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

[Blue Valkyrie]

London Mayor opposes return of football currently

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/sadiq-khan-opposes-premier-league-plan-restart-london-june-a4438206.html

Well, he seems opposed to it taking place in London

Aside from his opinion , what a nob jockey that bloke is

Does this mean the press and internet trolls can blame him rather than bhafc ?

 

[Insel affe]

London Mayor opposes return of football currently

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/sadiq-khan-opposes-premier-league-plan-restart-london-june-a4438206.html

Obviously being a "Liverpool fan"

 

[schmunk]

Obviously being a "Liverpool fan"

If (as he did) you grew up in South London, wouldn't you be...?

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Love to watch some footy on TV ............. if it was safe for every one

 

[crodonilson]

The only reason they're desperate to finish the season is money, and I find that quite depressing. In the past we were told that football is nothing without the fans - that is obviously not the case, as we are about to see.

If these nine games are played out behind closed doors and sporting destiny is decided in near silence then a little part of what makes football special will have died.

Unfortunately that is what modern football has become, it's an industry and a business as much as a sport. One where the average weekly wage for a player is over £61,000 per week. That's a total weekly wage bill for PL clubs of over £28m for players alone let alone all the backroom staff/CEO's etc, or given 8 weeks currently without games that's £225m in wages paid out to players so far with the income pretty much having dried up. I think from that persepctive as a business alone I can understand the keenness to get games back being played particularly given the reluctance to date of footballers to take any pay cut.

 

[blue-shifted]

Agreed.

My biggest concern with potentially restarting the season again is trusting footballers to adhere to social distancing away from their workplace, if they all could the chances of them catching it would be very low given that they live in affluent areas and should naturally be coming into contact with less people. I think there was a poll last week and it showed that those in the 18-30 were most likely to have broken the social distancing regulations and particularly men (I think it was about 30% who admitted this in the poll). If you can't trust footballers to do their bit away from the training grounds and matches then there is little chance for a succesful resumption but it's wrong then that many of them are coming out expressing their concern about the safety aspect of returning to work when many of them or their colleagues are flouting the rules. They can't have it all ways and if there is no resumption they have to accept with no income for the clubs they will need to take very substantial pay cuts, not just deferrals.

Except they won't. The clubs can't legally enforce lower contracts on their players. They can't sack their players as they would have to pay up the contracts. The players have amply demonstrated that they re not prepared to do anything more than token (whether you think this is right or wrong). The PFA have no interest is backing any significant salary drop.

All of this means that clubs in all divisions can't materially reduce their outgoings. In addition to this, they are now faced with having to pay Sky etc back and are now refunding season tickets. All clubs are now burning through their savings and the great majority were mortgaged to the hilt before this started. Also remember, the business interests of all owners will have taken a hit as well, so they will be less likely to be able to put their hands in their pockets.

Though Man City et all will probably be ok, the majority are faced with the stark choice. Earn some money (ie play games) or go out of business. Of course they are trying to jump through hoops to get the games on. Don't blame the clubs. It's not greed. They are battling to survive.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Once you have the virus in your epithelium you can spread it. Testing twice a week will allow you to spread the virus for 2 or 3 days in the week that you become infected, before you are quarantined.

I appreciate there will be a sliding scale of restrictions based on various perceptions, and one assumes that if football is allowed to resume before other close-contact activities with strangers, someone will have estimated how many vulnerable members of footballers' families, of the families of other people inolved in the club's matchday and training activities, and the TV guys, and the hotel workers and folk transporting players around the country need to die before someone says 'this ain't worth it', and will have calculated that the number won't be reached. I'd like to see the calculation, personally. It is the calculation of the acceptable level of avoidable deaths.

If I were a PL footballer right now I'd consider myself a very well paid but entirely expendible performing monkey. I wouldn't be happy.

You sound a bit like Wayne Rooney and his "guinea pigs" article. And how many professions would you extend that to? I've got many friends working in mental health services who could feel they are treated as expendible? (and are not very well paid).

Although can't argue that a restart seems ridiculous at the moment.

 

[dazzer6666]

If one single person dies (and that doesn't need to be a player - could be an associated worker, relative or whoever - but due to direct or indirect contact with an infected player) as a result of the increasingly pathetic attempts to finish an already ruined season I don't know how the world will react (probably a big charity donation from clubs and players and a minutes applause I guess)

 

[clapham_gull]

Aside from his opinion , what a nob jockey that bloke is

All he has said is that it's too soon to start contemplating large events (behind closed doors or not) in London.

I fully agree and so do many players.

 

[blue-shifted]

Once you have the virus in your epithelium you can spread it. Testing twice a week will allow you to spread the virus for 2 or 3 days in the week that you become infected, before you are quarantined.

I appreciate there will be a sliding scale of restrictions based on various perceptions, and one assumes that if football is allowed to resume before other close-contact activities with strangers, someone will have estimated how many vulnerable members of footballers' families, of the families of other people inolved in the club's matchday and training activities, and the TV guys, and the hotel workers and folk transporting players around the country need to die before someone says 'this ain't worth it', and will have calculated that the number won't be reached. I'd like to see the calculation, personally. It is the calculation of the acceptable level of avoidable deaths.

If I were a PL footballer right now I'd consider myself a very well paid but entirely expendible performing monkey. I wouldn't be happy.

