Coronavirus and football.

[Manofpride]

It's either nothing played. Or behind closed doors.
That's it.

Agreed! Personally I think it should be nothing played.
Games being played behind closed doors won't work either, if one player in the team has the symptoms then all of them will have to self isolate leaving no one to play unless they have a never ending supply of testing kits, and don't forget players can opt out anyway. Also why can footballers go to work and not keep to social distancing while the rest of us have to abide by the book?

I think football is finished or should be until we get a vaccine!

[ramAnag]

That explains faildale then..... Oh hang on ��

Agreed! Personally I think it should be nothing played.
Games being played behind closed doors won't work either, if one player in the team has the symptoms then all of them will have to self isolate leaving no one to play unless they have a never ending supply of testing kits, and don't forget players can opt out anyway. Also why can footballers go to work and not keep to social distancing while the rest of us have to abide by the book?

I think football is finished or should be until we get a vaccine!

Well, if that’s as accurate as your suggestion on 3/3/20 then the restart of the season should be imminent.

Seriously though...we are left with four solutions...all far from perfect.
a) Play the season out in empty grounds.
b) Finish the season with current positions as final positions.
c) Abandon this season completely.
d) Work out the remaining 20% (ish) of the season according to form from those matches already played during the first seven and a half months of the season.

For me the order of preference is a, d, b, c, depending on the viability, from a safety point of view, of a...but I’d love those who favour c (abandonment) to explain why that’s preferable to d (the football equivalent of cricket’s Duckworth Lewis system).

P.S. I know that those who are relegated, miss out on promotion/Europe will squeal but this is about fairness and the future not self interest.

P.P.S. No idea why that Rattea post came up...not intended.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Rats get everywhere!

I prefer option c. Let's focus on something that can be achieved on a fair basis - how to have a 20-21 season. If we can, that is.

All options on completing or mathematically projecting the remainder of 19-20 are flawed.

You can't compare to Duckworth Lewis. Those rules are known before the start of the season and/or match.

Set up ready for 20-21, announce rules for foreshortened season before 20-21 starts, then should a second wave of covid screw that season, no one can complain

[ramAnag]

Rats get everywhere!

I prefer option c. Let's focus on something that can be achieved on a fair basis - how to have a 20-21 season. If we can, that is.

All options on completing or mathematically projecting the remainder of 19-20 are flawed.

You can't compare to Duckworth Lewis. Those rules are known before the start of the season and/or match.

Set up ready for 20-21, announce rules for foreshortened season before 20-21 starts, then should a second wave of covid screw that season, no one can complain

Not sure why you can’t compare it to Duckworth Lewis. Does it really matter if such ‘rules are known before the start of the season/match’?

Players rarely start a cricket match - although I concede they may start a second innings - with DL in mind. That is a circumstance that usually emerges once it becomes obvious that a match will be rain effected and tactics have to adapt.

There are no such comparable tactics in football though. The aim of every match is to collect as many points as possible, therefore to use some sort of equation totalling average home and away points from the matches played between August and March, although not perfect, seems fair to me.

I’d agree with you entirely if we weren’t so near completion of the season...but we are. Some clubs will feel hard done to...but that’s always the case with crucial injuries and poor decisions etc.

[Trickytreesreds]

option c dismissed by the intellectuals, well I never,
1. no one- players/officials/bystanders have to take any risks
2. Just one player testing positive has massive implications for his team or any they have played, throwing everything up in the air.
3. Someone will take offence to the results, however they turn out and launch a legal challenge.
4. Players have the option of not taking part/ Unions advising they don't for safety

Let me ask a question.
If Kim feedme Un or a mad mullah sparked a war, would you still be screaming for the season to be finished?
My club is still in with a shout.
I wouldn't ask any of them to risk their families, for a game of football. Would you?

[Ram59]

Not sure why you can’t compare it to Duckworth Lewis. Does it really matter if such ‘rules are known before the start of the season/match’?

Players rarely start a cricket match - although I concede they may start a second innings - with DL in mind. That is a circumstance that usually emerges once it becomes obvious that a match will be rain effected and tactics have to adapt.

