What Next If The Season Gets Voided?

It's more your that you have an equally hysterical attitude to this and to a Watford loss which is the most pathetic thing.

 

Digging out a "hysterical" attitude about a worldwide pandemic, as if that's completely unwarranted. OK then.

Not sure what I've said which is in any way "hysterical" anyway, but if ever there was a time you couldn't blame people for feeling that way, it would probably be now.

What an absolute c**t.

 

But this is my point, the plan should be fixed and they should say "if we miss the date X will happen"
They don't want to make a decision and state a plan. I know we do not know when restrictions will be lifted and things start to return to "normal", but they should be able to set a date when we move from plan A to plan B etc.

As I said before why are they not saying now all European and Domestic cups are cancelled. Who can see any series of events from now that would allow time for these to be completed?

 

What did he say in his original response to you that was ‘hysterical’? Nothing was said that hasn’t been said by countless other forum members across these pages in the past few weeks.

I agree with him. While the article you linked to was showing a ‘earliest’ possible set of ideas and you’ve said as much, it seems entirely fanciful to expect it happen. The government have said football isn’t a priority to get back under way. They will be treated the same as other non-essential sectors and rightfully so. To even suggest footballers will be training in 3 weeks seems a bit ridiculous to me. The government haven’t got a handle on this yet, that much is obvious.

I agree with a post further up. I think it’s getting to a time now where they stop talking about ‘earliest re-starts’ and get talking about ‘latest finishes’. Put a realistic deadline on it and work from there.

 

You clearly do get wound up very easily though don't you.

I dread to think what you'd be like in a war situation, or if something as deadly as the black death broke out.

 

Clearly there are still too many unknowns for them to already publicly present a plan for every possible future scenario - any attempt to do that would just be needlessly boxing themselves in to a corner.

 

Void the season. Restart next year as though no football was played this season.

Without the pressure of having to try and rush through the end of the season, and cause extra disruption to subsequent competitions, I’d aim to get next season started at the usual time if possible, or as soon as it’s deemed safe to do so. Whether that’s with or without fans would remain to be seen. I’d imagine that broadcasters would be willing to televise extra games next season in order to make up for the games missed this year, rather than dealing one of their main products a catastrophic blow by demanding repayment of broadcast payments already made and spent. Equally, with the likes of Amazon/Facebook showing interest in expanding their live sports portfolios and carrying more games, I’d guess current domestic broadcasters will be trying to cultivate/maintain good feelings with the EPL before the next rights bids are due.

Yes, it’s harsh on the likes of Liverpool, but it is what it is.

 

I'm not wound up, I'm just pointing out the obvious that you are being a c**t. Simple as that.

 

He jumped straight to the worst case, doom-mongering scenario and portrayed it in an overblown way: e.g. "even just to train before this is completely under control would be unbelievably irresponsible".

When as I pointed out, if one was to wait until a coronavirus was "completely[ in italics for ludicrous emphasis, ha] under control" would not be "unbelievably irresponsible", but rather nonsensical, given that it's unlikely it will ever entirely go away in some form, thus nothing would ever begin again.

How do you know that it is "entirely fanciful"? How is it that you're clearly so eminently sensible, whereas the PL chiefs don't have a scooby, even though they have been in regular consultation with the government?

However, at least your expressing the idea in such a way was more composed and measured than Nath's bombastic "It's all so desperate and ridiculous. Suck it up and void it off."

 

Diddums.

 

I’m not saying I’m definitely right. Because all of us are on the outside looking in, and giving our opinion.

For my part, I think it’s fair to critique the football authorities approach. By the same token, is it unfair to criticise Matt Hancock for claiming we have more than enough PPE when the NHS Trust themselves are telling Dr’s and Nurse’s to reuse kit that shouldn’t be reused by its very nature? After all, Matt Hancock has access to more info than we do, so should we keep quiet?

As I said, many within clubs have said, and as @GoingDown said earlier in the week - I suspect many in the game know the season is done and soundbites about starting in 3 weeks are just noise for noise sake. I suspect as soon as one major league voids, the rest will soon follow. The PL likely just don’t want to take the lead. All these provisional dates, meetings and everything else are just steps in the soft landing of voiding - just my opinion. Whether that’s doom-mongering and worst case is irrelevant to me - it’s what I think is going to happen and I’ve thought that from the very beginning.

