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Covid-19 & Football

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An update on season tickets. And a comment about fulfilling this season’s fixtures.

[article]
Liverpool FC would like to update season ticket holders while the remaining Premier League fixtures for this season remain suspended indefinitely.

Until there is clarity around the fixture schedule, we have suspended the upcoming season ticket renewal process.

We will continue to monitor the situation, and a new period of renewal will be put in place once there is confirmation of the start date of the 2020-21 season. Season ticket holders will be contacted directly to advise them of the new deadline and provide as much notice as possible.

Prices for general admission season tickets will be frozen for the 2020-21 season, and we will be in touch with supporters once these go on sale.

We fully support the collective intent of Premier League clubs to complete all fixtures in the 2019-20 season. Should all remaining fixtures go ahead as normal, all season tickets and match-by-match tickets will remain valid for the rearranged date.

In the event that the remaining 2019-20 home games cannot be played in front of supporters, we will provide either a refund for the equivalent value of the remaining home games to all season ticket holders and hospitality members, or the pro-rata value of the individual affected home matches as credit against their 2020-21 season ticket.

This rebate or refund will also be applicable to all official Members, general admission supporters and matchday hospitality ticket holders who have purchased for the affected games in the 2019-20 season. These supporters will be contacted individually via email to provide further information on the refund process.

As the situation continues to evolve, we will continue to keep supporters updated with any developments relating to the current season and the 2020-21 season.

We would like to thank our supporters for their understanding and patience during this challenging time. Our thoughts are with you all at this time and we hope all our supporters are staying safe and at home.

[/article]
 
Speculation over a possible link between coronavirus cases in Liverpool and the club's Champions League match with Atletico Madrid last month is an "interesting hypothesis", a scientific adviser to the UK government has said.
Some coronavirus deaths in Liverpool have been blamed on the 11 March match at Anfield, which was attended by more than 52,000 people, including 3,000 from Madrid, where a partial lockdown was already in force.
While there is no confirmed link between the match and any coronavirus cases, the government's deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean, said it warranted further investigation.
"It will be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in Liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in Spain," she said at the UK government's daily coronavirus news briefing on Monday.
Liverpool city council's director of public health Matthew Ashton previously told the Guardian the match should have been called off, while the mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, said over the weekend that it was a "mistake" to allow thousands of Atletico fans to attend.
"It didn't make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time," Martinez-Almedia told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
Latest figures show that 246 people have died with coronavirus in Liverpool's NHS hospitals.
Madrid, meanwhile, is one of Europe's worst affected cities. Spain has the second-highest number of confirmed infection cases in the world, behind the US, figures from Johns Hopkins University say.
The country's death toll climbed close to 21,000 on Monday.
Speaking at Monday's news briefing, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak rejected claims the government was too slow to cancel large sporting events in the days before the coronavirus lockdown was enforced.
The Cheltenham Festival, along with Liverpool's Champions League match with Atletico, went ahead in the second week of March. There were 251,684 racegoers in attendance across the four days of the Festival, while 68,500 watched the Cheltenham Gold Cup on 13 March.
Strict limits on daily life - such as requiring people to stay at home, shutting many businesses and preventing gatherings of more than two people - were introduced on 23 March.
"There is often a wrong time to put certain measures in place, thinking about sustainability and everything else," Sunak said.
"At all parts of this we have been guided by that science, we have been guided by making the right decisions at the right time, and I stand by that."
Analysis

BBC sports editor Dan Roan:
This is the furthest a senior government adviser has gone in admitting there may be a link between Liverpool's match against Atletico Madrid and the coronavirus outbreak that the city has since suffered. Certainly, deputy chief scientific adviser Angela McLean did not rule out a connection when asked about the issue by a reporter from the Liverpool Echo.
At this stage it is impossible to know whether - and to what extent - the Champions League game contributed to the surge of deaths on Merseyside that followed. (Just as we do not know how many of the quarter of a million racing fans who visited the Cheltenham Festival that same week caught the virus from being there.)
But ever since the match, there has been mounting concern that thousands of fans from one of the early European epicentres of the pandemic were allowed to travel to Anfield, even after Spain had closed schools and banned mass gatherings. Two days later, of course, the Premier League suspended the season, effectively taking the decision out of the government's hands.
McLean's comments could add to the pressure on the government, those advising ministers at the time, and Uefa.
 
