FC will play a friendly against Football League newcomers Barrow on Saturday and another against fan-owned City of Liverpool a week later, but what could be a financial shot in the arm to save small clubs brings more problems than solutions.

FC are allowed 300 socially-distanced fans in their home ground against Barrow, a number which will increase to 600 if Saturday is successful.

“We have 800 season ticket holders and we’re aiming to sell 1,100,” explained chairman Adrian Seddon. “But the way the figures have been worked out isn’t fair or about safety. We’ll be allowed 30 per cent of the capacity not of our own home, but of the smallest allowable in the league. We’ll only be allowed 600 into a ground that holds 4,700.”

Financially, things are tight. The season ticket money funds the playing budget and FC’s part-time players earn between £100 and £300 per week, with almost all of them only paid when they play.

Players will be paid, but the new rules, introduced overnight with little notice to clubs, have absurd twists. Bury AFC, the phoenix club which is likely to be well supported by fans of Bury FC who ceased playing football last year after over 100 years, will play games at non-league Radcliffe after starting again at level 10. Despite using the same stadium with the same stewards and bar staff, Radcliffe will be allowed crowds of 600 as they play in a higher league, while the likely to be better supported Bury are allowed just 300.

“It’s this or nothing, take it or leave it approach which irks,” Seddon said. “They (the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) are not bothered about individual circumstances. We did a full Covid risk assessment and our safety advisory group was happy with it. But football is treated differently to other areas of the leisure industry. The capacity of pubs and restaurants, for example, is linked to their size.”

So FC can let 300 fans in, but games are now allowed to be streamed for the first time.

“We’ll let volunteers in for free on Saturday,” Seddon said. “We’ll have no facilities ready as the ground has been mothballed for five months. This will be our test event.”

Those volunteers turned part of their ground into a food hub for the local north Manchester community during lockdown. Food, including crisps and chocolate, which should have been sold by Manchester City at games but was approaching its sell-by date, was regularly delivered to 200 neighbours.

Fans want to return across Manchester, fellow non-league side Trafford sold out their friendly on Saturday in just five hours after selling tickets online for the first time.

Their clubs need them. It’s hard for clubs without the Premier League’s TV millions, who rely on the money from match-going fans to survive. The National League (England’s fifth and sixth division) will ask the government to let a limited number of fans in. And why not if they socially distance?

“Even in normal times, a lot of clubs lived on the edge, financially,” Seddon said. “[The furlough scheme] (where the UK government paid 80 per cent of businesses wages) mothballed clubs, but that ends in a month. Clubs will then have all the expenses but no revenue.”

Football has survived as a screen sport throughout lockdowns but it has no soul without the fans who fill its stadiums.