Covid & Football

redharry said:
Of all the "proposals" that one makes a fair bit of sense. No relegation this season, promote current top 2 from championship, 22 team Premier League for 1 season then relegate 5 at the end of it. End of the day ALL PL teams will vote for that and EFL will have to accept it.
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But how do you agree who goes up from championship. Both Leeds and West Brom have had dips in form and Leeds may totally blow it again. Thus top two aren’t guaranteed although Fulham’s run/in is very tough
 
blandford_cherry said:
You simply can’t just promote Leeds and West Brom because they are top at the moment. 33 points to play for in that league.
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O.K. so what do you suggest ? Promote no-one ? Delay the completion of the season until July, Aug Sept, Oct ? - this virus is not going away anytime soon, cancel the season completely which is the same as promote no-one.
What you need to remember is the PL clubs will act in their own interest - in other words they will ALL happily agree to no relegation this season.
 
...think that quite obviously many things can change if the season was playing out as normal regarding promotions and relegations. That is also why I don't think that playing matches behind closed doors would be fair either...

There is too much at stake to just annul the records and start again afresh in August.

The season may be able to be completed of course if The Euros are cancelled., they could do this in June & July, then maybe start the new season in September....dropping the League Cup and even The Europa League?
 
The major flaw in the promote WBA and Leeds idea is that it lays the EPL & EFL open to legal challenge eg by Fulham. Assuming it isn’t possible to complete all fixtures in a sensible timeframe, the only solution that avoids the risk of litigation is to declare the season void and start again. That is because it was a matter of fact that the season could not be completed and should thus be disregarded.
 
Garbo said:
...think that quite obviously many things can change if the season was playing out as normal regarding promotions and relegations. That is also why I don't think that playing matches behind closed doors would be fair either...

There is too much at stake to just annul the records and start again afresh in August.

The season may be able to be completed of course if The Euros are cancelled., they could do this in June & July, then maybe start the new season in September....dropping the League Cup and even The Europa League?
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Trouble is Garbo they are talking about the virus peaking about the end of May, that is peaking not gone away, people inc players will still be getting infected and games will be called off after the peak.
Whatever you do it has become farcical already, 2 week break from training followed by what - another 2 weeks then another etc etc, how long will it take to get players up and running again, players out of contract like Fraser ?
This is a right mess.
 
I honestly can’t see them doing anything but two different options.

Cancelling the 2019/20 season and expunging the results and starting afresh for whenever it is deemed safe to continue.

Or cancelling cup competitions and finishing up the remaining fixtures over 6 weeks or so to complete the league fixtures up and down the pyramid with a delayed start to the following season. - Which for once would be fine because of the Qatar World Cup being a winter tournament and not that far away.

There is no precedent to end the league and take results “as is” because as we all know it’s only a snapshot in time. Play-offs to work out positions only shortens the process of completing the league by a couple of weeks so seems pointless.

So in my mind it will be one of those two options dependent on how long football is suspended for.
 
Sorry Roger said:
The major flaw in the promote WBA and Leeds idea is that it lays the EPL & EFL open to legal challenge eg by Fulham. Assuming it isn’t possible to complete all fixtures in a sensible timeframe, the only solution that avoids the risk of litigation is to declare the season void and start again. That is because it was a matter of fact that the season could not be completed and should thus be disregarded.
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This is the only fair way I can possibly see. Nothing has been decided yet, it is ludicrous to even contemplate promoting and relegating teams without completing a full league campaign. It’s unfortunate for the likes of Liverpool ect but to chalk the season off entirely is the only fair way to do it that I can see. For those saying promote Leeds and West Brom and have a 22 team league, it is countered by exactly the same argument of why you can’t relegate teams without completing the full league season. Not every team has played the same sides up until this point, some teams will have had easier fixtures up until this point. Take the example of West Ham, they have a tougher run in than the likes of Norwich and Villa, so they get to stay up based purely on the fortune of how the fixtures fell? It would be farcical and a complete mess, and it’s the same if you start promoting teams on this logic. You have to just chalk the whole thing off if the fixtures can’t be completed.
 
DJ said:
I honestly can’t see them doing anything but two different options.

Cancelling the 2019/20 season and expunging the results and starting afresh for whenever it is deemed safe to continue.

Or cancelling cup competitions and finishing up the remaining fixtures over 6 weeks or so to complete the league fixtures up and down the pyramid with a delayed start to the following season. - Which for once would be fine because of the Qatar World Cup being a winter tournament and not that far away.

There is no precedent to end the league and take results “as is” because as we all know it’s only a snapshot in time. Play-offs to work out positions only shortens the process of completing the league by a couple of weeks so seems pointless.