Holle said:
Not football, 'football'.
Click to expand...
Oh I misread it (sorry, my German is not great), I focused on the last sentence in the article stating : 'The ball is rolling again in Austrian football'. Whereas it was referring to player testing. *doh*
 
Once our games start and the TV people start filming it, they'll have to come up with a strategy to deal with the non-stop 'fucking' and 'cunting' that the mics will pick up. Apparently Sky have actually considered using a crowd noise tape, which would be too awful to endure. Their other option is to go with only the most muted audio, which would surely be too flat for TV. Of course they could go for a slight delay, with some bloke hovering over a cut button, but in a 90 minute game he'd end up with a repetitive strain injury. So I'll be intrigued to see what they decide. Hendo alone is a walking talking OFCOM complaint, so they'll have to figure something out.
 
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I think after the first few live games you’ll see a dramatic improvement from the players. Those pesky sponsors won’t like the microphones picking up naughty words.

For some reason that just reminded me about commentators apologising for bad language during a fight. You’re watching 2 people bloodily smashing each other in the head. A few swear words shouldn’t insult the audience.
 
[article]
The Bundesliga could be the first of Europe’s top-flight soccer leagues to come out of an enforced COVID-19 hibernation.

Monday saw two of the country’s top leaders give their backing to a return to action—although all fixtures would be played behind closed doors, with no fans allowed in the stadium, known as geister-spiele or ghost games.

A compromise that could last until the spring of 2021, as hinted by Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) CEO, Christian Seifert last month.

“If we can play games, it is to be expected that they will be without fans for some time. Maybe even into the new season or until the end of the year.” the league boss commented last month.

A sentiment shared by Deutschen Fußball-Bundes (German FA) cheif, Fritz Keller.

“We are very much aware that football without fans lacks its heart, from discussions and feedback from fan organizations, I know how much it hurts fans that they cannot support their clubs in the stadium.” admitted Keller.

However, the return to action edged closer on Monday evening as Markus Söder, the Bavarian Minister-President and Armin Laschet, the Minister President of Nordrhein-Westfalen, added their support to a league restart.

“The prerequisite is that there is a well thought-out concept. What the DFL has presented these past few days shows that protective measures are in place. I could imagine that we can go back football under ghost games.” Laschet told German newspaper Bild.

Meanwhile counterpart Söder went as far as mentioning a date for a potential kickoff.

“It is conceivable that we might be able to play such a ghost round at the earliest from May 9. A weekend with football is much more bearable than a weekend without football. ” the Nordrhein-Westfalen politician said in the same interview.


News comes ahead of the April 23 meeting of the DFL, where league leaders will sit down with state and federal government heads to try and plan a route back to some sort of emerging normality.

The DFL reportedly hopes to get the go-ahead from the federal government for the top-two tiers of soccer to resume early next month, with the AFP hinting either May 9 or 16 as suitable dates.

[/article]
 
Dutch league more than likely cancelled, as sports banned until September.

Meeting on Friday where they'll decide what happens to the league.

Ajax top on goal difference, so would be VERY interested to see how they solve that
 
The “cancel the season” clubs is up to 3. One is Spurs, another is West Ham. Who is the team with the old squad who can’t handle playing twice a week?

[article]
An increasing number of Premier League clubs are actively discussing the possibility of bringing the season to an early end, with concerns growing over the feasibility of a return even behind closed doors.


The Premier League is suspended indefinitely and, last week, a meeting of the 20 clubs reaffirmed the intention to complete the season when it is “safe and appropriate”. Away from collective discussions, however, clubs are informally talking about the hurdles in the way of a return, with some asking whether the challenges will soon become too great.


