Coronavirus: Football Discussion Thread

[Gordyola]

Lots of people won’t be happy

Nasty oil money funded!

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

The restart date they have in mind is the 8th June. Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga preparations underway so why should the Premier League not be looking at this?

I don't know why some fans have some entrenched views as to whether it's safe to play and train. You are not being asked to do anything.

Footballers are isolating anyway. They would just be expected to do so as a group for the duration of their league season. I think that's really difficult to achieve but he situation is changing every week.

I've been ignoring this topic so I don't know if the sponsorship and broadcasting losses have been worked out yet. Is it a real issue or not? If the broadcasting and commercial deals are at risk, then that means many football clubs are also at risk.

Suspect and hope CL goes ahead but PL looks very awkward. For City fans, the PL holds no excitement at all but I don't get the strong feelings that some are expressing. Many of you will be going back to work by the 8th June in some shape or form. Footballers are no different in that respect. They wont be getting crammed on tubes and trains. They'll be traveling in Range Rovers and be training out in the open in the Summer weather. Maybe it isn't safe but I don't see why you wouldn't explore it and look at it.

I'd be disappointed if they don't restart the Champions League and I am sure the players will be too. That's definitely possible.

Mate, do you understand this "R NUMBER" that they keep banging on about and how, due to isolating, it has been reduced to a value below 1?

Well, getting people to "isolate" in groups as big as a football team along with all the extra fitness/medical staff/management team doesn't really fit into a scheme that maintains that, does it? You're right though, they won't be all crammed into tube/train carriages, they'll probably all be getting ferried around in a big coach which is just as confined as a train carriage and just as risky to their health.

I just don't see it as being worth the risk to rush back a contact sport just yet. It's way too soon IMO and the health consequences for the players don't stack up considering what's at stake from a purely sporting sense (I'm not getting into the financial consequences of the clubs as that'll not really be of much consequence to the players I'd imagine) - NO relegation so pretty much just settling the top European entry places. Why would they possibly risk their lives for it?

I fully understand what you're saying about everyone having to get back to work at some stage in order to save their individual businesses, along with stimulating the country's economy, and that when we all do eventually get back to it certain "distancing regulations/advice" will have to be bent/ignored to a certain extent, but not as much as a contact sport requires them to be, surely? Plus footballers are role models to millions of kids. Monkey see, monkey do, and all that. It'll be hard enough to get kids to socially distance when they go back to school as it stands now, but if they see their heroes playing football then they'll be playing football too, and kids have such short attention spans that they'll be all over each other when one of them scores. It'll be mayhem.

I'm not going to make predictions as it might just all blow over and this "disaster" may not be the "world changer" that some say it will be, but I certainly think that from a health perspective football needs to wait for quite a lot longer than it has before it even THINKS about returning.

But I don't own a football club that could possibly face extinction as a result of waiting, do I, so my opinion real counts for shit :)

 

[Keeper!]

interesting post. I suppose football is like any other business that has to adapt. If it is deemed safe by the government to play behind closed doors then so we must.

believe me though, many many people are sick of the direction of travel for football. Fans secondary in every respect. This is that on steroids

the premier league bubble will one day burst and when it does we will look back in this moment as a turning point I suspect

I think the burst bubble has happened already , the Premier league has shown it's true colours over the last month and the people have seen the truth.
The Premier league is a greedy, corrupt organisation whose only interest is money.
Reality is about to hit it hard.

 

[TheThirdDeano]

So the following will protect the integrity of the league;

Removing home advantage
Removing fans
Removing any reason for anyone under the top 10 to try
Removing VAR (supposedly)

The only issue with that is these things were all present for basically the entire season; and particularly with number 3 it changes the entire complex of the game and basically removes reason for teams to actually try.
Removing them/changing things at this stage nulls any future results as they are not the same competition.

As @Newman Noggs intelligently mentioned; what they should do to actually maintain the “integrity” that seems to be so important, is to null it all, and concentrate on starting next year on schedule and as smoothly as possible.
Instead they’re going to completely fuck up two season, cup games and European competitions just to finish this one.

They say city are the only club run with blood money. But if anyone suffers from this, every club in the league will be running on blood money

Fucking madness.

