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Football and coronavirus

I live in the UK. I just had a look at German news, but it looks like it will be only on Sky there and then the Match of the Day type programmes on national TV in the evenings. That's a bit shit really, isn't it. If football was to restart here, I would have hoped that they would at least make it available for people to see because otherwise what's the point? Otoh I guess the whole thing re-starting, certainly in Germany, seems to have never really been about people to get to watch some football but just to about TV payments... You make a very good point about the effects on social distancing in that regard though, and you'd think at least from a PR point of view, if nothing else, the TV companies would make some games available for free..? Maybe something will still be arranged.
 
Even the Belarussian league looks sunk now.

An FC Minsk player has tested positive, with the whole club going into 2 weeks of quarantine, with strong suspicions that at least one member of Neman Grodno's first team, who played a full 90 minutes on Saturday, has it as well.
 
In Scotland, the game is really up against it. Whilst small part time clubs can effectively go into abeyance and meet minimal liabilites in order to ride the crisis out, teams with a full time squad (eight clubs in the championship and all of the premier league) rely heavily on gate income- much more so than down south. The economics of closed door football won;t work in Scotland and as a result many clubs really do look in trouble in the medium term. That would be bad enough had the clubs not decided to fight a civil war with one another over ending the season / league reconstruction at the same time. Hearts chairman Anne budge is currently roaring from the bridge of the rusting maroon sloop which is sinking, in flames, into the Championship, whlst Sevco 5088 are calling for an independent inquiry into the SPFL's handling of ending the domestic season.

In England it's not too much of a stretch to say that all clubs at league one level and below face a pitiless battle to survive with many clubs likely to disappear.

The restart plans in Germany (with the Dynamo Dresden situation) and England (with 50 PL players threatening to sit a closed-doors re-start out owing to health fears) look fanciful, I'm afraid, and a side-show amidst the possibility of a total metdown for the current football industry.

I'm afraid the whole of next season may be void, it's really hard to see meaningful sport taking place before 21/22.
 
steeplejack said:
In England it's not too much of a stretch to say that all clubs at league one level and below face a pitiless battle to survive with many clubs likely to disappear.
Click to expand...

We'll see but I think the most exposed level might actually be the Championship. Nearly all of the clubs there were massively overspent anyway and they're at a level where their squads will be made up of players they've paid big fees for, who are on correspondingly long contracts with big wages. In the lower leagues clubs will release players and any new contracts will be at a much, much lower level. Sucks to be a League 2 footballer but it gives the clubs some room to manoeuvre. In the Championship they're not going to have that.
 
Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
We'll see but I think the most exposed level might actually be the Championship. Nearly all of the clubs there were massively overspent anyway and they're at a level where their squads will be made up of players they've paid big fees for, who are on correspondingly long contracts with big wages. In the lower leagues clubs will release players and any new contracts will be at a much, much lower level. Sucks to be a League 2 footballer but it gives the clubs some room to manoeuvre. In the Championship they're not going to have that.
Click to expand...

yeah, fair points. what desperately mediocre footballers earn to sit on a Championship bench boggles the mind.

still think a lot of L1 / L2 clubs will have about a dozen guys on contract for next season and as such their wages will fall due whether they are playing or not. Not something that can be sustained indefinitely.
 
I'm hearing Delli Alli was burgled earlier this week. To add insult to injury, the police only went and asked if it was only jewellery that was taken, And that no silverware was lost, :facepalm:
 
League 2 have accepted the inevitable, ppg with some fiddling to take into account remaining home and away, two legged semi's and a one of for promotion.

League 1 still arguing about it. We'll be one of the arguers, we stay where we are on ppg, but have just run three in a row and were in great form. Only three points off safety, so.....

www.bbc.co.uk

League Two clubs vote to end season

The League Two season is brought to an early conclusion after talks between clubs and the English Football League.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
Just tuned in on (German) online radio to the first half of today's Bundesliga games. God, it's depressing! :/
 
Update: That made me so sad that I had to stop listening and watch a YouTube video of a vegan chef talking us through his favourite kitchen utensils instead to cheer myself up. "Second essential item: the spatula!" :D
 
Something very surreal about closed doors games.I supposed wed better get used to it .Surprised what a difference not having fans on TV makes .
 
