Could they void the PL due to the Coronavirus? | No | Resuming June 17th

FootballHQ said:
I must admit I didn't watch the speech (I have been watching majority of the 5pm pressers) but given all the off the record briefings to press over last 4-5 days the plan is clearly to start to slow getting going again from mid May.

I can only give the opinion that before the next review on 7th May they're getting pretty spooked by stuff like car usage going up to nearly 50% again and generally seems more people are out and about so they've used Johnson coming back to ram home the message for people to stay disciplined for next 10 days and then slowly things will start opening up again.

I'd prefer lockdown to stay in some form up to end of May personally. It's when we hit June it becomes very difficult to keep enforced for many reasons not least due to the 12 week personal lockdown for over 70s being very close to expiry at that point.
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Unfortunately, despite their boasts that they've been doing a cracking job, following the science etc, they don't really have a clue about what happens when we start letting people all wander about a lot more.
Imagine having to have a second lockdown

It'll be telling in 2 weeks, as you'd think they have to announce what they're doing with the furlough. That rule about firms having to give 45 days notice if they want to bin off 100 or more workers means it'll have to be announced then.
 
Sandikan said:
Unfortunately, despite their boasts that they've been doing a cracking job, following the science etc, they don't really have a clue about what happens when we start letting people all wander about a lot more.
Imagine having to have a second lockdown

It'll be telling in 2 weeks, as you'd think they have to announce what they're doing with the furlough. That rule about firms having to give 45 days notice if they want to bin off 100 or more workers means it'll have to be announced then.
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Issue is, this virus is so unpredictable even scientists can only give educated guesses. I've seen predictions vary from it will burn out within weeks to SD is here for two years.

In general I feel repulsed looking at Boris because he's a wolf in sheep clothing (my pet hate type of person, if you're a cnut just own it ffs) but even I struggle to be too harsh on him with this, locking down the country in February like some hindsight experts are saying would have been crazy (for context, imagine if we did it for Ebola and Swine Flu, we would have tanked livelihoods for no reason atall).

The only thing that is certain is we're going to have coexist with the virus somehow, else eventually we won't have a world to come back too (which will include no NHS to save lives).
 
FootballHQ said:
Arsenal started training today anyway albeit with all social distance measures in place.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/first-group-arsenal-stars-return-21933280
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This is a factor i've not seen addressed yet. In Italy professional sport can resume group training from May 18th, but they still have to maintain distances. How can they properly train, and then play, if they have to stay 1m apart all the time.

What example will it set to the public if they are watching footballers jumping all over each other at corners and after they score goals?
 
People say footballers are an easy target, but its not footballers or sportstars who are the problem here its the greedy TV executives, shareholders, billionaires, corporate sponsors etc who pushing for sport to return even when its not safe to do so yet.

Sportstars are just pawns here for greedy money men who desperate to avoid losing any money. If I were a footballer who was forced to go back and play, forced to break social distancing rules, risking my own health, just please to some billionaires, I'd consider tell them to go and do one. We know older people and people with underlying conditions are the overwhelming ones who die, but its not impossible for a young and healthy person to die from this virus either.

It took ages to postpone the Olympics this year even when it was blatantly obvious it wasn't going to happen because the TV execs were blowing a gasket over potentially losing money. They still haven't cancelled the Tour de France yet this year at they admitting the reason because they don't want to lose money, not because its unsafe.

Mike Ashley's attitude to the lockdown gives an insight into how these guys think, declaring his business an essential service forcing staff to go and work so he wouldn't lose money.
 
11101 said:
This is a factor i've not seen addressed yet. In Italy professional sport can resume group training from May 18th, but they still have to maintain distances. How can they properly train, and then play, if they have to stay 1m apart all the time.

What example will it set to the public if they are watching footballers jumping all over each other at corners and after they score goals?
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You’d hope they would be able to understand that those players are being regularly tested before they’re allowed to play.
 
Belgian league now holding off the vote and hope to resume the league. Rumours have it that the suggested plan was not popular. Be interesting to see how things play out if they cannot resume.
 
