THE chairman of a Blackburn grassroots football club say they are waiting until county FA bosses and leagues decide about the future of their return to action.

Bill Maynard, who has been involved with Mill Hill FC for 10 years, hopes that the latest announcement by the Prime Minister about his four-point plan to come out of lockdown is a 'step towards normality'.

He said: "Before any club gets involved with playing again, we are going to be talking about April and then we are waiting for what the respective leagues and the Lancashire FA have to say about getting back.

"The situations we are in is unprecedented and last year when lockdown first came we were looking to get through the winter and summer but it has now been 18 months where grassroots football been affected.

"The health and well-being of our young people is important as well as allowing them to exercise.

"We want to get them all together again and back involved but this will hopefully be a chance to get them back to some sort of normality.

"The pandemic has had a massive hit on the finances of clubs around the country. Some clubs make money from tournaments during the summer but we will have wait for what the Lancashire FA have to say.

"This is more positive news for clubs and at least we have a vaccination now as last time we did not know how it would work out. We are probably going to have to live with the virus being about."

The Prime Minister's plan to start outdoor sports and recreation from March 28 but Mr Maynard says it will affect the calendar of grassroots teams.

He said: "It is going to be hard for all of the clubs to carry out maintenance of pitches which would take place in early May to get them ready for friendlies in July.

"We are going to need eight to 12 weeks to carry out pitch maintenance."