"We feel like our own mental health has been disregarded at every turn and this has manifested itself ... with tangible and often debilitating symptoms of mental illness."
Thursday 11 June 2020 22:33, UK
Macclesfield Town players and staff say they have suffered mental health issues as a result of the crisis at the League Two club this season.
At the end of a tumultuous campaign that has already seen them deducted 11 points for non-payment of wages and failure to fulfil fixtures, the Cheshire club could still be docked further points and relegated from the EFL without the chance to compete for their safety on the pitch.
The players and staff have described the heavy psychological toll it has taken for their fate to be decided off the pitch this term, compounded by the EFL's decision to curtail League Two on a points-per-game (PPG) basis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
They say their mental health has been "disregarded" and they are calling for their voices to be heard ahead of their latest EFL disciplinary charges being determined on Friday.
"Although we have to respect the outcome of the recent EFL vote regarding how points per game should be calculated, this further exemplified the fact that our ultimate fate will be determined far away from the field of play," they said in a statement on Thursday night, which did not appear on Macclesfield Town's website or any official channels.
"This is despite the fact that we won more than double the amount of games as our closest rivals and amassed fourteen more points than them on the field of play.
"In our opinion, this compromises the premise of sporting integrity and further penalises those who are the true victims of this heart-wrenching tale most - the players, the staff and our wonderfully loyal fans.
"We feel like our own mental health has been disregarded at every turn and this has manifested itself in respect of the fact that many of our players and staff have had to battle and continue to battle, with tangible and often debilitating symptoms of mental illness.
"Fundamentally, the triggering of our mental wellbeing struggles has been down to the way we have been treated by the club in general - there is no getting away from that. Nobody is saying that as a club we haven't made mistakes over the past 12 months, clearly we have and monumental ones at that.
"Yet it is also accurate to state that this has been compounded by the actions of others, who are seemingly doing everything that they possibly can to remove us from the League.
"After all we have been through and continue to go through, all we ask now is that sporting integrity is upheld and the previously forgotten voices of all those who have suffered so acutely and in ways which we will never adequately be able to articulate, are finally heard."
Sky Sports News have contacted Macclesfield owner Amar Alkadhi for a response to the claims made by the club's players and staff.
