Coronavirus and Football (Plus all Sport in General)

[spud_gun]

Seems as though Scotland is going for a harder, longer lockdown.

[Exiled_red]

You make some very good points.

I'd be very surprised if Euro 2020/1 takes place in it's current guise. Spreading the tournament around Europe as was initially planned is a laudable idea but in this new reality it's madness.

I can see it being moved to a single country. One which is able to host it at very short notice England, Germany or France. Wouldn't surprise me if discussions have already taken place regarding this.

That's if it goes ahead at all.

Assuming that the Euros go ahead the big question is whether fans will be able to attend, if not then it probably doesn't matter so much where it is played. If fans are attending then there needs to be careful consideration as to how/where it is hosted, one country or multiple probably result in the virus being spread in different ways, not sure which is the best option.

If next season starts in Aug or Sept as is currently being suggested I would be very surprised if they are played in front of full stadia, (at least early in the season). I imagine they could be played behind closed doors or with other measures in place I wouldn't be surprised if there were restrictions on travelling fans in Europe in particular to stop it spreading depending on where various parts of Europe are at that point.

As I say though any disruption resulting in fixture postponement leaves the authorities with a problem, cancel a club season, or the euros or both. The obvious place to try and claw back time in the event of a short shutdown would be cancelling international breaks but I don't see that happening in the build up to Euros.

I think that there is going to be a loss of football somewhere, but no-one seems willing to accept that at this point, they seem determined to squash everything into an ever decreasing window. My suggestion has been to try and get football back to normal over a more extended period with the 2022 WC already messing up the calender I would aim to be back to normal after that somehow, complete this season and then work future season around that aim. Yes there are problems with contracts etc but those could just be sorted out in the short term.

[rodo]

not the biggest obviously but think this will be a trend very soon shame like

[ame]https://twitter.com/rhylfc/status/1252673473450827778[/ame]

[RichC]

Netherlands have banned all sporting events until 1st September, I assume that will see the Eredivisie cancelled

[rodo]

some ****er is clearly pushing for this cant think who

[ame]https://twitter.com/guardian_sport/status/1252982447203135488[/ame]

[ChesterDave]

On the flip side

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52387971

[labourRed]

Its OK to ban this season, but what happens next season?

It doesn't make sense to void this season, with the next one in doubt as it stands. At a min. they play out the next season behind closed doors but the damage both those measures could cause the game could be devastating.

Who would be arsed about following a season with the knowledge that it might not even end with a wave of CV19 worse than this?

That's not even with a fan's head on. They could still award us the league and it wouldn't bother me, the championship needs to finish as well. Whether that happens this year, before june or some time next year i don't really care.

I know there are players contracts that are ending but it's a small issue compared to the whole integrity of the game.

[Liverpool]

this feels like 14 years ago not weeks

we have the best manager and squad we could ensemble and its not just this season ruined but potentially the next few. I think we would have overtaken United by the time Klopp left. Still possible but football is going to be very weird after all this.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbtGFFvNxvw"]Liverpool ManU we are gonna win the league - YouTube[/ame]

[spud_gun]

[ame]https://twitter.com/OliverKay/status/1253272584629694472[/ame]

[Mark79]

Ppg to complete the season makes all the sense in the world, if it’s not possible to play.

Not perfect, but infinitely fairer than just scrapping a season that is 75% done.

[Exiled_red]

Its OK to ban this season, but what happens next season?

It doesn't make sense to void this season, with the next one in doubt as it stands. At a min. they play out the next season behind closed doors but the damage both those measures could cause the game could be devastating.

Who would be arsed about following a season with the knowledge that it might not even end with a wave of CV19 worse than this?

That's not even with a fan's head on. They could still award us the league and it wouldn't bother me, the championship needs to finish as well. Whether that happens this year, before june or some time next year i don't really care.

I know there are players contracts that are ending but it's a small issue compared to the whole integrity of the game.

I posted something similar about next season and the football calendar. I said ages ago (probably only a couple of weeks but it feels longer...) that this is a long term problem and there would either have to be the loss of some football, maybe a full season at some point, but for me it makes sense to skip a full season and accept that the football calendar will be different for a few years. My suggestion was to try to get back to normal after the 2022 WC - that was messing up the football calendar before Covid-19.

Looking at it now I think that makes even more sense. Next season will be affected one way or another and unless UEFA are prepared to cancel the Euros next summer (which I doubt unless there is no choice) in order to allow the completion of the 2020-21 season I very much doubt that season will be finished (on what is seemingly being suggested as an acceptable schedule for this season), making it likely 2 seasons will be cancelled. Surely that will disillusion many fans and damage the game much more long term.

The choices the authorities have are to resume this season / start next season behind closed doors or wait to either resume this season / start next season when fans can attend, the likelihood for the latter option is probably going to be 2021 sometime. If that is the case they may as well finish this season and skip the entire 2020-21 season because starting a season in Jan/Feb with an international tournament in the middle makes no sense. Football could maybe resume in late summer if it were played behind closed doors, in that situation it only makes sense to cancel this season and start with a new season if we are confident that the new season won't be disrupted, which as discussed above is unlikely.

Yes continuing the season poses problems for clubs regarding players contracts but the only way of dealing with this is giving the option that players either play out the season with their existing club (and the clubs pay them on current terms) or if they don't want to do that they aren't allowed to play at all until the season is over (i.e. any transfer that would have taken place in the summer is delayed until the season is over). That doesn't seem like a difficult thing to implement.

[Exiled_red]

Ppg to complete the season makes all the sense in the world, if it’s not possible to play.

Not perfect, but infinitely fairer than just scrapping a season that is 75% done.

If it is done that way there will be complaints and legal challenges from the sides that are relegated because some teams have had a harder run of fixtures. Also there are games that could have changed their fortunes e.g. West Ham were due to play Aston Villa on the last day of the season, it could be possible that a Villa win would have kept them up at West Ham's expense...

[ChesterDave]

https://twitter.com/OliverKay/status...72584629694472

Could still present huge challenges.

Ease of opponents remaining will be argued. As will whether those matches are home or away. Season absolutely need to be finished.

[rodo]

Bundesliga is returning on may 9th

[Mark79]

If it is done that way there will be complaints and legal challenges from the sides that are relegated because some teams have had a harder run of fixtures. Also there are games that could have changed their fortunes e.g. West Ham were due to play Aston Villa on the last day of the season, it could be possible that a Villa win would have kept them up at West Ham's expense...

Of course, but if you void then you still get the same complaints and legal challenges from teams who will argue they could have gotten Europe or promotion.

It would be a legal minefield either way, but finding a way to resolve the season at this stage has to be better than writing it off completely.