The Guardian has spoken to clubs who have raised a range of concerns. The most immediate is a fear over the medical safety of playing a full contact sport while there is the risk of contracting Covid-19.


Clubs were told last week that play would resume only once there was sufficient capacity to test players, staff and other individuals – such as TV broadcast teams – involved in any behind-doors competition. There has also been a provisional medical plan drawn up between the league and range of club doctors over how to minimise the risk of infection.


But the practicality of the plan was questioned by one club, who argued that players may have to be separated from their families for a month or more to make sure they are not infected. There is also the concern over the amount of testing required, with perhaps multiple tests per person per match being required, and the possible insensitivity of undertaking such a plan when frontline workers in the NHS and other public services are currently not getting the testing they need.


Concerns over health and safety were not the only issues raised, however. For clubs outside the big six there are also distinct financial challenges with playing on. If the season were to return in mid-June – a best-case scenario – clubs would need to extend contracts of some of their players who might otherwise have left, keeping large wages on the payroll. Equally some clubs at the bottom would be paying greater wages than would have been the case had they already dropped down a division and activated relegation clauses. It is also the case that some clubs could find themselves in legal dispute with players over extending their deals.


If it were judged safe to play and clubs were able to take the short-term financial hit in the hope of recouping the money later through broadcast revenue, for example, there would remain issues over sporting integrity. A compacted remainder of the league season, with 92 fixtures still to be completed, would take place during the summer months and would have a physical impact on players. Clubs with smaller squads would face a challenge.


One club are believed to consider the age profile of their squad as a disadvantage if a regular weekend-midweek-weekend rhythm were required. Another raised the issue of what would happen should a player refuse to play over welfare concerns, or if a player who had been set for a transfer were selected against their prospective new club.


The issues may be resolvable but it is understood they have not been discussed openly in Premier League meetings. One club official who has taken part in the meetings said there had been no attempt to ascertain a preferred outcome and none expressed by individual teams. The next Premier League meeting is scheduled for Friday 1 May.

[/article]
 
Then again, the broadcasters have spoken to the league and government about completing the season.

[article]
Sky Sports and BT are in talks about making a selection of the remaining matches of the Premier League season free-to-air, it has been revealed.


The 2019/20 season is on hold in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic with clubs working towards a solution that will see the current campaign completed rather than cancelled altogether.


The likeliest option appears to be playing the outstanding fixtures behind closed doors without fans to protect from a possible spread of the virus.


How said matches would then be broadcast is one of the many issues with such a plan that are yet to be decided.


But speaking at a meeting of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee on Wednesday culture secretary Oliver Dowden said conversations have been had between the Premier League and broadcasters about making matches available for everyone to watch without subscription.


Julian Knight, the committee chairman, asked if the Premier League should be offered free to air if it does play behind closed doors, to stop people going to their friends’ houses to watch subscription packages.


Mr Dowden said: “Yes, it’s a very good point and I’ve raised exactly this challenge to the Premier League in the conversations that I had with them.


“I have said to the Premier League in particular, it wouldn’t send the best signal if they were the first or one of the first major sports to resume behind closed doors and the public at large wouldn’t have access to it.”


When further pushed by Knight on whether that meant we could expect to see matches on BBC or ITV, Dowden said: “I’m certainly not going to jump a further step ahead and start speculating about the platform upon which they might broadcast.


“To your point, if they are being mindful of access points that doesn’t just have to be going onto traditional terrestrial matches, or even showing all of the matches.


“There’s all sorts of creative options within that but it is something they should be considering, and they have said they are.”


Dowden said there had been “productive conversations” with sporting bodies about how they might go about resuming activity in the event of restrictions being relaxed, but insisted these were on a “without prejudice” basis and that nothing would happen unless scientific advice changed.