FootballHQ said:
It was on the front page of the S*N just on Saturday. Give it's one of the mouthpieces for the Tory voting base, not sure why it's getting dismissed.

Edit: The backpages of broadsheets have also been covering it last few days. Also been a lead story on BBC and ITV news over the weekend.
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Try not to read papers. Watch the daily press briefings and saw Boris' speech earlier... given he outlined caution on next phase, I'd have thought football would be low down the list. We'll see I guess
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Try not to read papers. Watch the daily press briefings and saw Boris' speech earlier... given he outlined caution on next phase, I'd have thought football would be low down the list. We'll see I guess
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Think Boris was speaking about imminent plans rather than medium term ones. In other words he's likely not going to loosen up top much in 2 weeks jut he might do by the end of May, in time for a potential restart?
 
Finn MacCool said:
Some have suggested that the PL would be “happy” to see the title mathematically sealed if the restart gets shut down before the 9/10 match days are completed. I think they would be more concerned and much happier to see relegation and even CL/EL sorted. They are the issues which could really cause them a problem. Undoubtedly they would prefer no asterisk against any title win* but that won’t potentially create a lawsuit.
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There's going to be a huge asterix against anything that happens this season, unless they wait until it can be played in front of full stadia. Behind Closed Doors is not really football and any outcomes (be that promotions, relegations, trophies or European places) played out that way would not really be accepted by fans or clubs alike

It seems that the only purpose for doing it "BCD" would be for monetary reasons. Either way, any outcomes delivered that way shouldn't form part of the permanent record
 
acnumber9 said:
You’d hope they would be able to understand that those players are being regularly tested before they’re allowed to play.
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And then they'll wonder (rightfully so) as to why footballers are able to get regular tests (probably before each match) when NHS staff themselves are not getting tested as often or at all, and why we're massively short of what Hancock promised testing wise at the start of lockdown?

I'm all for football starting back again, but to suggest the public just smile as the privileged get valuable resources, some would suggest a wasteful use of these resources (multiple tests for each game maybe) then that's where tensions may rise.
 
VP89 said:
Think Boris was speaking about imminent plans rather than medium term ones. In other words he's likely not going to loosen up top much in 2 weeks jut he might do by the end of May, in time for a potential restart?
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I think he should ask the public... he'd be surprised.

He could have a referendum, they normally work out fine.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Try not to read papers. Watch the daily press briefings and saw Boris' speech earlier... given he outlined caution on next phase, I'd have thought football would be low down the list. We'll see I guess
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Asking about football or sport at this period in time would be a waste of a question in the daily press conferences tbh. Mind you it seems 5-6 every single day are just asking when lockdown will end but constructed differently so what started as a good featured has slowly turned into a waste of time.

Just reading the Times now and front page headline is : Ministers plan how to get Britain back to business- Advisers offer guidance on relaxing lockdown. The backpage headline is : Football told to come back and lift mood- Government wants sports to return quickly.

It's easy to forget millions in this country don't bother getting news off twitter and internet forums like our generation are used to now.
 
Golf and Snooker are about the only sport that might be safe to play BCD per say and a game of darts
 
yumtum said:
And then they'll wonder (rightfully so) as to why footballers are able to get regular tests (probably before each match) when NHS staff themselves are not getting tested as often or at all, and why we're massively short of what Hancock promised testing wise at the start of lockdown?

I'm all for football starting back again, but to suggest the public just smile as the privileged get valuable resources, some would suggest a wasteful use of these resources (multiple tests for each game maybe) then that's where tensions may rise.
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I don’t disagree unless they do what the Bundesliga is proposing and donate 5 for every one they use. In which case that would be a benefit. But again the bigger questions should be about the Governments failings than football.
 
Dave Smith said:
Belgian league now holding off the vote and hope to resume the league. Rumours have it that the suggested plan was not popular. Be interesting to see how things play out if they cannot resume.
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Forgot all about Belgium's ratification today. So they're bottling out of cancelling too.
 
acnumber9 said:
I don’t disagree unless they do what the Bundesliga is proposing and donate 5 for every one they use. In which case that would be a benefit. But again the bigger questions should be about the Governments failings than football.
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That would certainly be a good PR spin, the Premier League has come put of this a little poorly to be honest, so I'm not sure if they can do anything positive at the moment.

