It's going to be a bumpy ride but we WILL get through this

SURE ON SURVIVAL POTTERS CHAIRMAN

- DAVE ARMITAGE

PETER COATES laughs out loud at the suggestion he could be told to stay in isolation for a few months.

Stoke’s 82-year-old owner is a billionaire, but that’s not what tickles his funny bone about the prospect of being plunged into solitude while the world tries to tackle coronavirus.

The thought of daughter Denise – the world’s best-paid woman – sliding pizza slices under his door isn’t lost on a man born into abject poverty.

Coates admits he hasn’t many answers as to the way forward for football, business or the world in general – but you can’t help but be cheered by his observation that we’ll all get over it.

The youngest of 14, born at the start of World War Two, Coates can recall the days of his financial difficulties as a child.

Not being able to get hold of hand gel or a shortage of toilet rolls certainly doesn’t faze the man who also happens to be chairman and co-founder of Bet365 – the world’s largest online gambling company.

The sporting blackout has wide-reaching consequences to all manner of people but Coates is adamant that football will emerge intact.