 

Sure, and at least you're expressing yourself in a way which is more of one where you're explaining an opinion - rather than declaring absolutes in a scenario where it's clearly not possible to do so yet.

As has been pointed out, the PL have said they will defer to the NHS on whether it is feasible. And obviously it is fine to critique things based on evidence, but not all obfuscations, lies or mistakes are as clear-cut as Hancock's.

Or, rather if the Bundesliga manages to get going again in May (which seems possible still, with players already back in training), then the PL will be left with egg on their faces and potentially at a competitive disadvantage if they're not able to follow suit and also complete the season.

 

No need to comment on the first two things as I think we are largely on the same page.

As for the Bundesliga point, I’m not sure the PL would be left with ‘egg on their face’. Rather, the Bundesliga may be able to start (behind closed doors) because of their countries attitude to testing and the fact they locked down early and were generally well prepared.

My wife is German and her family still reside in Stuttgart and Hamburg. They are on lockdown and believe me, it is stricter than ours. Nobody should be fooled - as and when the Germans relax their lockdown, it will likely resemble what ours is like now. But I suspect the usual UK media outlets will generically say ‘Europe is opening’ and ‘getting back to normal’. It’s a punchier story after all. But it won’t be the whole truth.

Again, it’s just my opinion - but I look around Europe and the wider world. And then I look at what’s happening closer to home. And I think it’s crazy if anyone thinks we will be preparing for sport to resume at all in 3 weeks. I personally think the whole of May will be a write-off.

 

That doesn’t appear to be correct:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52299358

They plan on opening small shops from next week and schools gradually from the first week of May. Neither of those is possible under our current lockdown.

 

What’s not correct about it?

We have small shops open here. We have essential shops open here. We have far more open here than Germany do. So when they relax things, they will resemble the things we have open here.
But I take your point about schools.

 

Doesn't the test need to be processed by a lab and takes 24 hours?

 

Which small (non-food) shops do we have open? Everything around my way is shut. And I mean everything.

 

Where I live Halfords is open, Wickes is open, The Range is open, bike shops are open, pet shops are open, off-licenses are open.
When speaking to her family, they’ve been shocked that we have these things open. They certainly don’t. As far as I can make out, Germany doesn’t even have their equivalent of corner shops open in some regions and it’s the larger chains that are open right now. When Merkel talks of opening small stores, I suspect it’s smaller food stores, pet stores, bike stores that would be alluding to. I doubt very much that their Apple Stores or Sports Direct equivalents will be opening.

 

I didn't know places like Halfords and Wickes are open. I'm quite shocked by that, nothing essential about them being open.

 

I accept you know more about the German situation than me so I won’t keep up the dispute about how our situation compares to theirs.

Would point out Halfords and Wickes are only open for click and collect though I believe. The Range is taking the piss - I read they’d deliberately installed chillers to sell milk and a very basic range of food items just so they could stay open. Almost everywhere still open other than corner shops and supermarkets is based on out of town shopping parks. I live within easy walking distance of a bog-standard (neglected) market town centre and everything is shut except the banks and Boots.

 

Didn't know Wickes was open, might pop there tomorrow for some essentials. Might as well get on with some DIY whilst we're on lockdown.

 

FML.

888 people dead yesterday and people are falling out over f***ing football.

Right now I couldn't care a toss if we never kicked a ball again.

 

Can’t we just have a minute’s applause in the 8th second of the 88th minute and then get on with the game?

 

I’m the first one to jump all over Nath when he moans about our football team but he does have a point here. Doom and gloom does seem the correct course of action currently

 

The post you have highlighted above was posted by me on 22nd March some 4 weeks ago and at that time Social Distancing was not being made out to be the big a deal that it is now. However, at that time a big thing was being made of how we could help out lower league teams to get through the crisis. Therefore I made that post with that context in mind, and without really considering the footballers possible health implications if it were put into practice.

You ask me what has changed since I wrote that post? Well quite frankly a hell of a lot lot has changed in those four weeks and Social Distancing has become a lot more prevalent, hence my opinion has changed considerably on that subject, as I am sure many other peoples opinions have.