It's definitely the government's problems with the tests, unfortunately for the FA thr government have their PR machine in over drive - FA need to be careful in how they approach this.
 
yumtum said:
And then they'll wonder (rightfully so) as to why footballers are able to get regular tests (probably before each match) when NHS staff themselves are not getting tested as often or at all, and why we're massively short of what Hancock promised testing wise at the start of lockdown?

I'm all for football starting back again, but to suggest the public just smile as the privileged get valuable resources, some would suggest a wasteful use of these resources (multiple tests for each game maybe) then that's where tensions may rise.
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I keep reading this but football won't be back until June at earliest so mass testing for them won't be until then. Surely if that happened the general public should surely be calling out the government a lot more on woeful failure of mass testing, they've had long enough to implement it so far rather than just whining about football getting it.
 
On the day the government says a nurse/medic gets 1 to 2 days of Stirling’s pay if they die defending against covid, the sports ministers says we need to protect the football family by getting football up and running...


I have nothing to add... Neo-feudalism
 
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yumtum said:
That would certainly be a good PR spin, the Premier League has come put of this a little poorly to be honest, so I'm not sure if they can do anything positive at the moment.

It's definitely the government's problems with the tests, unfortunately for the FA thr government have their PR machine in over drive - FA need to be careful in how they approach this.
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To be fair to the Premier League they halted football before the government had the balls to, albeit due to Arteta catching the virus but still, people seem to forget that.
 
11101 said:
This is a factor i've not seen addressed yet. In Italy professional sport can resume group training from May 18th, but they still have to maintain distances. How can they properly train, and then play, if they have to stay 1m apart all the time.

What example will it set to the public if they are watching footballers jumping all over each other at corners and after they score goals?
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Play the matches but all players have to socially distance. It’s the only fair solution.
 
Just stupid to even think about starting. We would all love to play tommorow but there is no chance. Reading BBC now I can’t believe that there are people talking about some moral booster. Moral booster will come when countries don’t count 100s of people dead every day.

If just ONE players get infected you will be in same position as you are now. Or even worse. And why should players get together, risking eachother, while other working people stay home?

And I’m not going to start about logistics and all the problems. Football needs to take one step back right now until we sort this Covid19. Or atleast we have it under some kind of control.
 
Dumbstar said:
Forgot all about Belgium's ratification today. So they're bottling out of cancelling too.
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They are seeing if they can get it playing again. However, at the same time it appears the initial idea that they announced wasn't popular. So, now they are going for play it out if they can (obviously the best option) and then back to the drawing board if they cannot.
 
All games behind closed doors is pointless. If it’s not safe to bring it back with fans, which it won’t be in June, forget about it I feel.
 
Could they not resume it in June / July - start of August then give clubs 2 weeks off and then start the next season Straight away ?
They can use this as their off season and pre season Abroad won’t be happenIng regardless. It seems like the easiest way around it. Transfer window stays open July and August.
 
Offside said:
All games behind closed doors is pointless. If it’s not safe to bring it back with fans, which it won’t be in June, forget about it I feel.
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They are but next season is going to have large chunk of BCD I'm afraid.

If we wait until large numbers of fans can come back into the stadiums then there wouldn't be any football until January I think and it would be a pretty barren wasteland with many clubs folding.
 
Red00012 said:
Could they not resume it in June / July - start of August then give clubs 2 weeks off and then start the next season Straight away ?
They can use this as their off season and pre season Abroad won’t be happenIng regardless. It seems like the easiest way around it. Transfer window stays open July and August.
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Players will want holidays in the summer and are legally entitled to them anyway.
 
This is all going to end in tears. The media can talk about when they want or think football will or should be back, but at the end of the day, it's not In their hands.

It's like the press writing about a player who a team wants and writing every day that the deal is getting closer, but the player doesn't want to move.
 
11101 said:
This is a factor i've not seen addressed yet. In Italy professional sport can resume group training from May 18th, but they still have to maintain distances. How can they properly train, and then play, if they have to stay 1m apart all the time.

