Hartlepool chairman Ken Hodcroft: Clubs should fold

Hartlepool United chairman Ken Hodcroft has said sentiment should not prevent clubs suffering from financial hardship from folding.

Hodcroft believes the Football League ought to step back from offering support for those clubs under threat from closure due to financial issues.

"It's time we made a stand," Hodcroft told BBC Late Kick Off.

"If a club is going to go out of business, you have to let it go. For some reason they seem against it."

Hodcroft added: "This just can't go on, the Football League have to say - if you fail you're out of the league.

"There is no points deduction, there is no rescue, you're gone.

"It works in business, it'll work in football I'll guarantee you."

Hodcroft runs Pools on a tight budget, although the company makes a loss of around £1m a year on the football club.

"We try to run this club like we run the oil companies," he added.

"In the oil business there is no sentiment, we have no budget, we do not run the football club like a football club.

"The manager is not told at the beginning of the season or at any day of the week that they have a budget to spend.

"If anybody here, a manager, is interested in a player they have to follow a procedure, which is the normal procedure in the oil business for buying a piece of equipment."