Is it time to take a fire-break from Football?

[Spursex]

I'm not disagreeing that it should be cancelled for football, health and safety or ethical reasons. But even if the Euros are also cancelled I don't see how we can restart without impacting on next season.

By the autumn most of the population will be vaccinated. So next season, in every respect, is a far more important than the current one.

And, FFS, we don't want Man U winning the league this season!

If we really can't start next season without a hangover from this, we really shouldn't be playing the Euro's at all - I can see now Teams being forced to isolate and the tournament having to be delayed during it, unless of course every player and all the staff have been vaccinated. But at the moment, they are planned to be in the one from last cohort of vaccinations here and in most of the EU.

No one wants the Manure to win anything, but then I don't want to see Mancity walk away with it either let alone the red bin dippers!

 

[muttley]

I'm not disagreeing that it should be cancelled for football, health and safety or ethical reasons. But even if the Euros are also cancelled I don't see how we can restart without impacting on next season.

By the autumn most of the population will be vaccinated. So next season, in every respect, is a far more important than the current one.

And, FFS, we don't want Man U winning the league this season!

The way I see it, the Premier League and the 20 teams had choices. They could have said that after 80% of games were played then the league places hold for league titles, promotion and relegation. They could have put the Prem teams and / or the teams in Europe into domestic cup competitions in later rounds to reduce congestion. They could have put a plan in place to have less teams in the Prem by the 21/22 season.

Instead, they chose to just find a way of getting all football back on subscription and even tried a sneaky additional pay per view mode. Their only choices were of self interest.

So as far as I'm concerned, nobody should feel any pressure to keep football going if it is a health and safety risk. UEFA shouldn't be canceling their showcase tournament because of the English congestion and player fatigue, but clearly should for health and safety reasons.

The Premier League need to live with the consequences of their decisions. Ideally, this will create some momentum to start getting the governance pieces out of their control and back with The FA where they belong. In bed with the broadcasting companies, they are too powerful.

 

[meee93]

The Euro's should be and may well be yet, called off. We may well be months ahead in our vaccination program in the UK, but the EU may not catch up until the 3rd quarter - so going ahead is just plain stupid in my view.

I can't see the vaccination program being the cause for it being called off. We've had several international breaks during this pandemic prior to a vaccine existing and so if they were able to go ahead then UEFA will ask what the difference is now.

The bigger issue is how it is planned to be scheduled all over Europe so there will need to be travel exemptions all agreed with so many countries. The more likely outcome I can see is it getting moved to 1 country that has the stadium capacity and infrastructure to hold the games and staff as safely as possible. In other words, England/UK, Spain, Germany or France.

 

[Spursex]

I can't see the vaccination program being the cause for it being called off. We've had several international breaks during this pandemic prior to a vaccine existing and so if they were able to go ahead then UEFA will ask what the difference is now.

The bigger issue is how it is planned to be scheduled all over Europe so there will need to be travel exemptions all agreed with so many countries. The more likely outcome I can see is it getting moved to 1 country that has the stadium capacity and infrastructure to hold the games and staff as safely as possible. In other words, England/UK, Spain, Germany or France.

I was particually thinking about the mix of venues as the reason it should be called off - it could end up with a nightmare scenario and in my view isn't worth the risk.

 

[muttley]

I can't see the vaccination program being the cause for it being called off. We've had several international breaks during this pandemic prior to a vaccine existing and so if they were able to go ahead then UEFA will ask what the difference is now.

The bigger issue is how it is planned to be scheduled all over Europe so there will need to be travel exemptions all agreed with so many countries. The more likely outcome I can see is it getting moved to 1 country that has the stadium capacity and infrastructure to hold the games and staff as safely as possible. In other words, England/UK, Spain, Germany or France.

Would you be up for a major tournament without fans in either scenario?

 

[Departed]

They really don't. Even Jose and the PL agrees with me:


The Premier League last week issued clubs with a new set of protocols, including bans on mass celebrations, high-fives and shirt swapping.

Mourinho says this weekend’s scenes were one-offs, unlikely to be repeated in the top-flight, and revealed he had already stopped celebration goals as a result of the VAR.

“I don't believe that at Premier League level in any team's dressing rooms we have this kind of celebrations just by winning three points,” he said.

"When you go down, to the FA Cup, to giant killings, to incredible moments for some clubs and players' careers, that can happen. Because it's the wild emotion of football that can push to that.

"I think now they will not repeat that. I think now with the exposure and the comments and the explanation of the risks, I think now the boys even with crazy happiness of a big day for them, they will control [themselves].

"During matches at Premier League level, the celebrations of a goal, I think more is becoming less. I don't even celebrate goals myself almost. Because of the VAR, I adapt and I went in a certain direction to controlling emotions and I believe the players can do a little bit of the same.

“The reality is that the big exposure was some celebrations after matches in the dressing room. And in the normal situation, that's the beauty of football, of a small team beating the giant. But in this moment, they have to control and adapt.”

That was a very feeble attempt at humour.

 

[meee93]

Would you be up for a major tournament without fans in either scenario?

I don't see fans being there even a possibility, that would be far too much travel. I don't think international football should be taking place for the same reason.

But now that they have made the decision that it is safe to have international friendlies etc then by the same logic there is no reason not to have the euros.

 

[WaccyMaccy]

The way we are playing I've gone for Yes please.

 

[ScottDaYid]

I still doubt that even with the vaccine program here and in Europe whether this should be going ahead anyway - mostly because PL footballers are once again going to get feck all break from football.

They should call it off now.

Yeah fair point about the break, one way or another something has to be done quickly.