What example will it set to the public if they are watching footballers jumping all over each other at corners and after they score goals?
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Isn’t that just because the measures are still in place? The governments will relax these and those Jobs where you cannot keep distance will be opened up with extra safety measures put in place.

90 + 5min said:
Just stupid to even think about starting. We would all love to play tommorow but there is no chance. Reading BBC now I can’t believe that there are people talking about some moral booster. Moral booster will come when countries don’t count 100s of people dead every day.

If just ONE players get infected you will be in same position as you are now. Or even worse. And why should players get together, risking eachother, while other working people stay home?

And I’m not going to start about logistics and all the problems. Football needs to take one step back right now until we sort this Covid19. Or atleast we have it under some kind of control.
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People are just not getting this. It’s not going to be ‘sorted’. The way we get it under control is by learning and managing to deal with it whilst keeping things going. That is the only option.

Football also isn’t the only job in the world where people are literally required to break social distancing rules to work.
Tattooists, barbers, masseuses, hairdressers, manicurist, and pretty much everyone who works in retail. The exact same conversations about how these sectors restart are going on now just as it is with football. Why do people on here have this weird personal issue with football being discussed?

I keep seeing people imply footballers DON’T want to play because of “risk”, this is complete fantasy. To start with they’re all young fit and healthy and so are massively low risk. Just go on any footballers Instagram at the moment, they’re bored out of their skulls. Bruno Fernandes’ last post was him with a ball in his hand saying “when is football gonna be back?

Just like all those other professions I mentioned, these people WANT to return to work. People do not like hiding away at home, people can’t afford to hide away at home. All these people will be aware social distancing is impossible in their roles but they’ll all try to make it work. The alternative is to basically to find a completely new profession that would mean you stay at home 24/7. This is literally impossible, especially in this climate.
On a personal note, I can’t work from home, I’m an essential worker, and there’s not even a tiny bit of me that would consider a career change to give that up.

It’s kind of simple, if your job role can be done from home you do it from home. If it can’t then you work with the risk. That is life from now.
 
Leroy The Red said:
Isn’t that just because the measures are still in place? The governments will relax these and those Jobs where you cannot keep distance will be opened up with extra safety measures put in place.



People are just not getting this. It’s not going to be ‘sorted’. The way we get it under control is by learning and managing to deal with it whilst keeping things going. That is the only option.

Football also isn’t the only job in the world where people are literally required to break social distancing rules to work.
Tattooists, barbers, masseuses, hairdressers, manicurist, and pretty much everyone who works in retail. The exact same conversations about how these sectors restart are going on now just as it is with football. Why do people on here have this weird personal issue with football being discussed?

I keep seeing people imply footballers DON’T want to play because of “risk”, this is complete fantasy. To start with they’re all young fit and healthy and so are massively low risk. Just go on any footballers Instagram at the moment, they’re bored out of their skulls. Bruno Fernandes’ last post was him with a ball in his hand saying “when is football gonna be back?

Just like all those other professions I mentioned, these people WANT to return to work. People do not like hiding away at home, people can’t afford to hide away at home. All these people will be aware social distancing is impossible in their roles but they’ll all try to make it work. The alternative is to basically to find a completely new profession that would mean you stay at home 24/7. This is literally impossible, especially in this climate.
On a personal note, I can’t work from home, I’m an essential worker, and there’s not even a tiny bit of me that would consider a career change to give that up.

It’s kind of simple, if your job role can be done from home you do it from home. If it can’t then you work with the risk. That is life from now.
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There are lot of people wanting to get to work because they have economic situation that is bad. Football players are not who are going to suffer more then being bored. So I’m not feeling a bit sorry for them. To want something isn’t exactly to doing something right. This is something we should all help eachother as a nation and humans. We should not act egoistic. So if The FA somehow start before we have things under control they are egoistic. Then to talk about football family? Give me a break. Money talks. There is no family in it. I might be wrong but I think that majority of fans don’t care about football right now when people are dying in 100s.

