[Football] Villa v Newcastle in doubt on Friday due to Covid? ***Update: postponed***

[Hugo Rune]

Rumours are that Grealish has gone down with something.

Maybe a slight breeze?

 

[blue-shifted]

You are saying that clubs will pretend their injured players have Covid ?

It's possible. Or worse, turn a blind eye to letting any infection run through the squad. We've seen how low some of these clubs are prepared to stoop

The point I'm making though is more, if a team has a few injuries to key players and a couple of cases of Covid, can they now use the case of covid to get the fixture called off and play it when their players are better.

Now the PL has set this precedent, it's going to be very hard to decide which fixtures to play and which not to. Clubs will be looking to use this to their advantage

 

[Springal]

It's possible. Or worse, turn a blind eye to letting any infection run through the squad. We've seen how low some of these clubs are prepared to stoop

The point I'm making though is more, if a team has a few injuries to key players and a couple of cases of Covid, can they now use the case of covid to get the fixture called off and play it when their players are better.

Now the PL has set this precedent, it's going to be very hard to decide which fixtures to play and which not to. Clubs will be looking to use this to their advantage

PL testing is twice a week though. Unless clubs are going to somehow fake tests?

 

[Easy 10]

You could say that about any injury crisis though. If a sickness bug, for example goes through the squad, they would be expected to play the fixture. It's just seen as tough **** that you can't play your best players and have to rely on your squad.

But an injury crisis or sickness bug is not transferrable to your opponents. This is a bit different.

 

[blue-shifted]

PL testing is twice a week though. Unless clubs are going to somehow fake tests?

They can't fake tests no. I'm not sure even the scummiest of clubs would infect players on purpose to avoid playing a fixture. Probably they wouldn't, who knows.

The point I'm making is more about them gaming the system. Again, a couple of key injuries, a few fringe players who wouldn't play anyway test positive, can they get the fixture called off when they are quite capable of putting out a competitive team and the covid cases hasn't changes the line up.

It could also enable them to delay fixtures they would rather play later. So 8 games in December. It would be way easier for Newcastle or whoever if they could play a couple in May, or they might conclude this.

The decision just gives rise to these possibilities, that's why I disagree with it

 

[blue-shifted]

But an injury crisis or sickness bug is not transferrable to your opponents. This is a bit different.

It's not

Clearly the players who would be playing have been tested and are negative

A sickness bug, is of course as transferable to an opponent as it is to a teammate

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

It's possible. Or worse, turn a blind eye to letting any infection run through the squad. We've seen how low some of these clubs are prepared to stoop

The point I'm making though is more, if a team has a few injuries to key players and a couple of cases of Covid, can they now use the case of covid to get the fixture called off and play it when their players are better.

Now the PL has set this precedent, it's going to be very hard to decide which fixtures to play and which not to. Clubs will be looking to use this to their advantage

I really don’t think that’s true. Covid protocols are there because it is an infectious disease. Compliance reporting will be very tight. I don’t think you need worry that this is any sort of precedent. If the PL say a game should be called off then that is exactly what should happen. That is in all of our interest.

 

[Bozza]

As long as they can get a team out, no need to bring an indefinable word like significant into it.

It's a but like Middlesboro not turning up for a match when they had an injury crisis, some time in the 90s. If the can't fulfil the fixture (which they could, they want to do it at a time when they have fewer injuries) they should lose the points.

Harsh in a pandemic, but every club has got to put precautions in place to prevent it spreading through the squad.

The problem as I see it is that now this precedent has been set you've got to draw a line as to how many is "significant".

Clubs will very much be looking to take advantage of this one way or another

There will be a known number, obviously, which will have been communicated to the Premier League. Newcastle won't be vague in those communications, trying to weasel out of the fixture.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

It's not

Clearly the players who would be playing have been tested and are negative

A sickness bug, is of course as transferable to an opponent as it is to a teammate

Yes, but the world is not fighting a fatal pandemic sickness bug. Your priorities seem a little skewed and you do seem a little paranoid.

 

[Easy 10]

It's not

Clearly the players who would be playing have been tested and are negative

A sickness bug, is of course as transferable to an opponent as it is to a teammate

Covid, as we know, is highly contagious. And there are incubation periods with it. Would any club be happy taking to the field against a team that has just had this disease sweep through and decimate the squad ? Is any test 100% accurate ?

General sickness bugs that lay a squad low are more often than not gastronomic, and therefore would not pose a risk to opponents.

 

[Giraffe]

But that should be the case.

These rules have been agreed on.

A very slippery slope to allow this to be cancelled. Managers will use this precedent to get games cancelled when they've got a few injuries. Newcastle can put out a team, so should have to put out a team

I agree with this. Have they really got more players out than any other team has had at one point? I doubt it.

 

[Easy 10]

I agree with this. Have they really got more players out than any other team has had at one point? I doubt it.

Surely like all clubs they have to submit the test results to the FA / PL, I think its a bit fanciful to suggest they'd falsify the covid test results. And to what end ? They've probably got a few out injured, but then so has pretty much everyone else. Newcastle have now got an extra game to shoe-horn in somewhere within the schedule, and as we've seen, many clubs (one in particular) are already squealing about there being too many games close together. Postponements are hardly going to help allieviate that are they.

 

[WilburySeagull]

If you look at BBC you will see the mai reason for postponement is the closure of the training ground which made Newcastle unable to train or prepare.

Not unreasonable for me.