Football and the Coronavirus

[jonneymendoza]

Im assuming youre being sarcastic here.

semi. last convincing win they had was against leicster city end of dec.

since then liverpool have scrapped victories and came close to not winning many other games.

They wasnt brushing aside teams like they was pre Leicster win so who knows if they would have imploded spectaularly.

Doubt it but now we will never ever know, hench giving them the title would put a question mark on it.

What team do you support?

 

[omnomnom]

I support Liverpool. We have lost one game all season and won every game in Dec, Jan and lost one at the very end of feb...We might not have brushed teams aside but weve still won every single gane. We are losing a 25 point lead.

 

[jonneymendoza]

I support Liverpool. We have lost one game all season and won every game in Dec, Jan and lost one at the very end of feb...We might not have brushed teams aside but weve still won every single gane. We are losing a 25 point lead.

wins are not the be all, i have seen plenty of liverpool games and quite a few of them you have struggled.

I bet you that Klopp would be expecting MUCH better from liverpool prio to this lockdown.

 

[planty]

I wouldn't agree with giving anyone the title if the season wasn't completed, but if you think Liverpool weren't convincing...
Beating every team 4-0 isn't realistic, beating every team (which is nearly what they've done) wouldn't have been realistic before this season!

 

[BaZ87]

2020 and people still reply sensibly to jonney?

 

[planty]

2020 and people still reply sensibly to jonney?

Sorry, just trying to find things to do with my day

 

[explicit4u]

I'm guessing jonney didn't reply sensibly to you

If Liverpool are gonna somehow bottle it, I want to see it across the remaining 9 games!

 

[HangTime]

@BaZ87 perhaps we can have a poll on whether Liverpool should be declared champions in the event that the season was not completed? Something like:

Liverpool fan - Yes
Liverpool fan - No
Rival* fan - Yes
Rival fan - No
Neutral fan - Yes
Neutral fan - No

*Rival primarily meaning Everton / MU fans but should be interpreted to mean anyone that harbours animosity towards Liverpool.

This is just to guage opinions on that specific topic, I've said previously that there are much bigger challenges with ending the season early when it comes to European qualification, relegation, heck even prize money etc.

 

[HangTime]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...-reveals-tested-positive-coronavirus-PUB.html

Imagine the situation, you've recently played a team where the manager has been formally diagnosed with CV and some players are in isolation. You've had the test and are waiting for the results. Should you:

a) Go to the pub on Friday; it's important to support small businesses in their hour of need. Afterall, those pints aren't going to drink themselves, amirite?
b) Stay the **** at home

So pleased he left the pub after getting the call, definitely has public safety at the forefront of his mind.

 

[adam cool dude]

@BaZ87 perhaps we can have a poll on whether Liverpool should be declared champions in the event that the season was not completed? Something like:

Liverpool fan - Yes
Liverpool fan - No
Rival* fan - Yes
Rival fan - No
Neutral fan - Yes
Neutral fan - No

*Rival primarily meaning Everton / MU fans but should be interpreted to mean anyone that harbours animosity towards Liverpool.

This is just to guage opinions on that specific topic, I've said previously that there are much bigger challenges with ending the season early when it comes to European qualification, relegation, heck even prize money etc.

Whether they are declared or not rival fans will not see it as a true championship as the season has not been completed. Regardless of how they demolished the league this season.

Season needs to be completed end of.

 

[BaZ87]

^ and this is why a poll would be pointless. Nobody with an ounce of sense could ever argue that Liverpool aren't true champions but it wouldn't stop the bitters trying, much in the same way a poll would be Liverpool fans mostly saying yes and non Liverpool fans saying no just for the banter.

As you say though HangTime, the Liverpool situation is far more straight forward than determining European spots and promotion relegation. All the briefings coming out from the PL is that they will finish the season somehow, whether that's completing all the games or worst comes to worst, finding some sort of compromise finish with play-offs, points per game etc. Whichever way it is finished, Liverpool will win the League however the other matters will be completely up in the air.

 

[HangTime]

To be honest I was mainly interested to see the views from non-Liverpool, non-rival fans (I deliberately segregated these groups). I'm not a Liverpool fan and would say Yes, but not sure about others. In the context of your phraseology, measuring whether fans have an ounce of sense or are led by 'banter'.