Agree with the fella who was saying that many of us are going to have to go back to work soon, and most of us aren't doing a job where it's totally essential that it happens.

I do think if a player has very strong views, or a health concern they should be able to opt out.

 

[Me and my Monkey]

Does this mean the press and internet trolls can blame him rather than bhafc ?

Or does it mean he thinks all London games should be played in Brighton, i.e. neutral venue, therefore shifting the focus back on to Brighton as miserable, manipulative party poopers? Maybe. Or perhaps the press have quoted him out of context. Who knows?

 

[neilbard]

627 New Deaths

3403 New Cases

Death toll rises to 32692

More players voicing their concerns about Project Restart.

Awaits new spike in the next couple of weeks, everybody back in lockdown..

 

[Barham's tash]

627 New Deaths

3403 New Cases

Death toll rises to 32692

More players voicing their concerns about Project Restart.

Awaits new spike in the next couple of weeks, everybody back in lockdown..

THIS. Really not sure why it’s so ****ing hard for people to grasp let alone the footballing authorities.

 

[BBassic]

You sound a bit like Wayne Rooney and his "guinea pigs" article. And how many professions would you extend that to? I've got many friends working in mental health services who could feel they are treated as expendible? (and are not very well paid).

Although can't argue that a restart seems ridiculous at the moment.

My other half works in mental health and that was very much the feeling. Zero guidance and leadership from their bosses.

While the country, quite rightly, were in uproar over the care homes debacle I was thinking about my other half and their colleagues and their patients (confirmed cases and all) in mental health hospitals who weren't getting any sort of recognition or news that we could find. Because f**k the people with mental health issues eh? And f**k the people who have dedicated their lives to helping them while we're at it.

Made my piss boil.

 

[METALMICKY]

627 New Deaths

3403 New Cases

Death toll rises to 32692

More players voicing their concerns about Project Restart.

Awaits new spike in the next couple of weeks, everybody back in lockdown..

Yes, think that could be a very fair prediction. To use the well worn phrase the restart project is ignoring the ' elephant in the room' that is the players do now want to risk their healths. As each day passes more are coming out to state that and regardless of how much they earn they have a point.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

You sound a bit like Wayne Rooney and his "guinea pigs" article. And how many professions would you extend that to? I've got many friends working in mental health services who could feel they are treated as expendible? (and are not very well paid).

Although can't argue that a restart seems ridiculous at the moment.

I would not equate a footballer (especially EPL) with a mental health practitioner. Why? One is an entertainer, and the other is, er, a mental health professional

If that still doesn't have traction for you, consider what doctors, nurses, and other health practitioners do. They contribute directly to the health of individuals. What could we call them? What about 'key worker'? That has a ring to it.

There is scope for much discussion about what constitutes 'key'. That's not for here.

So what should be the rules for key workers? Should they be forced to work? Ironically lots of them would rather die than not work. I salute the likes of [MENTION=5076]Bevendean Hillbilly[/MENTION], recently of this parish, and his heroic post on here some weeks ago. That's a key worker, and we should be crawling over broken glass to ensure they are protected and, dare I say it, remunerated. No, they should not be forced to work but in this country we come into our own in times of need, and coercion isn't needed.

So what about non key workers? Should they be forced to work? Now it is head wobble time. Non key workers were, up to the new 'be alart' rubric required to stay at home to reduce the risk of spread. How can we go from that to naming and shaming and mocking those (like Rose) who are not overly keen on going back to work having been forbidden to work up till a few days ago.

And so, the elephant in the room.....footballers are not and never will be key workers. They should stay at home and practice social distancing until the rest of us can have our friends round, go to our pub and, FFS, watch footballers play football. . . . .

.....OK, maybe we could try to make it safer for them so that could play for our entertainment. National morale and all that. But it has to be safe for them. And they have to be invited to say whether they agree with the plans or not.

We can no more demand our footballers get on the pitch than we can demand our bands to do gigs. In fact, of all our entertainers, footballers and rugby players are probably the worst placed in the 'lets get them back to work' stakes. No matter how much we want it (I am one of those who really misses his footy).

Anyway

 

[darkwolf666]

You sound a bit like Wayne Rooney and his "guinea pigs" article. And how many professions would you extend that to? I've got many friends working in mental health services who could feel they are treated as expendible? (and are not very well paid).

Although can't argue that a restart seems ridiculous at the moment.

I'm guessing your friends that work in mental health don't do it to entertain others, that for me is the key difference...

How much players get paid is a completely separate discussion, and shouldn't come into a discussion on public health, as in "you get paid a lot of money, put yourself in the firing line and stop moaning about it..."

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

You sound a bit like Wayne Rooney and his "guinea pigs" article. And how many professions would you extend that to? I've got many friends working in mental health services who could feel they are treated as expendible? (and are not very well paid).

Although can't argue that a restart seems ridiculous at the moment.

PS, I may be a bit of a **** sometimes, but I doubt very much that I ever sound like Wayne Rooney

 

[Mr Putdown]

Just as an aside, I wonder how many professional footballers are asthmatic or have unknown heart problems?

28% of elite footballers apparently.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...-footballers-health-study-finds-a3713791.html

 

[darkwolf666]

28% of elite footballers apparently.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...-footballers-health-study-finds-a3713791.html

Bloody hell, that's a lot...!!!