Players might not be in most danger but they are in danger. As you and me and everyone else. And getting the virus and spreading to the next person is easy. What if some players get infected and spreds to people in riskzone?

Don’t get me wrong. As I said earlier. I would love to play tommorow. But it isn’t time or place for that before we sort this out and get it under control.
 
Leroy The Red said:
Isn’t that just because the measures are still in place? The governments will relax these and those Jobs where you cannot keep distance will be opened up with extra safety measures put in place.



People are just not getting this. It’s not going to be ‘sorted’. The way we get it under control is by learning and managing to deal with it whilst keeping things going. That is the only option.

Football also isn’t the only job in the world where people are literally required to break social distancing rules to work.
Tattooists, barbers, masseuses, hairdressers, manicurist, and pretty much everyone who works in retail. The exact same conversations about how these sectors restart are going on now just as it is with football. Why do people on here have this weird personal issue with football being discussed?

I keep seeing people imply footballers DON’T want to play because of “risk”, this is complete fantasy. To start with they’re all young fit and healthy and so are massively low risk. Just go on any footballers Instagram at the moment, they’re bored out of their skulls. Bruno Fernandes’ last post was him with a ball in his hand saying “when is football gonna be back?

Just like all those other professions I mentioned, these people WANT to return to work. People do not like hiding away at home, people can’t afford to hide away at home. All these people will be aware social distancing is impossible in their roles but they’ll all try to make it work. The alternative is to basically to find a completely new profession that would mean you stay at home 24/7. This is literally impossible, especially in this climate.
On a personal note, I can’t work from home, I’m an essential worker, and there’s not even a tiny bit of me that would consider a career change to give that up.

It’s kind of simple, if your job role can be done from home you do it from home. If it can’t then you work with the risk. That is life from now.
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I don’t think all footballers will want to play football. Contact sport will carry a much higher risk than almost all the other jobs you mention. Lathered in sweat, jostling together, sometimes shouting in each other’s face etc etc Not really comparable with a mask-wearing hairdresser.

Yes, they’re young and healthy but we all know this can kill young, healthy people and for all we know there are footballers out there who this would make very anxious. Then you have footballers living with people who are at high risk. Immune compromised partners, or kids. Or if they live with elderly parents.

Plus, if we’re talking PL players the financial incentive for many of them to rush back playing just isn’t there. They could easily afford to take a year out.

So I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that footballers will all dutifully rock up to the first match they’re assigned to play. And it really only takes a handful of top players digging their heels in to start to make the whole process unfair and, hence, problematic.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
There's going to be a huge asterix against anything that happens this season, unless they wait until it can be played in front of full stadia. Behind Closed Doors is not really football and any outcomes (be that promotions, relegations, trophies or European places) played out that way would not really be accepted by fans or clubs alike

It seems that the only purpose for doing it "BCD" would be for monetary reasons. Either way, any outcomes delivered that way shouldn't form part of the permanent record
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I have made my peace with the asterisk. Doesn’t matter how the season ends it will be there to some extent. The season will be remembered for 3 things 1) covid19 2) LFC ending title drought and 3) VAR. Numbers 2 & 3 a long long way behind number 1.
 
Finn MacCool said:
I have made my peace with the asterisk. Doesn’t matter how the season ends it will be there to some extent. The season will be remembered for 3 things 1) covid19 2) LFC ending title drought and 3) VAR. Numbers 2 & 3 a long long way behind number 1.
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I would say numbers 2 and 3 are the wrong way round :)
 
FootballHQ said:
They are but next season is going to have large chunk of BCD I'm afraid.

If we wait until large numbers of fans can come back into the stadiums then there wouldn't be any football until January I think and it would be a pretty barren wasteland with many clubs folding.
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Many clubs with fold if they can’t get fans in by January.
 
Offside said:
Many clubs with fold if they can’t get fans in by January.
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So financial arragements will have to be made to help those clubs. For the foreseeable future - next few months at the very least - you just won't be able to pack thousands of people in a stadium or a theatre.
 
Seems Brighton and West Ham were also in today. Spurs moving from Barnet common back to their training ground tomorrow.
 
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