[Football] Premier League / Football League attempts to finish the season

[A1X]

Could be wrong but my understanding is it’s only the Prem that’s fast tracking a return, hence why so much focus is on PL atm.

Yes they have. But what about next season? The realistic likelihood of teams being able to play matches in front of usual crowds from August is, I would wager, remote, and with talk of social distancing going on until at least the end of the year in some circles who knows how long that could go on for. Can a National League team play behind closed doors every week and not go bust? Can they get to away games and still not go bust?

 

[Mellotron]

Yes they have. But what about next season? The realistic likelihood of teams being able to play matches in front of usual crowds from August is, I would wager, remote, and with talk of social distancing going on until at least the end of the year in some circles who knows how long that could go on for. Can a National League team play behind closed doors every week and not go bust? Can they get to away games and still not go bust?

Fair point, taken.

You would hope to see some more trickle down from the PL to the FL. Hard to force though.

 

[blue-shifted]

It’s a great post but surely you realise behind closed doors matches are not going to save League 2, 1 and potentially Championship sides?

Conceivably, if we do nothing, we'll lose about 40 football league clubs in the next couple of years. If they have some money coming in, we could keep it down to 30. It makes it worth a try.

When your club is faced with oblivion, the fans will do what it takes to save it. 23 years ago we saw this. I can see a situation where fans of say, Cambridge would pay £20 PPV to watch Cambridge v Crawley at 3pm on a Saturday in their own living room if they knew £15 was going to their club and this could give them a chance of having a club to come back to.

In addition, there will be a small number of regular Premier League / TV fans who would watch lower league football on 3pm on a Saturday as part of their normal sky or BT subscription, just because it's 3pm on a Saturday and deep down they care about the welfare of the pyramid as a whole.

Maybe I'm being wildly optimistic, but surely we have to try? I'm prepared to try to 5 subs permitted etc. Surely it's a price worth paying

 

[essbee1]

Yes they have. But what about next season? The realistic likelihood of teams being able to play matches in front of usual crowds from August is, I would wager, remote, and with talk of social distancing going on until at least the end of the year in some circles who knows how long that could go on for. Can a National League team play behind closed doors every week and not go bust? Can they get to away games and still not go bust?

I go to watch Wealdstone FC now and again and really enjoy it. They rely almost entirely on bar takings before and after the match, ball and
match/shirt sponsors and gate receipts for their income.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Surely no one is that desperate for football? Odd.

I say football. It won’t be football.

Ask Glenn Murray if you think otherwise, pretty sure he has said something along the lines of football being pointless if there’s no fans there to watch.

Well, it will be. It will be 22 men plus subs and refs playing the game for 90 minutes and if it's on the telly it will be better to watch, for me, than endless repeats of Bargain Hunt. Not to mention our owner (who, you might remember, has spunked literally hundreds of millions on us) might get some TV money going again and can presumably restart a small corner of Star Lizard.

Football behind closed doors in normal times isn't proper football, which is why it's used to punish clubs who have misbehaving fans. In these days when there is literally nothing else, it's any port in a storm. Me and my son in front of the telly in our shirts scoffing junk food and yelling at the screen? Yes please.

 

[blue-shifted]

I'm not someone who drafts football rulebooks so I don't know. But where there is a will there is a way. It's high time the top 6 started paying their fair share toward the football pyramid they take so much from.

Well it is. But remember the Saudi owners and other similar oligarchs, pornographers and retail tycoons aren't going to give a penny to the likes of Bolton Wanderers out of the goodness of their hearts. I don't draft football rule books either but I can help you with the answer to the question. There is no procedure whereby richer clubs chairmen, presumably including ours, can be forced to donate money to lower league clubs.

This means that lower league clubs are going to have to find money themselves in order to survive. This means playing football matches, as soon as it's safe to do so. That means us, the football viewing public, accepting some slightly unpalatable changes to get the games played.

In these times, the unthinkable can soon become normal.

