Football and the Coronavirus

BaZ87 said:
The bottom sides arguments are getting more desperate. At the start of the crisis the bottom sides were pushing the idea of not relegating anybody but promoting the top 2 from the Championship, now it's this :o

Whether the Championship finishes or not, if you finish in the bottom 3 you deserve to be relegated. If any sides get promoted and who they are has nothing to do with the sides relegated from the PL.
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quite. I'd have frozen the table, and then looked at the 4 clubs (2 matches) with a game in hand. It's then just looking at permutations of those points. Maybe there is an argument to make those two matches get played, and that's it. The season is decided on 30 matches, done.

It doesn't change much in terms of the top 3 IIRC, and the bottom 2 are set. It's 17th place (and to a lesser extent the europa places) that are the issue.
 
Serie A are facing an uphill battle to complete their season. The Italian FA and Government are currently at odds over what needs to happen if a player tests positive - the FA are pushing for the same situation as the Bundesliga (as a whole) where only the player effected goes into quarantine but the Government want entire squads to go into quarantine. If the FA cannot change the Government's stance then I can't see how Serie A finishes. It's hard enough in Germany with the possibility that a handful of clubs could be forced to quarantine their squads and they've got a 1 month head start on everybody else.
ik9000 said:
quite. I'd have frozen the table, and then looked at the 4 clubs (2 matches) with a game in hand. It's then just looking at permutations of those points. Maybe there is an argument to make those two matches get played, and that's it. The season is decided on 30 matches, done.

It doesn't change much in terms of the top 3 IIRC, and the bottom 2 are set. It's 17th place (and to a lesser extent the europa places) that are the issue.
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The problem is and will always be relegation because of the difference in money between the PL and Championship. Just from TV money you're looking at £120m, throw in reduced matchday and commercial money and you're looking at £150m for each season you're out of the PL. European spots are important but they're not as big a deal. The difference between being in the Europa or CL will be between £30-60m depending on how far sides progress. The difference between Europa or no European football at all will be worth £30-50m.

No matter how you end the season and what formula you use, any side facing relegation will say it's unfair. If you end the season early they'll say they were denied the opportunity to fight their way out, if you play at neutral grounds it will be an uneven playing field and now it's "why should they get promoted if they don't finish their season too". If the PL season finishes then I don't think they have a leg to stand on but there's 150 million reasons why they'll fight as hard as they can.
 
I hear you - I'm not saying it's ideal and any Leicester fan knows full well how different life would have been if the shutdown had happened in March 2015 instead of March 2020, however the table as it stands is a proper reflection of how the team were performing over good period of time. Returning now after a 2 month break, they won't even be match-fit for 4 weeks FFS. I don't see how it's fair to ask them to restart at this late stage when the season should have finished by now. Just aim to start in August as usual.
 
I don't think fitness will be a massive issue personally. Teams usually have a 6 week pre-season before they play their first competitive game and in many cases a lot of that 6 weeks is spent flying around the world on lucrative tours. Obviously players haven't been doing extensive fitness work during the last 2 months but neither have they been laying on a beach - they've been ticking over and for the last week or two, lots of players have already returned to training grounds to step up their fitness work, if it wasn't possible for them to do it at home. We've still got over 4 weeks before 12th June target and the government has just given the green light for team training to begin (without full contact) which will likely start on Monday before, all being well, returning to full contact training in a couple of weeks. The lack of full contact training for the first couple of weeks isn't ideal but this time can be used to work solely on players fitness before proper tactical and technical work in the last two weeks.
 
LOL Norwich are gone. They just didn't have strength in depth and the injuries left them unable to compete. I have sympathy but really? What are they grumbling about? They're the whipping boys of the league (even if they did manage to beat us due to our own injuries at the time).
 
omnomnom said:
Its hard to disagree but its unlikely.
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Sorry, but I do disagree. What bearing does the championship have on their poor season? If the championship played all it’s games, Norwich would still be relegated if they finished in the bottom 3. It has no bearing, it’s grasping at straws.
 
omnomnom said:
Its hard to disagree but its unlikely.
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I disagree. If you finish in the bottom 3 places of the PL you get relegated. Finishing between 18th and 20th is the one and only criteria for relegation - if, how and who get promoted is a completely seperate issue and has nothing to do with relegation from the PL. It's just another example of the bottom 6 clubs exploiting this situation to save themselves. I thought Watford's CEO talking about sporting integrity, having been central to arguably the biggest scandal in PL history during his time at West Ham (the Tevez transfer), was the most shameless thing we'd hear but Norwich are taking the **** now.
 
let's settle it in the time honoured tradition: penalties. Guaranteed social distancing. Quick, ruthless, lack of match fitness doesn't matter, and combines that element of chance that the clubs so desire if Norwich think they can do a Steve McQueen
 
I'd be surprised at this point if our league doesn't eventually end up going down the same route as France and Holland. The only reason it hasn't happened already is the money issue. I don't think there will be an agreement made between the 20 clubs over what should happen in terms of promotions/relegations and European places.
 
The prority is trying to get the prem finished due to the money involved that would then trickle down to the other leagues, I know this is not fairly distributed whatsoever but it is something. I think they are going to call the championshiop on a weighted PPG with promotion and relegation, to then let prem games be played home and away. The only games in the championship will be 2 semis and the final maybe all played at wembley.
 
ik9000 said:
let's settle it in the time honoured tradition: penalties. Guaranteed social distancing. Quick, ruthless, lack of match fitness doesn't matter, and combines that element of chance that the clubs so desire if Norwich think they can do a Steve McQueen
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This would actually be quite fun. If playing the games isn’t possible it’s better than the other options imo.
 
ik9000 said:
let's settle it in the time honoured tradition: penalties. Guaranteed social distancing. Quick, ruthless, lack of match fitness doesn't matter, and combines that element of chance that the clubs so desire if Norwich think they can do a Steve McQueen
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Stretch said:
This would actually be quite fun. If playing the games isn’t possible it’s better than the other options imo.
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You can **** right off with that idea, Newcastle would finish bottom
 
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