The lack of crowd noise was one of the reasons I couldn't watch women's football for so long. That wasn't so much of an issue in recent years but now it will be everything.

I must say I haven't necessarily missed football during all of this.
 
Me76 said:
The lack of crowd noise was one of the reasons I couldn't watch women's football for so long. That wasn't so much of an issue in recent years but now it will be everything.

I must say I haven't necessarily missed football during all of this.
Click to expand...
This is a very very good listen:

play.acast.com

Future of Football: Does football take the fans for granted?

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's George Caulkin, Andy Mitten and Liam Twomey to look at the relationship between football and the fans. Do clubs take the loyalty of their supporters for granted? Is the matchday experience as good as it could be? How is the nature of being a fan changing...
play.acast.com play.acast.com
 
The Belarussian league staggers on uninterrupted and it's the cup final this weekend.

Bundesliga with no fans...ooft. Very, very weird indeed.

The long running Scottish league saga looks like coming to a formal end today, with Celtic declared champions and Hearts relegated. Months-long waste of time legal suits can't be ruled out.

On League 2, likely that Barrow will be invited in to replace Bury, but only for that reason. Harrogate Town liable to throw their toys out the pram of this happens. There appears also to be a plan being taken vaguely seriously to invite in all National League sides to participate in a regionalised league at league 2 level. Given many chairmen's long standing opposition to regional football I can't see it being voted for in sufficient numbers but a regionalisation plan being taken half-seriously, gives a taste of the desperation being felt by some clubs.

My view is that we'd be as well voiding season 20/21 and concentrate on helping as many clubs as possible to survive until a hoped-for normal season in 21/22. But COVID is a cataclysm for football as it was, and nothing can be ruled out, including the loss of many clubs.
 
steeplejack said:
The Belarussian league staggers on uninterrupted and it's the cup final this weekend.

Bundesliga with no fans...ooft. Very, very weird indeed.

The long running Scottish league saga looks like coming to a formal end today, with Celtic declared champions and Hearts relegated. Months-long waste of time legal suits can't be ruled out.

On League 2, likely that Barrow will be invited in to replace Bury, but only for that reason. Harrogate Town liable to throw their toys out the pram of this happens. There appears also to be a plan being taken vaguely seriously to invite in all National League sides to participate in a regionalised league at league 2 level. Given many chairmen's long standing opposition to regional football I can't see it being voted for in sufficient numbers but a regionalisation plan being taken half-seriously, gives a taste of the desperation being felt by some clubs.

My view is that we'd be as well voiding season 20/21 and concentrate on helping as many clubs as possible to survive until a hoped-for normal season in 21/22. But COVID is a cataclysm for football as it was, and nothing can be ruled out, including the loss of many clubs.
Click to expand...
I agree with the sentiment but the words 'helping' ,'clubs' and 'survive' aren't in the EPL and Championship dictionary. The Football league may however be a different kettle of fish.
 
The39thStep said:
I agree with the sentiment but the words 'helping' ,'clubs' and 'survive' aren't in the EPL and Championship dictionary. The Football league may however be a different kettle of fish.
Click to expand...
Saw they've floated some ridiculous regionalisation plan for the lower leagues again. What with that and B teams they seem determined to fuck up a deep pyramid that's the envy of most of the rest of the world.
 
JimW said:
Saw they've floated some ridiculous regionalisation plan for the lower leagues again. What with that and B teams they seem determined to fuck up a deep pyramid that's the envy of most of the rest of the world.
Click to expand...
We do have Conference North and South or are you putting League One and Two as lower leagues?
 
Scottish Premiership season has been abandoned.

Celtic win the title for the ninth time in a row.
Hearts are relegated.
 
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