 

[Franny's toilet roll]

Really hope Piers Morgan is ok and doesn't suffer, but thankful i don't have to listen to his spiteful self grandissement rants for a few weeks. From my perspective, lockdown relaxation moves are probably born out of an increasing confidence that the NHS has largely coped with the first wave and a need to get businesses operational. More test results will give us a better idea of how contagious the virus is, everyone quoting the 'R' value as if they've suddenly become wise. Most media and politicos getting used to the death levels, so the reticence to criticise is being removed. As far as i can see, most people will eventually get the virus, my risk stays the same, i'm either going to die or live and somewhere in between i might end up fucked for a few months like Boris. Ease the lockdown, my investments might improve but i'm not going anywhere quickly.
I see one or two German footballers are reported as having the virus and have been removed from other squad players - now there's a thing

 

[tonea2003]

Thanks for the mention. One small point - not all our home games have been played in Manchester, sadly. Prior to the takeover City did play a home game at Barnsley when our leadership at the time had booked a concert which meant we couldn't play at home. It's only a minor point but it does show that prior to our current ownership some did put profit (i.e. staging a concert in this case) above fans.

as you well know that was a cup game gary, so it the context of integrity it wasn't affected, now if it were to be league game....

 

[Cornish_Blue]

Nothing surprises me now from the BBC. The main story’s about how more clubs want to play if the threat of relegation is removed.
You fucking wankers! People are dying ffs

 

[mosssideblue]

Nothing surprises me now from the BBC. The main story’s about how more clubs want to play if the threat of relegation is removed.
You fucking wankers! People are dying ffs

Not the Beebs fault, they are simply the conveyers. Clearly, the FA were fighting too many objections to resume and couldn't get a majority. Easy fix was to make everyone safe in relegation terms to get such a majority. It is still ridiculous to expect the rest of the country to stay locked up and keeping safe distances to prevent escalation, but it is OK for footie to have different rules applied. I can see public outcry if rules are relaxed for what is not essential tasks

 

[i8rags]

Mate, do you understand this "R NUMBER" that they keep banging on about and how, due to isolating, it has been reduced to a value below 1?

Well, getting people to "isolate" in groups as big as a football team along with all the extra fitness/medical staff/management team doesn't really fit into a scheme that maintains that, does it? You're right though, they won't be all crammed into tube/train carriages, they'll probably all be getting ferried around in a big coach which is just as confined as a train carriage and just as risky to their health.

I just don't see it as being worth the risk to rush back a contact sport just yet. It's way too soon IMO and the health consequences for the players don't stack up considering what's at stake from a purely sporting sense (I'm not getting into the financial consequences of the clubs as that'll not really be of much consequence to the players I'd imagine) - NO relegation so pretty much just settling the top European entry places. Why would they possibly risk their lives for it?

I fully understand what you're saying about everyone having to get back to work at some stage in order to save their individual businesses, along with stimulating the country's economy, and that when we all do eventually get back to it certain "distancing regulations/advice" will have to be bent/ignored to a certain extent, but not as much as a contact sport requires them to be, surely? Plus footballers are role models to millions of kids. Monkey see, monkey do, and all that. It'll be hard enough to get kids to socially distance when they go back to school as it stands now, but if they see their heroes playing football then they'll be playing football too, and kids have such short attention spans that they'll be all over each other when one of them scores. It'll be mayhem.

I'm not going to make predictions as it might just all blow over and this "disaster" may not be the "world changer" that some say it will be, but I certainly think that from a health perspective football needs to wait for quite a lot longer than it has before it even THINKS about returning.

But I don't own a football club that could possibly face extinction as a result of waiting, do I, so my opinion real counts for shit :)

Tbh, Marvin probably knows as much as anyone on here about covid.
My opinion, when they tell most to go back to work then so should footballers. Like everyone else it won’t be as normal but it’s a start.

 

[mosssideblue]

Tbh, Marvin probably knows as much as anyone on here about covid.
My opinion, when they tell most to go back to work then so should footballers. Like everyone else it won’t be as normal but it’s a start.

Have to disagree. There has to be a phased approach to relaxing lock down with highest priorities first. Sport should not be even on the list of priorities at this stage.