Villa are in the relegation zone but have a game in hand.
I couldn’t see that working.
I don’t think they’ll have any alternative
What they could possibly do is the following:
Complete the 2019/20 season from say, August/September onwards.
The 2020/21 season is a shortened one, ie. the 2020/21 Premier League would last for 19 rounds, not 38.
there isn’t a fucking hope they’ll do that ffs
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And what happens if there’s no football until August?
What happens if there’s no football until October?
Ordinary seasons are not like one off events like a Euros, Olympics or Ryder Cup which can be feasibly put back a year if needs be.
Football seasons run on a very tight timeline as it is. If you lose, say four or six months, you don’t get them back, because there isn’t the time. A lot of matches will just never be played.
They’ll just cancel this season. Restart in August.
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Cancelling a season about to come to a climax will result in massive legal action, especially as regards leagues.
You might be just about able to get away with cancelling a cup competition.
Adjusting the season following on from that to make it equitable for all parties is the obvious answer. A lot will depend on how long there is no football for.
It won’t really cancelling is the fairest thing to do.
No way, you can’t just write off a season in this day and age with the money involved
FOOTBALL | HENRY WINTER
English football must see sense and suspend the season
, Chief Football Writer
Thursday March 12 2020, 5.00pm GMT, The Times
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English football needs to wake up and smell the hand sanitizers. It needs to suspend league football. It is not a difficult decision, not a question of “why?” but “why not already?” Premier League and EFL seasons must be placed on hold with none of this behind-closed-doors nonsense but properly delayed until medical experts signal the all-clear. Football cannot exist in a bubble, aloof from an insidious virus.
Fighting an invisible enemy is an inexact science. Leadership isn’t, though. Leadership is about taking responsibility and not waiting for others’ example. Leadership is about doing the right thing and that is why the footballing authorities in England are being painfully, embarrassingly negligent and naïve in delaying the inevitable suspension of the season because of the coronavirus sweeping vast swathes of the planet.
So why the delay? According to their dwindling band of sympathisers, the Premier League, EFL and FA are reportedly only obeying orders and dancing to No 10’s tune, applying the politicians’ rather obvious playbook of gradually walking as slowly as possible into the storm of the pandemic, trying to avoid panic and a stock market meltdown (how did that go?) and preparing the NHS for the feared influx of cases.
The possible numbers given by respected medical voices are scary, as are the alarming experiences of those in large parts of locked-down Italy. The heart bleeds for that great country, a wonderful footballing nation, and the images of citizens queuing for supplies is deeply concerning. Has the FA expressed its solidarity with a nation due to play a friendly at Wembley on March 27? There is no chance of that fixture occurring, nor the one with Denmark four days later, given that nation is also in lockdown and at least five of its players employed by Italian clubs hemmed in by Covid-19.
These are serious medical issues, way above the pay grade of those within football, but it is patently wrong to keep chasing a ball, and pursuing the broadcasters’ billions, when the nation moves towards lockdown and when other countries are so afflicted. The FA has sadly long lost its power and moral voice. The EFL is preoccupied and limited by the financial straits and questionable owners challenging some of its clubs. So the Premier League rules the playground of English football. So this should be the moment when the new chief executive, Richard Masters, rises to the occasion and proves to be a leader but the silence is deafening, the inactivity depressing.
Revelation by revelation, hour by hour, day by day, the storm thickens, the threat intensifies and the clubs confirm stricken players, the latest being Leicester City. And the Premier League’s stance? Stay calm, put the kettle on, carry on playing. It would be laughable if it were not so serious.
The Premier League has to wise up, ignore Whitehall, and begin appreciating the troubled world outside. It needs to accept that life does not simply revolve around broadcast cash, that with cheques should come balances. English football is being humiliated by the actions of leagues elsewhere, from La Liga to the NBA to shut-down their shows. Whatever the financial cost, the human cost matters more.
Uefa’s decision to call a meeting of “stakeholders” next Tuesday — no hurry, guys, your sport’s only in crisis — indicates that the Champions League and Europa League will be suspended, and that Euro 2020 may be delayed until 2021. That causes complications with qualifying for the 2022 World Cup but at least it will allow the leagues to be completed, both domestic and European competitions. Liverpool will have their trophy. The sporting integrity of leagues will be respected, albeit delayed.
Suspension is the only way. There is talk of the leagues being played out behind closed season and somebody with a deeper understanding of football needs to have a word with the authorities, citing four reasons why it won’t work (and there are probably more than four). Firstly, if the intention is to keep people away, to prevent mass gatherings, then look at the Paris Saint-Germain supporters before their Champions League tie with Borussia Dortmund and think again. Thousands congregated outside Parc des Princes. Following PSG’s win, their players marched to the battlements of the old concrete fortress, and saluted their supporters, who had remained from before kick-off.
Secondly, the Premier League talks about sporting integrity, yet any game without supporters immediately skews that. Home advantage is nullified, including that marginal, oft-debated statistical element of officials being influenced by home support. Thirdly, clubs lower down the English pyramid rely heavily week-to-week on gate receipts which would disappear if leagues ordered the season to continue behind closed doors. The simple costs of opening up a stadium are expensive enough.
This could, of course, be offset by solidarity payments from the wealthy elite, which would also be needed in a suspension. If Premier League clubs can consider each giving a £250,000 farewell to Masters’ predecessor, Richard Scudamore, who was raking in north of £2m in wages and bonuses anyway, then it can find the cash to help out those clubs which, lest they forget, nurture many of the players eventually lured and bought by the elite. Ask Gareth Southgate. Many of England’s World Cup 23 for Russia had reasons to be grateful to EFL clubs. Dele Alli? MK Dons. Raheem Sterling? QPR. On it goes. There are strong financial and footballing reasons for the Premier League to show support for the EFL in what could be an hour of need.
Fourthly, and absolutely at the heart of the sport, is that football is nothing without fans. It’s theatre without edge, audience or acclaim. It’s soulless. Fans provide vocal, emotional and financial sustenance. Fans being excluded from Uefa’s meeting next Tuesday was utterly predictable, showing the dismissiveness, even contempt, with which they are held by the authorities. Yet broadcasters pay Uefa so handsomely for rights partly because of the visual display from large banners and flags. Ditto the Premier League. No wonder some fans consider legal action to reclaim travel and accommodation costs. Even more reason for suspending the league; at least fans are not being teased into believing games will go ahead. Suspend.
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Germany talking about no relegation and extra relegation places next season
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Stop the season, cancel it. Start fresh in August. Having these mass gatherings is incredibly irresponsible
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Cancel and postpone the Premier League but let the teams up from the EFL
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Mikel Arteta has it
Premier League is over for the season I’d say.
Has to be. Arsenal can’t compete for a few weeks now
Presumably got it from the Olympiakos lad. Scary enough, meet him once for probably only a small while, seems to be savage infectious
This is the thing, this bullshit of 15 minutes contact, has now been replaced by ‘we think people will only infect 3 others close to them’ will they fuck.
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The way things are going games in hand only damage our goal difference
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