Rugby Football League chief executive officer Ralph Rimmer admits it is too soon to give a date as to when the rugby league season can resume following the coronavirus outbreak.

The campaign was suspended at all levels last week until April 3, with the RFL being one of the last sporting bodies in the country to postpone its fixtures in the wake of the pandemic.

It is highly probable that suspension will soon be extended and the RFL has been using the intervening period to come up with solutions as to how and when games can start to be played again, although they are remaining flexible on the latter.

Rimmer said: “We’ve come up with different scenarios build around different periods of lockdown, but it’s impossible for anyone to answer that question with confidence at the moment.

“April 3 was a marker for us to get a considerable amount of planning done, so we could collaborate with all of the rugby league community.

“It put a deadline on us to produce some high-quality planning, and allowed us to distribute material to our stakeholders to see how feel about it.

“Hopefully when we get to that date we will have mapped out a reasonable way forward.

“That’s why the date was put in the diary. I don’t think anybody realistically thought the competition was going to restart at that point.”

Barrow Raiders were involved in the discussions after they and the other Betfred Championship and League One clubs met with the RFL last Tuesday.

Amongst the range of possibilities, which also included the contingency plan of delaying the Coral Challenge Cup final at Wembley, was that of matches being played behind closed doors once the action resumes.

“It would be naive of us to knock anything off the table at this moment in time,” Rimmer said. “That may well be a solution.

“We’ve spoken regularly to Sky and BBC, so they would be involved in any decision such as that.

“But if we did go forward in a way such as that, then clearly the clubs involved would (lose gate receipts) which are an important part of their business model.

“Hence the request to our partners for support.”