EFL Statement: Board Update On Coronavirus | Page 35 | Vital Football

EFL Statement: Board Update On Coronavirus

It makes it more interesting as given how close the League is in terms of points, if I was one of the teams in the play-offs I would be tempted to vote to end the season now knowing my play off spot was guaranteed. Whilst one of the automatic spots is clearly up for grabs there is a much greater chance of missing out altogether. If I were the likes of Oxford, Wycombe and Fleetwood I would vote to end it now and take my chance in the play-offs, especially with some big name and big budget teams sat in 7th - 10th.
 
Manure now bleating that the virus has cost them £28 million. So stop speculating which players you want to buy at inflated deals and wages then.
 
I know I'm going off on one but people like Anelka and Pogba who have the talent but just milk the transfer system particularly irk me. More fool the idiots that keep signing them. Once is an accident and all that.
 
Peterborough have now given me a real dilemma.
I cant work out who I cant stand
most.....them or Bolton.
As long as Peterborough dont go up and Bolton disappear to some other part of the universe then I'll settle for that.
 
If you are correct with your assumptions and i would probably make the same assumptions then 12 is over the 51% threshold so cancelling must now be a big odds on favourite.
I don’t know if it’s the same but isn’t there something like 2/3 majority needed?
 
I never thought I’d say this but I sympathise with the position the EFL are in. No solution, even waiting to play out the season, is satisfactory because we are artificially trying to complete a season. They simply have to come up with an option that protects the clubs as best as possible. The fact they’ve got arseholes like MacAnthony chucking their toys out the pram and threatening legal action because they don’t get the outcome that specifically suits their clubs just highlights how difficult coming to some kind of conclusion is.

For me weighted points per game seems the least bad option, but my fear is that finding a resolution to this season isn’t the iceberg on the horizon - the real problem is when we expect to see crowds back at football matches. Given we’ve got an imminent second wave of infections and further lockdowns to come, you begin to think that there will be no crowds until 21/22. By which time football below the Premier League could be nigh on dead.
I'm not so sure anything is imminent. But I can see a delay in starting 20/21 until January to allow for crowds to return. Although it's all guesswork.
 
I'm not so sure anything is imminent. But I can see a delay in starting 20/21 until January to allow for crowds to return. Although it's all guesswork.

I don't believe football below the EPL is viable without crowds, which is why I think we need to wrap up discussions about this season and focus on what happens next. At the present time I can't see how crowds will be able to attend football until possibly well into 2021 and therefore L1/2 and below, and perhaps even the Championship, won't be able to operate - perhaps until August 2021.

I would like to think the EFL is setting up a task force to propose how to allow safe attendance at football matches. I think there may be possible solutions, as guidance is relaxed. You start by banning away support for a whole season no-brainer). Then there would be a range of measures like shutting pubs nearby on match days (not ideal of course), restrict catering to open air only (closing under-stand bars), regulations on transport use, all ticket matches with carefully allocated seat numbers, 14 days between home fixtures (normally the case), reduced max. capacities. Possibly managed spacing in stands.

All this is only relevant if you can ensure player / staff safety of course!

Slightly different solutions may be appropriate for different clubs in different geographical locations with different facilities, etc.

And of course, clubs will take a hit whatever the solutions, but football with 50% crowds and no catering income must be better than nothing?

The alternative is no football for another year - at least - and radical solutions to keep clubs going (e.g. EFL/PFA buy the contracts of all professional players until June 2021 !!).

This needs to be the big discussion, rather than petty, self-interested stuff about how to finish season 2019-20, which the EFL should have imposed on all clubs already.
 
I always thought sport was about winning and losing? Or is it all about who has the biggest bank balance and best lawyers now?
Yes it's incredibly harsh for Tranmere to be relegated but we only went down in 1987 because of the extra time played after a police dog bit a player. As for the likes of Peterborough Ipswich and Sunderland wanting the playoffs extending to include them because they have a dodgy spell bloody tough, if you're as good as you think you are you wouldn't need the bloody playoffs in any case and if they were that good all three would have beaten us at sincil bank but they didn’t.
 
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