“Personally I can see it setting the club up for the next decade” Spurs match a huge financial boost for Marine

Tottenham has helped Marine to set themselves up financially for years to come, reckons their striker Niall Cummins.

The Lilywhites beat their lower-tier opponents 5-0 yesterday in the FA Cup. Even though they didn’t win the game, the match handed them a huge financial windfall.

The coronavirus pandemic meant that they wouldn’t have their fans in the stands when they faced Spurs, but they had devised a means to take advantage of the situation.

The Liverpool-based side sold virtual tickets for the game, and Tottenham played their part in helping them sell about 30,000 of the tickets at £10 each.

Because of the pandemic, the FA had announced that it was going to reduce the prize money for the different stages of the competition.

That was a blow to Marine’s financial hopes, so the success of the virtual tickets had been immense and Cummins says they will reap the benefits for years to come.

He told Monday’s talkSPORT Breakfast: “Personally I can see it setting the club up for the next decade… probably even two decades.

“When the FA Cup announced it was going to reduce all prize money, it hit Marine quite hard; £15,000, £20,000 if not more around, the money was less.

“When we were told we only had 500 tickets, and that’s basically £5,000 the club could have.

“So the virtual tickets basically saved the club. We woke up on Sunday and we sold £12,500 tickets and suddenly social media took off.

“That is a real saviour for someone like Marine, who is very well run by the board.

“So it’ll be spent very wisely and that club will have an infrastructure for years and years to come now.”