I get they want to finish the season but it might not be that straightforward e.g. they can't override government guidance, how to avoid impacting on next season, and the fact that the PL isn't an isolated tournament so there is a level of synchronisation needed with other governing bodies:

• What happens if the Football League goes a different route and isn't ready on the same timetable? e.g. PL wants to relegate teams and get cracking on 20/21 to start generating revenue, but promotion isn't decided yet
• What happens if UEFA / other associations go a different route? e.g. different transfer window, different start dates for European tournaments. Even fixture congestion for concluding the 19/20 season

I know the April 30th date is just a "we won't start before then" date but you read some articles suggesting playing behind closed doors etc and you worry that people are even entertaining that as a possibility. All the evidence suggests the country will be in a massively inferior position to current by then and 'social distancing' means games would be stupid, you'd basically have the equivalent of ice hockey penalties where the team kicking off and just dribbling towards goal and try to beat the keeper as nobody is allowed within 2m of them. If the team in the lead gets possession then they'd just retain possession until the half ends.

 

[McBain]

You can't just write the season off and start again, likewise you can't take a snapshot as/is. The games are going to need to be played out, play 3 games a week in June/July/August if possible.

Obviously the whole health situation being so volatile we don't know when the season can start again. Even if they have to play those games in September, October, whatever - the season has to be played out not only for the winner but also the teams in a relegation fight.

My feelings on Liverpool have been mentioned plenty of times and don't get me wrong it'd be hilarious if they just reset the season but it'd be completely unfair and simply can't happen.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Could next season just be started say nov/dec(if this season can only continue say aug/sept and then have next season were you play each team once only and the gate recipets/attendance split down the middle.

The only question mark in that is which ground do you play between a Livepool vs Everton for example?

 

[HangTime]

I think I'd agree that you'd want to complete the season whenever it restarts and maybe the only option if push comes to shove would be to compress or even cancel the 20/21 season. There are options that spring to mind like cancelling UEFA competiutions next season to give more dates for the European leagues to schedule league matches but the bean counters at UEFA (and indeed top clubs) might veto that sort or idea. Within England you could look at sacrificing the domestic cups but again there might be lower league clubs relying on that revenue.

I guess it's all a bit futile trying to second-guess scenarios until it becomes clearer when playing matches might be feasible as the approach for a delay of 1 month or 3 months or 6 months would be quite different.

 

[BaZ87]

In terms of alignment, everything will work backwards from whenever UEFA decide they will begin next seasons competitions. If the PL want sides in the CL and EL (and I can't imagine a scenario where we drop out) then the PL's European spots will have to be decided by that date, if not the total completion of our League. The EFL will then need to be completed by whenever the PL starts their next season if they want sides promoted and so on.

I can't see a situation where UEFA postpone next summer's Euro's again so we've got between now and next May to complete as much of this and next season as we possibly can. In order to complete everything as normal then I'd guess that we need to be back playing by June, finished by mid to end of July, short break then straight into next season. Any delays in restarting the season beyond June and you're going to have to start making compromises - I can't see UEFA competitions not going ahead however domestic cups and International friendlies could be scrapped to create more space in the calendar. Beyond that is anyone's guess and something that's near impossible to guess at until we know when football can resume. There's literally 1000 different possibilities.

 

[Journey]

As the Olympics are off this year, and Wimbledon is going to be cancelled/postponed you can bet there is no football before August.

 

[HangTime]

I don't think you can infer too much from the Olympics because the logistics of an event held every four years in different continents are a lot different from staging football matches that (normally) happens every week in the same set of stadia. In other words preparing for an Olympics takes months/years, often involving new venues and infrastructure; preparing for a football match is a much simpler, repeatable affair using existing infrastructure.

In other words I would assume the lead time for 'relaunching' something like the Olympics is massive in comparison.

Leaving that to one side I wouldn't bet on football before August either though.

 

[Ayahuasca]

https://www.skysports.com/football/...e-clubs-below-national-league-north-and-south

 

[BaZ87]

With no prospect of match day revenue and no TV contracts and sponsors to fall back on, I guess delaying the end to this season would have done more damage than good for non League sides. IINM players contracts only run to May and most if not all, in these lower tiers, are on rolling deals - with little to no revenue available to them to complete the season and extra costs it's a bit of a no brainer for them.

As the Olympics are off this year, and Wimbledon is going to be cancelled/postponed you can bet there is no football before August.

As HangTime says, you cannot compare events like the Olympics and even Wimbledon to a football League. These organisations aren't paying athletes a wage week in week out. The comments from Southampton's CEO make me think we could see football back sooner than most of us think. He mentioned that the government want it back as soon as it's safe to provide entertainment for us while we're under lockdown. If and when testing becomes readily available, would there be significant challenges and risks for football to be played behind closed doors? That's a genuine question that I don't know the answer to but in my head I'm imagining squads going into isolation and being tested regularly along with any matchday staff/broadcast staff on the day of the games.

Whether the PL season finishes or not will likely effect the survival of a number of EFL sides.