So what is the last date we think they can resume on and realistically get the season finished? The FA has extended the season deadline beyond the 1st June and I guess clubs will be encouraged to give month-long extensions to expiring contracts, along with a delay of the opening of the summer transfer window (though how that will work with contracts/transfers already signed is an issue...). But if we get into May and still no restart in sight, is that when they call it?
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They will keep kicking the can down the road rather than put themselves in a weaker position contractually.
We may start to see the idea of closed door matches being floated aggressively come MayComment
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"Indefinitely" implies that they will play the end of this season whenever - October maybe - to honour the existing contract with Sky, before worrying about what to do with 2020-21. An Apertura style season next year would be an option.Comment
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They would have to solve the player contract problem, though
Which is far from entirely in their controlComment
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Given that we come under the umbrella of UEFA, I'm sure the wizard-minds that came up with the Nations League and the Inter Toto will have any number of ingenious and baffling ways to fill up a random sized gap.Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View PostComment
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The clubs can fulfill fixtures with different squads of players. If Liverpool bought Martial in the summer, he could play the last 9 games in the autumn and presumably win a Premier League medal?Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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James Mc Clean, Enda Stephens and Kevin Long, all league of Ireland alumni, have donated €25,000 each to help players from the league who are in financial trouble.Comment
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To answer my own question, the 30 April date that the hiatus has been extended would appear not to be based on scientific advice but rather that is close to the cutoff point. If they can restart then, then they are looking at getting everything done by June 30th, which just about gives time for next season. If they still can't play games even behind closed doors in May (based on the Italian and Chinese experiences five weeks is not going to be long enough to be past this and having crowds again) then some tough decisions like cancelling Cup competitions to prioritise leagues may be needed.Originally posted by Janik View Post
Well, just go past 30th June then, people cry? But the same contractual/TV pressures that mean competitions are desperate to complete this season also push equally hard the other way - all those contracts exist for the next campaign and have fixed dates in them. Just like with the Olympics there is an entire set of interlinked arrangements that absolutely rely on things getting done approximately as scheduled.Comment
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That column I mentioned above, here it is. Someone put in the comments words to the effect of, "Great suggestions, zero chance of them happening." But maybe what transpires over the coming months may actually increase the chances of radical reform. This, by the way, is for a US publication (and is behind a pay wall), in case anyone still really gives a toss about using the (originally English) word soccer. I welcome your thoughts as the ideas were pretty much (figuratively) sketched out on the back of the Cornflakes packet.
Urgent reforms for European soccer in a post-viral world
The wholesale suspension of soccer activity across Europe has opened us up to the truth that life can, and indeed must, continue without the game. For now, at least. The next question is how that game will look when it returns - be that in April (forget it), June (possibly) or even next year (not unthinkable). If any good is to come of the break enforced by the pandemic corona virus, then it must lead to a wholesale reform of the game's timetable and its financial structure.
Soccer's attempt to continue as normal, except without any fans, proved to be a predictably short-sighted decision, especially for teams like Valencia of Spain and Atalanta of Italy. They were compelled to meet in the Champions League in Milan last month (at that time part of Italy's infected 'red zone') and again in Valencia behind closed doors three weeks later, and now both teams are among several being quarantined after numerous players tested positive for the virus. The issue of whether or not to play 'ghost games' became moot once the health risks of travelling and competing against each other became a reality for players and staff.
It's a rarity when sheltered, well-paid sportsmen are touched by the events of the real world, but most have been quick to react in a sane and humane fashion. Toni Kroos of Real Madrid, another team in quarantine, told German TV channel Pro7 that, despite self-isolation, he's in a privileged position compared to others, and that he and his family are fine. Bayern Munich's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has admitted that he and his fellow professionals are giving serious thought to the suggestion made by Bavaria's state president Markus Söder that they should give up part or all of their salaries to help others.
About those salaries. They are part of the reason that so many clubs are suddenly petrified that they will soon go out of existence without the income from sponsorship, merchandise, gate receipts and - most lucrative of all - tv contracts. That is not to blame the players for taking what they've signed up for. It's to blame the clubs as a whole for a risky, short term business mentality that has placed the rush for success over the need for stability. Lost among the self-generating hype about being the biggest and best competitions in the world (particular offenders: the English Premier League and the Uefa Champions League) has been all sense of perspective about what soccer clubs mean to their communities, and the importance of the game beyond profit and silverware.
Even before the pandemic, bankruptcies this season alone included storied clubs such as Bury FC (English third tier, twice FA Cup winners), while in the German fourth tier SG Wattenscheid and Rot-Weiss Erfurt have both gone under. In the same country's third division, former Bundesliga champion Kaiserslautern have been hanging by a thread for years. The same applies to four-time FA Cup winners and ex-Premier League regulars Bolton Wanderers, now at the foot of England's third tier following a 12-point deduction for financial chicanery.