Just in the last day or two the Chelsea player Willian has raised the subject of whether he would be happy playing games behind closed doors or otherwise, because of the fact that FOOTBALL IS A CONTACT SPORT, and hence he would be afraid of bringing C-19 home to his family. Therefore with the benefit of hindsight I no longer advocate the sentiments I did in my post of 22nd March, and I now think that it would not be safe for games to be played behind closed doors or otherwise until we are advised by the medical experts it is safe to do so.

As for my other post that you have brought up about ending the season virtually like the grand national. That was said very much tongue in cheek, but if the football powers really want to get the season ended they might yet have to consider that idea

Can I ask you, do think it would be a good idea for players to risk their health and that of their families by going back to playing, as they will most certainly not be able to practice social distancing if they do, being that football is a very close contact sport.

 

Cancelling it now officially would be daft because they'd be criticised for not giving it a proper chance. But we need 12 snookers with only pink and black left. We closed pubs when the government told us to, we'll not cancel football until we're told. The very best we can hope for is they finish it behind closed doors. When restrictions are lifted at a minimum of 3 more weeks, do you think it will be all in or gatherings and events still suspended to keep the virus in check?

 

If football is played again this season it needs to be with the fans, not for the TV companies, football without fans is like a training match and not the real thing!

Whilst there is a disease going around which spreads from people who don’t at first know they have it, I find it
abhorrent that people think the season should be completed! why take the risk of losing life, it’s a sport not a dare!

 

I actually live in Berlin, and in this region anyway they do still have the UK equivalent of corner shops open. I've also seen small bike stores open, though paying heed to social distancing. Many cafes are also open, though you can only go in for takeaway. Plenty of people are out and about on the streets and in parks as well, with a not insignificant minority paying little attention to the social distancing. From what I gather from the news and speaking to my family in London etc., the extent of the lockdown here seems similar enough. I appreciate there will be some variation by region in Germany, although the hardest hit region was Bavaria and Bayern are also still back in training already.

I agree though that the more widespread testing and tracing, and the lockdown being instigated earlier, have probably made a difference here.

Still, with regular testing of players and staff in the UK, resuming in a few weeks shouldn't be impossible - the situation can de-escalate almost as quickly as it escalated. Although there seems to be a current shortage of PPE which is being worked on to be addressed, the worried about shortage in ICU beds has not come to pass. It won't be largely the PL's fault if it takes too long to resume or has to void, but while there is still a chance and while other major leagues still seem to be able to complete, they will have to try whatever it takes.

 

Oh you're another one.

On average 1,600 people die every day in the UK during regular times.

Along with Nath, and maybe a couple of others, once the football resumes I will happily remind you after any time you bother to post about it of how many people died in the UK on the day of the last match, and then point out that by your own admission you should rather be off weeping somewhere rather than wasting your time on something so supposedly trivial.

 

Obviously not.

As per the recently growing footballing tradition, we will need to have a minute's applause for the death of anyone even loosely associated with the club before the start of every match.

Once the football resumes, expect the length of applause before any football match in future to last all afternoon, and games to be squeezed in to 10 minutes just before the last trains home.

 

There may well be some sort of insurance angle too. If the Prem League has a "Force Majeure" clause with Sky and the UK Govt effectively prevents the Prem League from fulfilling their side of the contract, that may well mean that any money owed to Sky would either be void under that contract or claimable under the Prem League's own insurances.....

 

Sadly, the success Germany have had in containing the virus is nothing compared to the disastrous events here which clearly distorts what's happening here.

As you've mentioned, the daily death rate is a 50% increase on a usual daily death rate in the UK. Pretty ******* bad. You haven't seen anything like that in Germany. I saw a report recently that said that the UK daily death rate is the highest it's ever been in 'peacetime'.

Also, by the rules of the forum, as you live abroad and don't go to games, you're no longer allowed any opinions on Watford performances irrespective of whether you watched the game in detail with different angles and replays.

Just an FYI.

 

The legal minefield of voiding this season will be a huge factor. IMO we must finish this season before we start next season , whenever that may be.

 

You don’t think that will just pass the ‘legal minefield’ on to the next season? Contracts aren’t signed year-on-year. Most contracts that are being ‘breached’ for this season will encompass next season as well.

What if they can’t finish this season until December and then realise they can’t finish a full programme between January-May for next season? The legal issue will just be a can kicked down the road.

 

I feel there will be less problems to deal with as you can change rules for next season (b4 it starts) , it's the lesser of 2 very bad options. To say every thing that has happend so far this season no longer counts is wrong IMO