“We have had productive conversations. We must be content that it sends the correct signal. But within that we have been involved in some constructive discussions. We have already engaged with the police, Public Health England, the Local Government Association and others. We’re progressing this.


“We want to get to a point where we’ve bottomed out with this work, dealt with all the practicalities of it, then if the wider circumstances permit we would seek through Cobra and others to do it. That is not what we’re talking about right now, but we want to make sure we do all the preparatory work.”


Professional football in the UK is currently suspended indefinitely with talks still ongoing about when a realistic return date will be.


Uefa confirmed earlier this week that it strongly recommends member leagues to complete their seasons but that it would be open to cancelling campaigns “in special cases”.
[/article]
 
It's quite clear there's a couple of chairman who want it cancelled & are leaking stories to the press to try to get traction.

However whilst there's so much money at stake its hard, if not impossible, to see 14 clubs voting for it, if you're an established PL club, which at least 14 will class themselves to be, or aspiring to be, you'll be worried about the medium to long term impacts on the league if this is voided & next season is similarly disrupted as well.
 
Burnley and Brighton have come out and said that. No way we’d want to cancel it. Nor would Sheffield United. Everton would be fucked without the tv money. Man U need to try and make top 4.

There is 6 clubs straight away who’d vote against cancelling it.

It is down to money. Only 1 club would really forgo the £50 million or so in revenue. And they’re dirty, oil cunts.
 
gkmacca said:
Once our games start and the TV people start filming it, they'll have to come up with a strategy to deal with the non-stop 'fucking' and 'cunting' that the mics will pick up. Apparently Sky have actually considered using a crowd noise tape, which would be too awful to endure. Their other option is to go with only the most muted audio, which would surely be too flat for TV. Of course they could go for a slight delay, with some bloke hovering over a cut button, but in a 90 minute game he'd end up with a repetitive strain injury. So I'll be intrigued to see what they decide. Hendo alone is a walking talking OFCOM complaint, so they'll have to figure something out.
Click to expand...

I say live dubbing. Use the guy who did the thundercats voice for Milner.
 
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Just leave it in FFS. At least it'll provide some atmosphere. Anyone who has watched footy at any level hears swearing constantly.
 
momoWASboss said:
I think after the first few live games you’ll see a dramatic improvement from the players. Those pesky sponsors won’t like the microphones picking up naughty words.

For some reason that just reminded me about commentators apologising for bad language during a fight. You’re watching 2 people bloodily smashing each other in the head. A few swear words shouldn’t insult the audience.
Click to expand...

Maybe the players will have to attend a school of good manners; they will be taught how to speak without raising their voice and address their peers and the ref as "Sir."
 
I think we can live with a few cunt and fuck off’s in this troubled time we’re in.
Just get the football rolling and they scream all the abuse they want for me.
 
rurikbird said:
Maybe the players will have to attend a school of good manners; they will be taught how to speak without raising their voice and address their peers and the ref as "Sir."
Click to expand...

They get pretty close to that in rugby. They don't call the ref or each other "Sir", and there can be all kinds of skullduggery going on during the game itself (the average pro rugby player could eat the average pro footballer for breakfast), but there is very little loud verbal confrontation and definitely none towards the ref.
 
Hahahah fuck I momentarily allowed myself to believe the season was going to resume. Oh shit. There's going to be consequences.
 
I think we will follow Spain’s model. At least they openly state they don’t want to lose a billion!

[article]
Spain’s footballers will undergo daily coronavirus tests under a protocol for a return to training La Liga hopes to set in motion from the second week of May.


There will be three stages to training – individual, small group and full team – and the first tests are pencilled in for next Tuesday. From the second stage, squads will be obliged to live together in isolation, away from their families. A match-day protocol, first drafted in March, is being updated, with the league’s president, Javier Tebas, warning clubs that fans are unlikely to be able to attend games until after Christmas.


An eight-hour meeting Tebas had with the Spanish federation president, Luis Rubiales, and the secretary of state for sport, Irene Lozano, last weekend ended with what the minister described as “a commitment to restart training with a view to completing the season”.


