Covid19: The Football Thread

Hamstew

I wonder how legit this is :hmm:

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

MrsG - it’s not an issue though, if other teams hadn’t played already at home or they decided to do a mini tournament at neutral venues.

But allowing games already played to stand, whilst the next 9 see teams play at random grounds?

It would make more sense it they expunged the previous 28/29 games & just said it’s a 9/10 game tournament, with the normal fixtures each team were due to play, in that exact order.

That's even worse, imo.

Lukerz

Of course it is, which just backs up that ProjectRestart is just a mess & a choice of bad options.

mike

That's a great idea lukerz who knows we might end up as champions.

ASLEFshrugged

If they don't finish the season then clubs will each have to pay back £35-40m to the broadcasters. Not much for Man U or Spurs but a serious financial hit for Norwich, Watford, Burnley, etc.

IronHerb

"In my opinion they are doing all this because they have to be seen to be doing something. The restrictions on social gatherings will have to be reduced for everyone for football to be allowed."

Why's that Moojar?

MunichHammer

ASLEFshrugged said:

If they don't finish the season then clubs will each have to pay back £35-40m to the broadcasters. Not much for Man U or Spurs but a serious financial hit for Norwich, Watford, Burnley, etc.

True, that will hit clubs hard. But then again we have been complaining about money ruining football for a while and pretty much everybody knew that the big money wouldn't last forever.
Perhaps this is a chance for football to regulate itself, bring wages, fees and ticket prices down to a sensible level.

ASLEFshrugged

MunichHammer said:

True, that will hit clubs hard. But then again we have been complaining about money ruining football for a while and pretty much everybody knew that the big money wouldn't last forever.
Perhaps this is a chance for football to regulate itself, bring wages, fees and ticket prices down to a sensible level.

I disagree. As I said the big clubs will be relatively unaffected, they'll carry on paying big wages and big fees, all that will happen is the Premier League will end up more unbalanced that it already is.

Football is a global business, unless regulation comes at a global level nothing is going to change and somehow I don't predict FIFA wanting to reduce the money in football.

thornburyiron

It was reported that 10 PL clubs were maybe going to vote No to restarting. My guess is they’re in positions 8 to 17.

Yeoldhammer

Premier League will restart, as soon as the word comes out from government about "reducing social lockdown measures" the Premier league will snap that up as their line to tout that football is ready to go. Albeit behind closed doors etc.

Yeoldhammer

would be interesting if UEFA just scapped League stages and just did a massive knockout tournament involving all top flight clubs from Europes leagues.

ASLEFshrugged

Yeoldhammer said:

would be interesting if UEFA just scapped League stages and just did a massive knockout tournament involving all top flight clubs from Europes leagues.

There are 55 "top flights" in Europe including Albania (10 teams), Andorra (8), Armenia (10), Azerbaijan (8) and that's just the As.


On the plus side we wouldn't get drawn away at FC Lusitanos again, they got relegated last season.

Yeoldhammer

ASLEFshrugged said:

Yeoldhammer said:

would be interesting if UEFA just scapped League stages and just did a massive knockout tournament involving all top flight clubs from Europes leagues.

There are 55 "top flights" in Europe including Albania (10 teams), Andorra (8), Armenia (10), Azerbaijan (8) and that's just the As.


On the plus side we wouldn't get drawn away at FC Lusitanos again, they got relegated last season.

its probably still the same amount of European game if it was a straight knockout like FA Cup (no replays)

Yeoldhammer

6 group games +4 knock out 10 deep ?

2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024 teams ? if you had 55 leagues holding 20 teams a pop (and most leagues aren't even 20 teams) thats 1100 teams.

Would work by all accounts.

ASLEFshrugged

The whole point of the Champions League is that it creates matches between the top teams in Europe.

What do you think is going to get more people watching on TV and generate more money?

Real Madrid v PSG

or

Real Madrid vs FC Sheriff Tiraspol

Yeoldhammer

Probably RM vs PSG but you always get massive audiences tuning into FA Cup games where a PL team goes up against a lower league team. Considering the financial damage the Covid 19 is doing, one season that helps clubs from all over UEFA's top flights i imagine would be welcomed by all fans from all clubs.

ASLEFshrugged

I'm not sure we'd get a massive audience for our away game against at FC Energetik-BGU Minsk followed by a visit from Maccabi Netanya F.C - both "top flight" clubs in their countries.

Also worth noting that the FA Cup has a special status in football compared to other cup competitions, Certainly a higher profile than the Copa del Rey or DFB-Pokal

Moojor

IronHerb said:

"In my opinion they are doing all this because they have to be seen to be doing something. The restrictions on social gatherings will have to be reduced for everyone for football to be allowed."

Why's that Moojar?

Because you can't have country wide social distance in place for non critical workers and then just say " These 30 odd people across the country playing football are an exception" and expect the rest of the population to accept that.

It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview. The line has to be non-cricital people to social distance and stay at home.
There is non reason why 30 mates who have been lockdown can't meet up if it's okay for football matches to go ahead.

ASLEFshrugged

Moojor said:

Because you can't have country wide social distance in place for non critical workers and then just say " These 30 odd people across the country playing football are an exception" and expect the rest of the population to accept that.

It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview. The line has to be non-cricital people to social distance and stay at home.
There is non reason why 30 mates who have been lockdown can't meet up if it's okay for football matches to go ahead.

The Premier League is planning on daily testing, something that isn't available to the public or even the NHS.

25 players x 20 teams = 500 plus another 500 staff max. so only 1000 people to test.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/30/premier-league-confident-of-securing-covid-19-testing-kits-for-return

Moojor

ASLEFshrugged said:

Moojor said:

Because you can't have country wide social distance in place for non critical workers and then just say " These 30 odd people across the country playing football are an exception" and expect the rest of the population to accept that.