So in my mind it will be one of those two options dependent on how long football is suspended for.
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The issue with the second option will surely be players contracts. If we remove ourselves from the bubble of the big league for a second then you have to consider how this will work in the lower divisions, where it is quite common to have multiple players out of contract at the end of each season (as was the case when we were in league 1.) What will happen then? You could end up with clubs having to play the last fifth of the season and not even being able to field a side of professionals. And would other clubs be able to sign these players during this time? You would end up with clubs who are need of the points taking huge financial gambles on signing the best out of contract players. It is surely just going to be too messy.
 
Waz afcb said:
This is the only fair way I can possibly see. Nothing has been decided yet, it is ludicrous to even contemplate promoting and relegating teams without completing a full league campaign. It’s unfortunate for the likes of Liverpool ect but to chalk the season off entirely is the only fair way to do it that I can see. For those saying promote Leeds and West Brom and have a 22 team league, it is countered by exactly the same argument of why you can’t relegate teams without completing the full league season. Not every team has played the same sides up until this point, some teams will have had easier fixtures up until this point. Take the example of West Ham, they have a tougher run in than the likes of Norwich and Villa, so they get to stay up based purely on the fortune of how the fixtures fell? It would be farcical and a complete mess, and it’s the same if you start promoting teams on this logic. You have to just chalk the whole thing off if the fixtures can’t be completed.
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Just to add a bit of humour to a dire situation.........Liverpool to not win the PL and Leeds to not get promoted would be like our day out at Valley all over again :grinning:
 
There is never going to be an ideal outcome to this, I am hoping the FA/EPL will take the least worst outcome for the overall benefit of the game. Some clubs will benefit and some may not.

I also believe this suspension is only the start, and realistically a restart is unlikely before June which in the passage of time increases the flaws in any other option than the abandonment one. So to me that is now and will become increasingly the least worst outcome. Then the next task is to get some sort of order in place for 2020/21 which itself may not be possible to start by mid august.

And I am no fan of Liverpool by any stretch, but their fans should be patient, they are set to dominate English football for the next decade, their time will come.
 
How about cancelling this season, and beginning a new one in August with clubs starting on their points total now? Viable?
 
Last time the League was abandoned was Sept 1939, just days after Boscombe had recorded a 10-0 home win against Northampton. We would have won the League that year if it hadn't been for bloody Hitler.....................................
 
redharry said:
O.K. so what do you suggest ? Promote no-one ? Delay the completion of the season until July, Aug Sept, Oct ? - this virus is not going away anytime soon, cancel the season completely which is the same as promote no-one.
What you need to remember is the PL clubs will act in their own interest - in other words they will ALL happily agree to no relegation this season.
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I suggest we wait and see, games were only called off yesterday. It seems the current plan is to finish the season in the summer instead of Euro 2020. You can’t just award teams promotion and relegation without them finishing games, how is that fair.
 
Brian Hutchings said:
Silly Cow presenter on Sky News going on about the possible " tremendous financial impact and ramifications for Football".
I wonder what she will think if her mother catches it and dies!
I hope it bankrupts Football totally and we start from Zero!
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All very well sitting here with our £100m+ a season in TV revenue saying that money doesn't matter, but the reality is that the biggest worry for many throughout the next few months will be staying afloat, keeping food on the table, paying bills etc. I have no doubt if we were still struggling in League Two one of the most debated topics on this forum would be whether the club can survive, whether people will keep their jobs, what are the knock on affects etc.

There is more debate around how promotion and relegation will be handled (including on this forum), surely the survival of lower league clubs, the jobs of people working for their club in the community etc is more important? Saying that you hope it bankrupts football puts you in far worse light than the 'silly cow' who chooses to focus on the financial impact of the current situation for many.
 
james_AFCB said:
All very well sitting here with our £100m+ a season in TV revenue saying that money doesn't matter, but the reality is that the biggest worry for many throughout the next few months will be staying afloat, keeping food on the table, paying bills etc. I have no doubt if we were still struggling in League Two one of the most debated topics on this forum would be whether the club can survive, whether people will keep their jobs, what are the knock on affects etc.

There is more debate around how promotion and relegation will be handled (including on this forum), surely the survival of lower league clubs, the jobs of people working for their club in the community etc is more important? Saying that you hope it bankrupts football puts you in far worse light than the 'silly cow' who chooses to focus on the financial impact of the current situation for many.
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This is a very valid point, you would like to think the FA, PFA, and the government would step in to help any struggling clubs that is a direct result of this as it isn’t anyone’s fault
 
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