Coronavirus and football

He is not qualified to give a public opinion, he may be good at fighting wild dogs but he is no public health expert. Like most of us he simply wants the season declared null & void.

 

We are not living in a dictatorship SH. The Government are the servants of the people and must be held to account based on the quality of that service. Nigel Pearson is a tax payer and, along with millions of others, is the employer of the government. What this is not is a political point scoring exercise - I have no idea if a Labour Government would have handled this differently I doubt it very much - the truth is that all Western countries have been taken by surprise, whatever their political colour. What has been disappointing is that there is no standard international response to this problem - there is not even a standard criteria for testing. Germany is increasingly taking the view that many thousands more will be infencted and going into damage limitation mode - hoping to slow down the rate of infection and concentrating its resources into protecting the most vulnerable. South Korea is actively looking for cases - the more they find the fewer are hidden, trying to cut the time between infection and registration/quarantine - altogether a more proactive approach. Both countries need to learn from each other but that learning and cooperation is not taking place - at least not at the governmental level. For me this is not a political issue - and I hope you will not try to turn it into one on here. It is a question of the right ways to stop international epidemics and if the devil himself found the right answer I would listen.

 

Not yet been to Studley. In order of preference: Holme Lacey House, Nidd Hall, Littlecote, Cricket ST and whichever horror show Mrs Fez took herself off to on Hayling Island the previous winter. Holme Lacey is by far and away our favourite, consistently the best entertainment, food, accommodation and memories.

 

no, they're taking the A road....

I'll get me coat!

 

We were somewhat disappointed with Littlecote last week.
Hayling Island Lakeside is poor, very tired chalets. Sinah Warren on HI is good. We are looking to try Bembridge on the IoW when the weather / virus improves. Will also try some in the North.
We are friends with somebody that works for the company based in Hemel so we are lucky to be offered really cheap deals combined with the best accommodation available. The only slight problem is the availability list is sent to us with just a couple of weeks notice.
I'm not sure how coronavirus will affect the company, people not going abroad may help but then they might decide to stay at home instead. So far they always look fully booked.

 

If you had read the recent posts on this thread properly you would have found others had deliberately slipped in politics. Thankfully the leaders of the opposition parties have shown more restraint and common sense for the public good.

 

I don't know who it was that introduced party politics to the thread SH, and I don't have the time to scroll back - all I know is that you are still doing it. Naturally any criticism of the Government is legitimate - governments govern in order to be judged on their effectiveness. Nigel Pearson is fully entitled to express an opinion on this because it should't be up to the Premier League, or the clubs, whether they play or not - this is a matter for the Government to decide.

 

Pearson should have learnt from Lineker to stay out of politics. He is not qualified so any opinion is no more valid than one from the pub bore. I doubt Pozzo was very impressed unless his comment was the first step in a campaign to finish the football season.

 

Lakeside... that's the one. She was virtually in tears on the phone to me every night, hated every minute. She had leave to use up, I didn't. Not doing that again - certainly not there!

 

I don’t think this is a moment where the thoughts of a football manager should be important, but I understand for our supporters they will want to hear from the team and I will front that.

First and foremost, all of us have to do whatever we can to protect one another. In society I mean. This should be the case all the time in life, but in this moment I think it matters more than ever.

I’ve said before that football always seems the most important of the least important things. Today, football and football matches really aren’t important at all.

Of course, we don’t want to play in front of an empty stadium and we don’t want games or competitions suspended, but if doing so helps one individual stay healthy - just one - we do it no questions asked. Jürgen Klopp

It is good that all of football seems to be speaking with one voice, although the National League intends to carry on for the time being.

 

BT Sport are not offering refunds to subscribers for the lack of live Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga and other competitions to which they have TV rights, as broadcasters grapple with the mass postponement of sports due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company is planning to fill its schedules with any live sport which carries on, reruns of matches already played this season, WWE films and documentaries.

 

The games in French Leagues 1 and 2 that were going to be played behind closed doors starting tonight have now been stopped until further notice.

 

At last common sense has prevailed
The only problem I see is that all the teams with personnel suffering from the virus will not be able to train for the next three weeks and if the season is resumed some teams will have an unfair advantage
If it was resumed it would be two games a week for most of us and three for those involved in cup competitions unless the season was stretched out which would have an impact on next season
It is highly unlikely that the viral infections would be under control in three weeks anyway
The only options is to cancel this season and start afresh next season however unfair that might be to teams pushing for promotion or involved in cup competitions

 

I think they will review every few weeks but with the Euros likely suspended this will give them until end of July to complete the season.
The good thing is that all the leagues are in the same position so there will be some co-ordination on decision making. Issues remain as to things like transfer windows and players going out of contract etc. Lots of decisions will be taken on the hoof. Also, if we restart before the end of the season, would we then play those fixtures first followed by rearranged fixtures? Or will everything move en-block? i.e. will our next game be Leicester or Man City as an example?

 

I think that would be one of the decisions made, as you said, on the hoof. They can't really decide anything like that until they know for sure what the future holds. To finish by the end of July would, in my opinion, mean restarting games in early June - not to mention delaying the start of the new season. That gives three months to ensure that the epidemic is over - given that China are still struggling to contain it, and it started there three and a half months ago, that doesn't sound like enough time to me.

 

In the meantime I have to make a decision about what happens to the predictions leagues. I could just put them on ice and hope to resume again after the international break. It would be very optimistic to think that conditions would be so much improved that we can do that - but it is a bad dictionary which has no entry for optimism. Another possibility would be to end the league now - but i do not think that Matej would want to win in that way, I certainly wouldn't in the same position. Another possibility is to leave the Premiership altogether for a couple of weeks at least - but where would I look for fixtures ? It is relatively safe that games in eg. the Southern League will go ahead (sometimes the crowd is smaller than in a pub and well capable of standing apart from each other) but would there really be any interest in games like Taunton v The Met Police ? Some feedback would be helpfull on this - I will make a decision on Sunday anyway.

 

They will want to try and just delay the season but read there won't be a peak in the virus till May or June so how long do they hold back till?

Whatever they do someone won't like it!

 

In an extraordinary situation which I think this is, you have to just wipe the season off the board as though it had never happened. The only situation that has any loose connection is when Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France, and for those years no winner was declared. Although the records still exist, it is as though the race never took place. European places are at stake here and it needs a unified approach across all of the countries that send teams to the Champions league etc. I would say that the only way is to allow those who qualified to play this year should play again next season whenever it starts up again.

 

A decision like that would result in riots in Liverpool.
This has to be handled carefully or the big clubs in Europe could start their own league.

 

Personally I am not that interesting in watching Man. City v PSG, but I suppose some would. Come to think of it I have hardly watched a Champions League game all season.