MARK Harris says adding an extra week to the season will not cost clubs money.

The Evo-Stik Northern Premier League chairman told the Guardian that a decision to extend the campaign by seven days, announced earlier this week, had been made carefully.

“I just don’t buy the argument that says a club will be out of pocket,” he said.

“That would be the case if it had a high number of its players on contracts. The reality is that doesn’t apply to the vast majority of our members.

“We’ve made this choice reluctantly based on what’s happening now, not what may or may not have gone on during previous seasons.”

He said that there were still 300 games of the season to play, across the competition’s three divisions, after last weekend’s programme was almost entirely wiped out by the weather.

That figure accounts for around a fifth of all matches.

The last round of fixtures will now take place on Saturday, May 4, with the play-offs semi finals scheduled for the following Tuesday.

All three promotion finals are pencilled in for Friday, May 10, kick off 7.45pm.

Harris said: “The league’s board reached its verdict after last Saturday’s matches were called off.

“It was important to take a long-term view, particularly with the prospect of so few matches taking place in midweek too.”

He said an announcement by AFC Fylde, posted on the Premier Division club’s website last weekend, that it planned to petition for extra time to play its remaining matches had not influenced the league’s decision.

Harris said: “When the board members discussed the issue on Sunday, they did so having received nothing from Fylde.

“The situation would have been reviewed in any case, just as it has been every week.

“It’s a case of being damned if we did act, damned also if we didn’t.

“At the end of the day, this is not a precise science.”

To read the league's statement on extending the season, click here: http://bit.ly/X1T58N