• Club remain committed to finishing current season
• Pro-rata rebates an option if games played without fans

Manchester United remain committed to finishing the current season, but have informed fans they can expect a pro-rata rebate or refund if matches are played behind closed doors or cancelled.

The coronavirus suspension appears certain to be extended beyond the end of April and talk continues to rumble on about how best to conclude this season.

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The 1914-15 season, which was played out to the backdrop of a world war, is one of the most controversial in history

By Richard Foster for the Guardian Sport Network

These are unprecedented times, but the Football League also had to face the prospect of postponing or cancelling the season when war was declared on 4 August 1914. The league’s management committee met a few days later and concluded that it was business as usual, with one caveat: a number of grounds would be used for mobilisation purposes. White Hart Lane was requisitioned as a site for manufacturing protection equipment, such as gas marks, so Tottenham had to play their home matches at Highbury.

Many people believed the war would not last for longer than a few months. So, on 1 September, the Division One season kicked off with two fixtures. Manchester City beat Bradford City 4-1 in front of 9,000 fans at their Hyde Road ground while a crowd of 12,000 saw The Wednesday (they did not become Sheffield Wednesday until 1929) overcome Middlesbrough 3-1 at Hillsborough. On the same day, there were Division Two games at Arsenal, Clapton Orient and Grimsby.

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Back in the 1980s the FA Cup final was a huge event but me, aged 15, and my friend somehow managed to get tickets to this replay

It is hard for anyone much under 40 to grasp how important the FA Cup final used to be, how simultaneously desirable going to the Wembley showpiece was to an English football fanatic growing up in the 1970s and 80s. One of only two matches you knew would be televised live (along with England v Scotland), it overshadowed league football in a way unthinkable today.

In 1983, aged 15, I travelled to watch the 1983 final at the home of a Manchester United-supporting friend who lived at the far end of the London Underground line that runs through Wembley. Neither my friend Simon nor I settled down to watch United play Brighton with any thought of what might happen next.

Camera was pointing in another direction when Kamarl Nelson, 19, was allegedly attacked

An alleged racist assault against a teenage Manchester United worker by security staff outside Old Trafford was not captured by CCTV as the cameras were pointing in the wrong direction, his family have been told.

Kamarl Nelson, 19, was allegedly slammed against a wall and put in a choke hold in what is said to have been a racially aggravated incident involving the club’s security guards before a Europa League match last month.

• Clubs in joint initiative to fight against coronavirus
• ‘We are pleased to come together with our fans’
• Coronavirus – latest updates | All our coronavirus coverage

Manchester United and Manchester City have donated a combined £100,000 to local food banks in a joint initiative between the clubs to fight the threat of coronavirus to those most vulnerable.

The move comes after Fans Supporting Foodbanks told the Guardian on Thursday it was launching a fund with MUFC Foodbanks to help the 19 in the area.

Related: Premier League clubs urged to help food banks during coronavirus crisis