Preston North End have defended the financial running of the Championship club as it was confirmed they had cut ties with their betting sponsor.
The Deepdale side have outlined their decision not to seek external funding support during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and that nothing would be done to "put the future of the club at risk".
Preston added that they had cut their ties with 32Red and would be announcing a new main shirt sponsor in the coming weeks.
The statement to fans comes after owner Trevor Hemmings invested another £1.65m into the club via a share issue
A statement on the club's website said: "When lockdown was first introduced in March 2020 no one knew how long it would last nor the huge affect that it would have on the country as a whole and of course the football industry.
"We have had little income since March of last year but have continued to pay our staff including all of our players and all of our bills including all debts to HMRC.
"Some people take this statement for granted and indeed expect our owner to do so despite the fact that his other businesses many in the hotel, pubs and leisure sector have been badly affected during the pandemic.
"The fact that the EFL have had to take on external debt to assist the majority of Championship clubs in paying part of their tax debts is an indication of the financial catastrophe that is awaiting some of these clubs.
Most Read
"We didn’t take up this loan in keeping our business going and remain one of just a few Championship clubs with no external debt (other than normal day to day trading creditors).
"We make no excuses for continuing to run the club within the financial parameters that the owner sets us and will not put the future of the club at risk."
On the change of sponsor, the club added: "Finding good sponsors that work with us and also pay competitive monies is difficult.
Don't miss a thing - sign up for your free North West newsletter - and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
For all the latest stories, views, polls and more - and the news as it breaks - .
"Some years ago many football clubs were sponsored by alcohol companies and then that sector was prohibited.
"This gap was taken up by betting companies. Indeed if you take away front of shirt sponsors who are directly connected to their clubs owners, by far the greatest balance of front of shirt sponsors in the top two divisions are betting companies.
"We have been grateful for the income received from the betting sector and for the last four years from 32Red.
Don’t miss
"We do however recognise that many of our supporters have grave misgivings in such relationships and of course it means that replica shirts for our supporters aged under 18 cannot be the same as the ones being worn by our first team squad.
"In thanking 32Red and all other sponsors in recent years, I am able to confirm that we will be announcing in the coming weeks a new front of shirt sponsorship deal with a local non betting partner that we are absolutely delighted with and we believe that our supporters will be too.
"This will give us plenty of time to get the new logos onto the 2021/22 kit in time for launch in July."