Marine will FURLOUGH their players on Monday if they do not beat Jose Mourinho's Tottenham on Sunday

Non-league side Marine will furlough their players if they do not end up beating Tottenham Hotspur in their mouth-watering FA Cup third round tie on Sunday.

The eighth-tier club will face Jose Mourinho's Premier League outfit at home this weekend - though the game will be played behind closed doors due to the latest coronavirus lockdown.

Despite their success in the cup, Marine have played just seven times in the league this season as their Northern Premier League Division One North West division does not fall under the 'elite sport' category that is allowed to continue.

This means Sunday's third-round clash with Spurs is likely to be Marine's last match for some time and the club's chief executive James Leary revealed a lot is riding in their David versus Goliath clash on Sunday.

Leary told The Athletic's Business of Sport podcast: 'On Monday, they'll be furloughed, assuming we don't win.

'Hopefully there'll be one last leg, maybe, but as it stands now, the players are going to get furloughed from Monday onwards.'

The Mariners are already facing serious problems ahead of the Spurs game surrounding their playing staff as clubs are unwilling to loan players to the Merseysiders due to the suspension of their league.

Leary added: 'We've had major difficulties with players for the Tottenham game.

'The problem we had was the teams that we had loaned (players) from, were saying "hang on a second, that means that when your game's finished against Tottenham, you're going to have three weeks where our players won't be able to play for us as a result".'

Marine were told in late December - while Merseyside was still in Tier 2 - that they were allowed to welcome 500 supporters into the ground.

But the national lockdown has now stopped the club's chances of generating income via the turnstiles of their 3,000-capacity ground on Sunday.

When talking about the finances of the season, Leary said: 'Being behind closed doors in the FA Cup run we've missed out on £100,000.

'Our wage budget was probably between the £100,000-130,000 mark to start the season — we've probably just shy of doubled that.'

While the club have been given a £75,000 TV fee with the match broadcasted live on BBC One this weekend, Marine have been holding some fundraising activities during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Merseyside club have held a raffle to raise money lost from their big day with Spurs. Tickets are £10 with one winner getting the chance to manage the club in a pre-season friendly next season.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who lives less than a mile away from the Mariners' stadium, has sponsored the club's dugouts and pre-match warm-up tops through his charity, the JC23 Foundation.

The FA will also cover the costs of Marine's coronavirus tests before the match along with those for the other third-round teams this weekend.