There is recognition from all parties, though, that any return requires approval from health authorities. Fan groups are unhappy at a return behind closed doors and as yet there are no proposals to compensate them, but within the game’s authorities there is a broad acceptance that it will be impossible to restart with supporters.


The league’s three scenarios for a return to competition, in line with Uefa and Europe’s major leagues, plan for a restart on 28 May, 6 June or 28 June. Tebas does not want to contemplate the season being annulled, claiming the cost would be around €1bn (£870,000).


The protocol calls for clubs to be given a month of training where possible, with two weeks of group and full-team sessions following two weeks of individual training. Some clubs are concerned about the plausibility of that plan and returning to competition without sufficient training. That process begins with a four-part protocol written by doctors from three first division clubs and reviewed by medical departments at a further four clubs across the top two divisions. The protocol was distributed to every La Liga side and discussions with medical staff began on Wednesday. It has been shared with other European leagues.


The preliminary stage (phase one) of the protocol for the resumption of training involves at least three tests being carried out on every player before a return to activity, beginning with polymerase chain reaction and serology tests. The league hopes to carry out a first round of tests on 28 April to gain a picture of where they are and establish which players have built up an immunity to the virus. The final test of the first phase must be conducted two days before a return to activity.


Once sessions begin, up to two weeks after that first test, players will be subjected to daily serology antibody tests which the league has acquired. Any player found to be positive will be isolated.


Phase two is individual training sessions to be carried out at the clubs’ training grounds in a controlled environment that has to be disinfected before sessions. “Clean area” notices will be placed at entry points, the number of staff allowed in will be limited and training times staggered to prevent players coinciding with each other. Strict rules are laid out for the preparation of food – only one cook will be allowed – for laundry staff and for security. Employees will be categorised as high or low protection, with footballers in the former group.


Players will arrive at training always in the same car and in kit, taking away the following day’s kit in a sealed, biodegradable bag. Dressing rooms are not to be used and there will be a maximum of six players on any pitchand no more than 12 on site. No more than two players will be allowed in the gym and no interaction with coaching staff will be allowed. Staff must wear gloves and face masks, as must players until on the pitch.


From phase three, squads will be in isolation at the training ground, residency or a closed hotel space occupied only by the team. They will not be allowed home and will be in individual rooms. There will be no communal areas. Sessions will be conducted in three eight-player groups with no more than 20 staff on site. Those groups will be split across three dressing rooms, ensuring no more than three players are together. After sessions, they will return to their rooms.


Multiple dressing rooms, disinfected after every use, will also be used for the phase four, the final stage. At that point, teams will be able to train together for the first time with a view to a return to competition. In an ideal scenario the whole process will take a month, although there is a recognition of the fluidity of the situation. Details of match-day protocol are yet to be finalised but will stipulate that games are behind closed doors and, following the intervention of the federation and players’ union, not closer than 72 hours apart.
[/article]
 
Hansern said:
I think we can live with a few cunt and fuck off’s in this troubled time we’re in.
Just get the football rolling and they scream all the abuse they want for me.
Click to expand...

WE can, obviously. But that's clearly not the relevant point. Sky and BT HAVE to do an on-air apology every single time they think something's been picked up, to protect them, to an extent, from OFCOM. And these games are likely to get more casual viewers than usual, so the sad nutters who complain about this stuff will increase quite dramatically. So the broadcasters WILL, without any doubt, be looking for ways to avoid it.
 
Champions no matter what happens.

[article]Uefa then requests that, if terminated leagues are to submit clubs to European competition in the 2021-22 season , they do so “based on sporting merit”, determining final placings “on objective, transparent and non-discriminatory principles”. While leaving open some flexibility, the recommendation would seem to encourage a solution where an incomplete league table is organised on a points-per-game basis.
[/article]
 
If they organise a table we’ll be top. And there wouldn’t be any resistance to calling us champions.
 
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