 

[Mellotron]

Well, it will be. It will be 22 men plus subs and refs playing the game for 90 minutes and if it's on the telly it will be better to watch, for me, than endless repeats of Bargain Hunt. Not to mention our owner (who, you might remember, has spunked literally hundreds of millions on us) might get some TV money going again and can presumably restart a small corner of Star Lizard.

Football behind closed doors in normal times isn't proper football, which is why it's used to punish clubs who have misbehaving fans. In these days when there is literally nothing else, it's any port in a storm. Me and my son in front of the telly in our shirts scoffing junk food and yelling at the screen? Yes please.

I'm baffled by people seemingly intimating they'd rather no football and lots of clubs folding, rather than temporary behind-closed-doors football and less clubs folding.

OBVIOUSLY safety is paramount - but as soon as it is safe, yes please football.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Well, it will be. It will be 22 men plus subs and refs playing the game for 90 minutes and if it's on the telly it will be better to watch, for me, than endless repeats of Bargain Hunt. Not to mention our owner (who, you might remember, has spunked literally hundreds of millions on us) might get some TV money going again and can presumably restart a small corner of Star Lizard.

Football behind closed doors in normal times isn't proper football, which is why it's used to punish clubs who have misbehaving fans. In these days when there is literally nothing else, it's any port in a storm. Me and my son in front of the telly in our shirts scoffing junk food and yelling at the screen? Yes please.

It really won’t. It won’t feel right in the slightest.

There is more to do than watch The One Show and Bargain Hunt.

Haven’t clubs already received the majority of this years TV money? I’d be interested to know how keen Tony is to restart behind closed doors. Do you know?

 

[essbee1]

Well, it will be. It will be 22 men plus subs and refs playing the game for 90 minutes and if it's on the telly it will be better to watch, for me, than endless repeats of Bargain Hunt. Not to mention our owner (who, you might remember, has spunked literally hundreds of millions on us) might get some TV money going again and can presumably restart a small corner of Star Lizard.

Football behind closed doors in normal times isn't proper football, which is why it's used to punish clubs who have misbehaving fans. In these days when there is literally nothing else, it's any port in a storm. Me and my son in front of the telly in our shirts scoffing junk food and yelling at the screen? Yes please.

Guinness Boy: do you think there will be relegation included in the conditions if it does restart? The point I'm making is that it might be all well and dandy sitting at home watching the Albion, but we stand a serious chance of relegation and for what? A short-term, money-based nonsense.

 

[blue-shifted]

Guinness Boy: do you think there will be relegation included in the conditions if it does restart? The point I'm making is that it might be all well and dandy sitting at home watching the Albion, but we stand a serious chance of relegation and for what? A short-term, money-based nonsense.

Don't you think you need to think a bit more widely that whether it's us or someone else who gets relegated?

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Conceivably, if we do nothing, we'll lose about 40 football league clubs in the next couple of years. If they have some money coming in, we could keep it down to 30. It makes it worth a try.

When your club is faced with oblivion, the fans will do what it takes to save it. 23 years ago we saw this. I can see a situation where fans of say, Cambridge would pay £20 PPV to watch Cambridge v Crawley at 3pm on a Saturday in their own living room if they knew £15 was going to their club and this could give them a chance of having a club to come back to.

In addition, there will be a small number of regular Premier League / TV fans who would watch lower league football on 3pm on a Saturday as part of their normal sky or BT subscription, just because it's 3pm on a Saturday and deep down they care about the welfare of the pyramid as a whole.

Maybe I'm being wildly optimistic, but surely we have to try? I'm prepared to try to 5 subs permitted etc. Surely it's a price worth paying

I admire the optimism. Perhaps I’m too sceptical but the only way I can see lower league clubs surviving is with a continued drip down from the elite. Just not convinced behind closed doors is the way to go at this stage.

 

[A1X]

I'm baffled by people seemingly intimating they'd rather no football and lots of clubs folding, rather than temporary behind-closed-doors football and less clubs folding.

