BEDALE AFC have announced their Covid-19 plans to enable the season to start with friendly games immediately and league games early in September at the Heck Stadium.

The club received a £,2700 grant from the Sport England Community Emergency Fund and £500 from the Football Foundation to help with re-starting the game.

A donation of £1,000 has been made to Prostate Cancer from historicfootballshirts from the sale of Bedale kit.

The club said that following the original sausage kit, the hot dog kit and the bangers and mash kit, which was banned by the Football Association, it was felt the time had come to call an end to the fun replica football kits but, such has been the demand from people around the world, the new kit, due to be launched early September, is currently in production and it is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows.

In order to get football going again, the FA has produced a 61-page brochure supported by 29 supporting documents which all clubs have to abide by. First team manager Dave Goodwin said: “It was a time consuming and laborious job to condense the FA guidelines into more bitesize regulations for our club and I was so grateful to Chris Lees of Covid-19 Response For Key Service Providers for his advice and support. We now have risk assessments and guidelines which we consider to be as thorough as they could possibly be, and we are all looking forward to the season re-starting.’

Chairman Martyn Coombs said: “We have spent the bulk of our Football Foundation grant on a Covid bag for both teams comprising latex gloves, face masks, temperature guns, sterilised wipes and antibacterial spray, as well as sanitiser dispensers all around the facility.”

The traditional sporting handshake before the game has been abandoned but the club is trying out a system which will see all players have their hands sanitised prior to kick off.