run their clubs very closely.

And it is fair to say that there will be more than a few regrets.

Undoubtedly, Rovers will be affected. There are no greater single surges of income than matchdays.

But, through careful consideration and real foresight, the club is on more solid ground than most having diversified with great success, particularly since taking over the lease for the Keepmoat.

Be thankful for the DNA Card, the leasing of car park spaces, the building of artificial pitches for rental. These things are helping to keep your club going.

Rovers are on solid ground through good business sense - which football as a whole is hardly blessed with.

Long live sensible. Long live football.