Footballers and CoronaVirus

[Ray de Galles]

I've realised in the last week or so that the Coronavirus situation is the perfect opportunity for Britain to enact my long-held plan to nationalise football.

[Paul S]

I've realised in the last week or so that the Coronavirus situation is the perfect opportunity for Britain to enact my long-held plan to nationalise football.

I'm intrigued by this, so go on, how will it work?!

[fatbear]

Looks like the Czech Football League is to restart on May 25th, although the Czech league website has no mention of it

https://www.praguemorning.cz/czech-f...art-on-may-25/

Looks like friendly matches will be allowed from May 11th.

Denmark aiming to start May 29th

https://www.eurosport.com/football/s...33/story.shtml

[jameswba]

There has been an article about it on fortunaliga.cz since 27th April, but saying it is subject to the agreement of various parties. I don't see the point to be honest, especially if they also want to have those bizarre play-offs they brought in last year.

Slovakia is slightly behind, with only 3 or 4 clubs back in group training, but Slovakia seems to be proceeding much more cautiously in general

[fatbear]

Hungary to resume on May 23rd with Cup semi-finals

https://www.news18.com/news/football...n-2606007.html

[G-Man]

Looks like it us agreed that Bundesliga will restart on May 15.

The safety regime is pretty stringent. Squads will quarantine, and (as I understand it) no player or staff will be allowed into the empty stadium without having tested negative in two successive tests. There are other precautions as well.

Köln's team doctor has suggested that the positive cases at the club (two players and a physio, all asymptomatic) shows that the distancing, hygiene and testing regimen is working. If it wasn't, there would have been a wider spread of the virus. And maybe so, but the Facebook video Salomon Kalou shot of Hertha's dressing room shows all kind of transgressions.

I expect that should a player get infected in the course of a game, the while thing will be called off again.

And the government has insisted that private channels make broadcasts of games availabe to the public for free, so as to avoid groups of fans meeting for common viewing of pay TV.

Anyway, better that a country like Germany, which has handled the crisis better than most, pioneer the return to football. If it's successful, it could provide a model for some other countries. And if it isn't, then the discussion of resuming the season is dead in the water.

[fatbear]

I read that 10 players have been detected for the virus, so aiming to start within 10 days seems a little cavalier.

If Mrs Merkel does give the OK, are the first fixtures known ( and the timings ) ?

[Patrick Thistle]

Norway's TV2 Sport 1 have obtained rights for the first 12 rounds of the Faroe Isles league which starts next weekend. This appears to be a pay subscription channel. Let's see who also signs up for these rights !

There have been no deaths on the Faroes from the virus, and there are 2 open cases still recovering.

If Soldafjord has a team then I'd tune in. I know Klaksvik has a team but I don't really have much of an attachment there.

[G-Man]

Well, it's not really up to Merkel but to the individual states. But the premiers and federal government seem to have agreed. A rough calculation suggests hat ten infections across the 36 professional clubs (and I think the ten include staff) gives an infection rate of below 1%. With squads and staff quarantined, cross-infections are minimised further.

[fatbear]

The first match in the K-League on Friday is being streamed live on YouTube, kick-off is 11am UK time. Presumably most/all of the matches will be available on the K-League' channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRIaHZvjipo

I have done a little homework in preparation if anyone is interested...........

https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blog...1-jeonbuk.html

[fatbear]

Turkey announce the resumption of their league on June 12th

https://www.goal.com/en/news/coronav...j1v3cvv3jh9ve3

[Ray de Galles]

They were the last major league to shut down, weren't they?

[ursus arctos]

My recollection as well.

[fatbear]

I believe so, the attached article states "Turkey could end up being the nation to have been without football for the shortest amount of time"

[Diable Rouge]

And the Bundesliga gets the green light for the second half of May, with the exact weekend to be determined tomorrow.

[G-Man]

It looks like the weekend of 16-17 is the preferred date, although some clubs that have had less time to train think it's unfair. Which is not an unreasonable position. But everything points too those dates. And it seems that the preferred plan is to resume with the games that were originally scheduled on those dates, which would have been the final round of matches and the resume where they left of.

[ale]

It looks like the weekend of 16-17 is the preferred date, although some clubs that have had less time to train think it's unfair. Which is not an unreasonable position. But everything points too those dates. And it seems that the preferred plan is to resume with the games that were originally scheduled on those dates, which would have been the final round of matches and the resume where they left of.

That would mean Dortmund v Schalke on first week back which isnt ideal. But what part of a return is

[Antepli Ejderha]

All contracts in Turkey end on 31st May so not sure how that's going to work out.

IIRC they played two or three rounds behind closed doors before calling a halt.

[G-Man]

That would mean Dortmund v Schalke on first week back which isnt ideal. But what part of a return is

And now the pendulum seems to have swung to resume where we left off. Which would give us the BVB v Schalke on the first weekend. I'm not sure it's wise, because there is no way of knowing where fans might congregate, or if at all. A bit more time to plan might have been useful.

[DCI Harry Batt]

God this is all so awful.

[jwdd27]

Scunthorpe have gone ahead and announced their retained list, or rather their list of out of contract players, who have all been released - they are unable to offer new terms until they know if and when the season starts again, so those guys are all out.

Not seen other clubs follow suit yet, it has created a bit of a ripple as my fellow 3rd and 4th division supportig work colleagues have all mentioned it.

I can see a lot of clubs restarting as Bolton did last season, with a group of kids and whatever nomadic free agents they can offer something cheap and short term to.

[Ray de Galles]

I can see a lot of clubs restarting as Bolton did last season, with a group of kids and whatever nomadic free agents they can offer something cheap and short term to.

I think almost all free agents in the lower divisions will be relatively cheap, given that wages are bound to come down across the board on new contracts (and for a lot of existing contracts too, where agreement on them can be reached).

[Third rate Leszno]

Carlisle only have 5 'senior' players contracted beyond June (and a couple of those have only a handful of games under their belt). Makes me confident we'll survive, but it's going to be a hell of a job to balance squad building vs unsustainable wage bill until we know when next season might begin.

[fatbear]

BBC inform that the Bundesliga will restart on May 16th. The full details of the fixture are still to be advised although Dortmund vs Schalke will be on the Saturday and Union vs Bayern on the Sunday

[ursus arctos]