FIFA’S medical chief has made a passionate call for the Premier League season to be cancelled.
Michel D’Hooghe compared the deadly coronavirus to World War Two and insists football should not resume until September — with the start of NEXT season.
D’Hooghe said: “The world is not ready for competitive football. “If there is one moment where absolute priority should be given to health and medicine, it is this.
“That is why I ask everybody to be very careful before starting competitions again. I will be happy if we can have nothing before the start of next season.
“If they could start 2020-21 in September they could eventually avoid a second attack from the virus.”
D’Hooghe’s stark warning came as France became the first of Europe’s big five leagues to officially end their season.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe confirmed there would be NO return of professional sport until September.
He told Sky Sports: “It is a terrible responsibility at the moment — the most dramatic situation we have lived in since the Second World War. You cannot play in the Premier League when players have to remain two metres apart.
“Have you tried playing football in a mask? This does not avoid social distancing. Players are together on the field, in the dressing room. “Of course, you could say, ‘Let’s play behind closed doors’.
“But even then, you will see groups of fans coming secretly together in rooms just to support their team anyway.
“Testing is such an important point — but you have to repeat them. If one of the players becomes positive, you have to put the whole group into quarantine.
“Is that a solution for a normal competition? Football has to be patient. It has to listen to the authorities and respect the basic health rules.”
ClaretandHugh says: It’s all over. Uefa has given a 25 May deadline for Leagues to make their decision on whether they are continuing with their leagues or not but the proposition is no longer a starter in anybody’s world. This statement from D’Hoogh is sufficient surely for anybody with a modicum of sense to ensure that the PL is stopped and preferably on Friday. The PL chairmen can save the UK anymore embarrassment after they have scored a series of PR gaffes since this started when trying to continue when other leagues saw dangers and now pressing for a restart when nobody else is doing anything other than cancel. The behind closed doors idea is a nonsense from virtually every point of view and the anxieties in the players’ minds plus the insane idea that they must stay two metres apart on the field of play makes the whole thing impractical. If anything is designed to harm the integrity of the game the League bosses prattle on about it’s that. Thank you Michael D’Hoogh for making it so easy for this craziness to end.
Complete non starter, makes no sense whatsoever.
What difference will it make playing at a neutral ground? Staying 2 meters apart, no heading, no tackling, what about touching the same ball as everyone else? Madness
Millionaire footballers are the last people who need to go back to work & most PL clubs are owned by billionaires. Time to stick their hands in their pockets to keep the clubs alive.
Who is going to risk attending matches in September anyway? If you’ve been in lockdown for months and not long back at work are you going to enjoy the game when in the back of your mind is am I going to be infected by being here?
I miss the match day experience so much the same as everyone else, the game & a few beers with the guys before kick off but we have to sort this virus out first.
We have the second highest infections in Europe, a September start seems somewhat optimistic?
Completely agree Laurie.
Football will be played behind closed doors until there is a vaccine for everyone. Supporters will not be attending games until this happens I think.
So we have to accept behind closed doors football or no football whatsoever.
People that keep saying that the integrity of football is ruined by games being played behind closed doors will have to accept no football at all in that case.
Unless you think that there will be a vaccine by September then football will have to be played behind closed doors.
If not then next season will be cancelled as well.
I have been saying in this forum that this season will not finish since the beginning of the lockdown. It was, & is, so obviously a foregone conclusion to what ie the most cataclysmic situation to have faced humanity since the 2nd. World War – & , possibly, ever. Whatever possesses the football authorities in their belief that the season can be played out is beyond the imagination. Just like the IOC with the olympics – it ain’t gonna happen. When we recover from his, the world will be a totally different place & we will be in a totally changed world with, by far, the hugest depression ever. It has to asked, Will football EVER recover from this situatio ?I, for one, cannot see the professional game ever being the same as it was. That may turn out to be a good thing !
Even if this seaon is cancelled does anyone really believe we can start next season in September this year??
We now have Shinzō Abe saying unless there is a vaccine for Covid-19 available he can’t see the Olympics going ahead in 2021 and I would add I can’t see it happening either, so what does that say about the different groups that control football??
If they can’t respect the health and well being of all the players or respect the wish of supporters to actually attend games live, then I think it puts a very bad light over all of those groups and the future of football!!