OBVIOUSLY safety is paramount - but as soon as it is safe, yes please football.

I agree. I have no major problem with behind closed doors football, it won't be quite the same but it'll still be something. I do object (as per my earlier post) to changing the rules too much to force it into some kind of ersatz "it's a bit like football but not really" format as was mentioned in the article yesterday. If it was actual, full-blooded normal football I don't care if it's played in front of 100,000 or no-one.

Just as long as they don't introduce smegging goal music...

 

[blue-shifted]

I admire the optimism. Perhaps I’m too sceptical but the only way I can see lower league clubs surviving is with a continued drip down from the elite. Just not convinced behind closed doors is the way to go at this stage.

So if the elite, (including us) weren't prepared to drip any money down, (which given that the primary instinct of most in this crisis was to furlough groundsmen I think we can file under wildly improbable) would you then be convinced that we should stage football behind closed doors?

 

[dazzer6666]

I'm baffled by people seemingly intimating they'd rather no football and lots of clubs folding, rather than temporary behind-closed-doors football and less clubs folding.

OBVIOUSLY safety is paramount - but as soon as it is safe, yes please football.

Agree - I'd rather watch a competitive behind-closed-doors game (assuming all other aspects are unchanged) than no game at all. Lockdown has made me realise how much time I spend watching sport normally ! Would be great to have some actual football discussion here too, have a degree of excitement before a game etc etc.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

So if the elite, (including us) weren't prepared to drip any money down, (which given that the primary instinct of most in this crisis was to furlough groundsmen I think we can file under wildly improbable) would you then be convinced that we should stage football behind closed doors?

At that point I would think some fairly big restructuring would have to take place. Perhaps along the lines as you suggested with individual clubs running PPV packages. My opinion is if you’re going to go with behind closed doors it should be done as a new season - not an end to this one. But then that’s another debate, one which has been done a few times already on this thread!

 

[Mellotron]

Agree - I'd rather watch a competitive behind-closed-doors game (assuming all other aspects are unchanged) than no game at all. Lockdown has made me realise how much time I spend watching sport normally ! Would be great to have some actual football discussion here too, have a degree of excitement before a game etc etc.

This.

As long as people continue with the required social distancing - which I think they mostly would, as it is fairly drummed into us now - I think it would be excellent for a lot of people's mental health to have a genuine distraction (or at least, a variation) from endless COVID-19 news.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Like most on here, been watching football live and on TV since I can remember.

Watched many games over the years, do the aways still yet I can honestly say empty football has little interest to me.

Football to me is the moment, mad screaming fans and the delight when goals are scored. Players and fans interact at such moments, and those highs, probably 2 or 3 a game, make the sport what it is imho. I've always thought that football is so popular because of those rare moments, compared to rugby for example where it's like basketball to some extent. You score, we score.

Watching players score, pat each other on the head from 2m then jog back to the centre circle in an echoing stadium holds little appeal right now.

 

[LamieRobertson]

It really won’t. It won’t feel right in the slightest.

There is more to do than watch The One Show and Bargain Hunt.

Haven’t clubs already received the majority of this years TV money? I’d be interested to know how keen Tony is to restart behind closed doors. Do you know?

We don’t live in times that feel right because they aren’t ...if it means a temporary adaption to where we are right now and the foreseeable then I am for it.

 

[essbee1]

Don't you think you need to think a bit more widely that whether it's us or someone else who gets relegated?

Yes. I have and I do. But blue-shifted: why would you be watching it then? To win? To lose? For the hell of it? What?
Why do you normally watch football? I'll ask the same question to you - why do you watch it?

 

[blue-shifted]

Yes. I have and I do. But blue-shifted: why would you be watching it then? To win? To lose? For the hell of it? What?
Why do you normally watch football? I'll ask the same question to you - why do you watch it?

Because I like it.

I don't want us to be relegated, but like winning and losing, it's just a part of football, I've seen us go down 5 times and probably, i'll see it happen again. There are also way more important issues in football than whether one team goes up or down at the moment.