Week 125 was posted by Charanjit Chana on 2020-03-16.
Our health is always more important than watching people competing in a competition but with it affecting so many people most sporting organisations were left with no choice but to suspend proceedings and give everyone a chance.
With Liverpool 25 points clear at the top of the premier league table I am slightly biased in my opinion on how this should all get sorted once the dust has settled, but there are so many competitions affected, this is how I'd sort it out.
Euro 2020 is just away, a competition that usually has a single host, this time round it was designed to treat the entire European continent as a host. Interesting idea but not what’s needed right now.
I’m sure it will be postponed at least, but it could be cancelled. I might feel different if I'd been able to secure a ticket, but the idea of an international competition taking place over an entire continent could revisited in the future. It was never the best idea, but it was what was decided so we running with it. Mass migration is the last thing we need and it would be bad enough if the focus was on one country, but it's across multiple which isn't going to help anyone.
As I mentioned, the very top of the Premier League is all but confirmed, but Italy's equivalent, Serie A, isn't. I think the UEFA will end up deciding how competitions finish and getting them all inline so that we can look at organising the next season as close to on-time as possible... but that may all be down to how they deal with Euro 2020. Money talks...
And with so much money to play for, no team is going to just accept relegation (if not already confirmed) when there are still so many points to play for. There are still 27 points available for Norwich City to claim which mathematically could take them from last up to 5th position.
The same goes for promotion from the lower leagues, there’s just so too much at stake for anyone to just give up any possibility of more money from tickets, sponsorship or TV revenue.
Maybe that’s the way it will play out and we end everything as it is, but the season is so close to finishing it should just be postponed until fixtures can be completed. The future can wait.
One caveat over suspending the season is that the transfer window should also remain shut until the season officially ends.
Inter-continental competitions should follow the fate of the Euros. The Champions League for example, next time round they could reduce the size of the competition for a season or if it’s absolutely necessary for it to continue as is, reduce the capacity of each stadium or refuse entry to travelling fans. In all of the cases above, a year off would be excruciating for the fans but it would buy us all time and we'd be pretty glad when it's back.
The olympics being cancelled or postponed would be catastrophic for athletes, but suspension seems inevitable. Six months late wouldn't be the end of the world, but a year may be more appropriate.
The best way to deal with it all seems to be to give it time. No rash decisions are needed now and I would rather see the current competitions finished at some point before we start the next.
Be sensible
There's no need to go out and panic buy, just wash your hands and be considerate of others.
I'll leave you with a Jurgen Klopp's message to supporters, he's right in everything he says.
First and foremost, all of us have to do whatever we can to protect one another. In society I mean. This should be the case all the time in life, but in this moment I think it matters more than ever. ... If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest. Really, it isn’t.
Tags: coronavirus, COVID-19, sport, coronavirus, COVID-19, sport