There are many reasons a club can go under, and many of the teams cited above have been managed with gross negligence. Yet their struggles also exemplify the lack of solidarity in the European game, where cash has become the primary method to beat down the competition. Impulse purchasing as a swift path to success has also been to the detriment of many clubs' youth development programmes, while the large amounts of money that have flooded in to the game have been concentrated towards the elite through top-heavy tv deals.
So, when European soccer returns, I suggest the following:
- the 2019-20 domestic and European season is given time to play out until the end of the calendar year. Uefa, the bigger clubs, and their well-paid players set up a solidarity fund for the teams facing bankruptcy or severe financial difficulties. Fans are offered the chance to invest in the fund.
- world soccer then moves to a unified calendar year, starting with 2021, as practiced in the northern European leagues and Major League Soccer. There will be a six-week break for major tournaments, either in summer or in winter.
- to allow for those breaks, and some breaks from the game in general, club soccer must cut back its schedule. There are too many games already, too many drawn-out competitions. Forget Fifa President Gianni Infantino's impractical, cash-grasping Club World Cup idea, abolish League Cups (only England and Scotland still have these, France is planning to finish its League Cup after this season), abolish FA Cup replays and always give home advantage to the team from the lower division, restrict all top flights to 18 teams. Eliminate the laborious league phases of the Champions League and the Europa League and make them straight knockout competitions again. Less income, but less predictability and more excitement.
- Uefa introduces a Europe-wide salary cap, or a draconian tax on the game's top earners that is diverted to the solidarity fund (see above). Agents must be trained, licensed, ethically assessed, and restricted to taking no more than 5% of any deal they are involved in. Place a ceiling on transfer fees, with an independent arbitrator resolving disputes about a given player's value.
- finally stop the commercially driven hyperbole and the exploitation of supporter 'passion' that makes top-flight soccer obsessed with business, sponsorship and profit. Turn it instead into a conversation about soccer's social and cultural value, and what it means to the vast majority of fans and participants. From the top down, administrations must implement rules and offer training and guidance on long term, sustainable management of a club's finances.
- re-distribute TV income equally from the biggest leagues and European competitions among all professional clubs, with that money invested solely in youth development.
There may be flaws and omissions in these suggestions, but we've a few weeks to think about them. If an amateur coach and referee can come up with half a dozen talking points over breakfast, then the game's finest minds should be able to propose something much more workable and comprehensive. The game can not just take up again where it left off. Only a radical, far-reaching, egalitarian-motivated re-think can help soccer's long term survival and measured prosperity in a healthy, post-viral world.
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The Athletic carrying a story that the PL clubs have been told that they will need to repay £762 million (presumably split between the clubs) in broadcast money if the current season isn't completed.Comment
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How many people are cancelling their Sky and BT subscriptions?Comment
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A Sion of the times Not very au fait with swiss employment law but this can't be legal, surely?Comment
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I like IMP’s planComment
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It's excellent, and could crossover to other sports like rugby.Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View PostComment
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And then we have idiots like Real Madrid's Serbian striker Luka Jovic, who violated his two-week quarantine in Belgrade, having come from Covid19-affected Real Madrid, to go out and party. It's fair to say that nobody is particularly amused at his antics, with the authorities sort of threatening to make an example of Jovic if it turns out that he broke a law by breaking isolation.
For his part, Jovic has apologised for having useless advisers who in their neglectful ways failed to tell him what he can't do. Luka's passport says he is 22, but he is actually 7.Comment
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I think we should exclude "playing behind closed doors" from all scenarios. Fans would congregate outside grounds and in pubs (if they are open), players would infect each other, and people without Sky would crowd into the homes of friends who have it. If it's not safe to play under normal conditions, it's not safe, period.Comment
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Charlie Austin thinks he caught the virus at the Cheltenham Festival:
https://www.theguardian.com/football...virus-symptoms
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Yes.Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
re:18 teams, the Premier League has mooted the exact opposite if they can't complete this campaign - no relegation but adding the current top two in the Championship (Leeds and West Brom) for 2020/21 which would make a 22 team league. I know which of these blueprints I think is the likeliest to happen. Sorry imp.Comment
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Gonzalo Higuain is another rumoured to have fled quarantine.Comment
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He's in Argentina, having arrived by private plane, but Juventus are now saying that he was not under quarantine due to the fact that he had litte, if any, contact with RuganiComment
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I thought the whole of Italy was in effective quarantine.Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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He left before that edict was issuedComment
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Ah, it sounded like he'd used his money to leave despite the rules. Thanks for clarifying.Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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