There are no such comparable tactics in football though. The aim of every match is to collect as many points as possible, therefore to use some sort of equation totalling average home and away points from the matches played between August and March, although not perfect, seems fair to me.

I’d agree with you entirely if we weren’t so near completion of the season...but we are. Some clubs will feel hard done to...but that’s always the case with crucial injuries and poor decisions etc.

Unfortunately RA, fairness won't come into it. We're talking about multi million pound businesses here. If a company feels that it can legally challenge losing 100s of millions of pounds, they will do.

I can only see 3 options that are anywhere near to withstanding a legal challenge. Firstly, complete the season behind closed doors. Secondly, abandon the season on the grounds that any club who doesn't fulfil their fixtures, had then all cancelled. Thirdly, no relegation but allow the EFL to promote 3 teams. Although, not constitutional in any way, you'd probably get an unanimous agreement.

On that last idea, it might not be such a bad thing for Derby. It would mean that the championship next season would be without the 3 best teams from this season and the 3 moneybags relegated teams, although maybe only 2 promotion spots.

No team will accept relegation or non promotion, by a new scheme dreamed up after they'd played their last game.

[MadAmster]

At least the FA, EPL and EFL will have the benefit of seeing what happens in the countries where the restart has already been announced. If those manage a month without problems would there be a reasonable argument against finishing the English season behind closed doors?

[MadAmster]

Brighton are back "training". Well, all the training ground buildings are shut. Only 3 players simultaneously allowed at the training ground. They arrive on their own in their own car. They park a minimum of 3 parking spaces away from any other car present. The 3 players each do their own given running plan, each on a separate pitch.......

[Geoff Parkstone]

Not sure why you can’t compare it to Duckworth Lewis. Does it really matter if such ‘rules are known before the start of the season/match’?

Players rarely start a cricket match - although I concede they may start a second innings - with DL in mind. That is a circumstance that usually emerges once it becomes obvious that a match will be rain effected and tactics have to adapt.

There are no such comparable tactics in football though. The aim of every match is to collect as many points as possible, therefore to use some sort of equation totalling average home and away points from the matches played between August and March, although not perfect, seems fair to me.

I’d agree with you entirely if we weren’t so near completion of the season...but we are. Some clubs will feel hard done to...but that’s always the case with crucial injuries and poor decisions etc.

Here was me thinking you were a cricket fan. "Players rarely start a game with DL in mind".

Have you ever watched a game with bad weather around? At the toss, DL is at the top of the decision making tree for a captain. If a team is put in and expect the first innings to be foreshortened, then the openers will try to establish a faster run rate with DL in mind.

Point is, you cannot change the rules mid season. Especially when it looks like next season will be impacted too.

But let's sat the season did restart behind closed doors, and if the players all agreed (a big if, especially amongst vulnerable older and BAME players) and one or more squads then went down with covid due to playing, or spread covid by playing.

Given the incubation rate that could mean maybe 8 squads infected before it became clear what was going on. Then what? Abandon those clubs games?

Golf maybe, singles tennis perhaps but contact team sports? I don't think sensible

[swaledale]

option c dismissed by the intellectuals, well I never,
1. no one- players/officials/bystanders have to take any risks
2. Just one player testing positive has massive implications for his team or any they have played, throwing everything up in the air.
3. Someone will take offence to the results, however they turn out and launch a legal challenge.
4. Players have the option of not taking part/ Unions advising they don't for safety

Let me ask a question.
If Kim feedme Un or a mad mullah sparked a war, would you still be screaming for the season to be finished?
My club is still in with a shout.
I wouldn't ask any of them to risk their families, for a game of football. Would you?

Hang on a minute, in another thread you were intimating that the current frenzy over covid-19 was overhyped and we should carry on with a few measures in place to protect the vulnerable? Now you seem to be advocating the current state of affairs?

In reality, lockdown is going to end, it has to and people will be getting back to normal life, everyone will be going to work, many will not be able to social distance, so how are footballers different?

The season should either be stopped now taking current results into account or matches played behind closed doors. Somebody will complain buts thats life.