It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview. The line has to be non-cricital people to social distance and stay at home.
There is non reason why 30 mates who have been lockdown can't meet up if it's okay for football matches to go ahead.

The Premier League is planning on daily testing, something that isn't available to the public or even the NHS.

25 players x 20 teams = 500 plus another 500 staff max. so only 1000 people to test.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/30/premier-league-confident-of-securing-covid-19-testing-kits-for-return

"The machines can test only one person every two and a half hours, meaning that clubs could realistically test seven employees each day with"

Yeah, that's not going to work for them....

MrsGrey

Moojor said:

IronHerb said:

"In my opinion they are doing all this because they have to be seen to be doing something. The restrictions on social gatherings will have to be reduced for everyone for football to be allowed."

Because you can't have country wide social distance in place for non critical workers and then just say " These 30 odd people across the country playing football are an exception" and expect the rest of the population to accept that.

It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview. The line has to be non-cricital people to social distance and stay at home.
There is non reason why 30 mates who have been lockdown can't meet up if it's okay for football matches to go ahead.

As the economy opens up, and 'non-key workers' go back to work, the rules on social distancing will become more varied. Simply because in some non-essential sectors/jobs keeping the required distance between people at all times will be impossible: hairdressers+customers, ordinary retail businesses etc. It seems to me that a professional football match (and other sport) would come into that ctegory of work/job.

The govt could easily say that mass gatherings of a social nature need stricter rules applied to them in order to minimise transmission, and facilitate track and trace.

I don't think it wold be too controversial, especially if some social stuff was allowed.

IronHerb

"It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview."

Well this doesn't seem to have happened in Germany, Spain and Italy.

Got to stop treating football as a kick about but as a multi million pound business fighting for it's life alongside Rolls Royce, BA, Virgin Atlantic, retailers et al.

Last I read it was to test twice a week and check for symptoms daily and if this is still so then no major strain on the testing services imo.

That said I am really undecided wether the season should resume or not.

Moojor

IronHerb said:

"It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview."

Well this doesn't seem to have happened in Germany, Spain and Italy.

Got to stop treating football as a kick about but as a multi million pound business fighting for it's life alongside Rolls Royce, BA, Virgin Atlantic, retailers et al.

Last I read it was to test twice a week and check for symptoms daily and if this is still so then no major strain on the testing services imo.

That said I am really undecided wether the season should resume or not.

The football seasons in Germany, Spain and Italy have all resumed while normal social distancing has remained in place?

Moojor

MrsGrey said:

Moojor said:

IronHerb said:

"In my opinion they are doing all this because they have to be seen to be doing something. The restrictions on social gatherings will have to be reduced for everyone for football to be allowed."

Because you can't have country wide social distance in place for non critical workers and then just say " These 30 odd people across the country playing football are an exception" and expect the rest of the population to accept that.

It would cause uproar against the government and they would be ripped to shreds on every single interview. The line has to be non-cricital people to social distance and stay at home.
There is non reason why 30 mates who have been lockdown can't meet up if it's okay for football matches to go ahead.

As the economy opens up, and 'non-key workers' go back to work, the rules on social distancing will become more varied. Simply because in some non-essential sectors/jobs keeping the required distance between people at all times will be impossible: hairdressers+customers, ordinary retail businesses etc. It seems to me that a professional football match (and other sport) would come into that ctegory of work/job.

The govt could easily say that mass gatherings of a social nature need stricter rules applied to them in order to minimise transmission, and facilitate track and trace.

I don't think it wold be too controversial, especially if some social stuff was allowed.

I totally agree that it wouldn't be too controversial to start again if some social stuff was allowed or that retail and non-critical works were allowed back, in some degree

But I don't personally think that there is going to be a decision on that from the government before the deadline set for leagues to say what they are going to do.

My point is, that you can't give football a free pass if you still have other restrictions in place. I don't believe that fans won't go to the neutral grounds to be there for their teams and I can't personally believe that anyone would agree to start football again would also believe that everyone will just stay at home and watch the games on telly.

So again, in my opinion, you have to be a point where you are going to give/accept lesser restrictions on overall social distancing before you can start up a sporting event which often pulls 30k+ people to a certain area up and down the country each weekend.

Fortuneseeker

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52517532

Is this really a viable option?

May aswell just cancel the season! What's next the top half of the league say we aren't going to complete the season unless we are allowed to challenge for a European slot?

Dodger58

If relegation is going to be removed then there is no point in continuing. All fair minded people would agree that Liverpool have won the League. So just declare the League season over and Liverpool the winners.

If relegation is still on the cards then matches should be played at the relevant grounds - not neutral venues.

thornburyiron

Apparently clubs were discussing the possibility that the whole of season 20/21 will be played behind closed doors.

Pearces_Left_Foot

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/how-new-champions-league-format-21940765

Wow if this happens it will really make the divide between the top boys and the rest bigger imo

Pearces_Left_Foot

Re Project Restart I have n't seen a proposal that I think "retains the integrity of the competition" as whatever the UEFA wording was. Personally I would end the season now and try and sort out promotion relegation issues ( I think promote 3 club from champsionship and have one season with a bigger PL. Re the TV money they should try and negiotate a reduction for the outstanding against a new deal maybe with more games shown for less money. No easy answers to be honest I have not really missed it that much only the social side of it.

ASLEFshrugged

The current TV deal runs until the end of 2021-22 season, any renegotiation would have to give concessions to the broadcasters.

A 23 team Premier League would mean an extra six games to fit into the season at a time when some managers are complaining about fixture congestion and the TV money would have to be shared out between 23 rather than 20 teams.

Somehow I don't think the clubs would vote for it...