Cheltenham crowd just ahead of the emergency measures
The Cheltenham Festival is an abiding memory and example of why nobody in sport – or the ‘determined to finish the season’ Premier League – can pressure for a rush to a return for action.
Piers Morgan is not a man I can stand but it’s impossible to argue with his view that racing’s biggest National Hunt event of the Year should have been cancelled before attracting around a quarter of a million over its duration.
I love horse racing and use a 22Bet Bonus from time to time but I was truly shocked when the decision was made – and unlike Morgan – I won’t make this political.
But I have no doubts that the fearful bug which has sent us all into lockdown had a ‘field day’ during the four days and that finding the winner of the Gold Cup was a nonsense in such circumstances.
There can be no further -and I’m sure there won’t be – massive mistakes in allowing sport to take place before crowds until we have the very best advice that its safe to do so.
The Premier League is still holding on desperately to the determination that the current season will finish but this isn’t rocket science! No way – one death as a result should ensure that doesn’t happen.
We are all capable of making an assessment on the position by checking the daily figures and once, as they have done elsewhere, they start declining there is obvious reason for hope.
But football and those responsible for allowing it will not – or deserve to be – forgiven if a second mega Cheltenham disaster is allowed.
They do seem determined to finish the season and I expect they will, but without fans and at neutral stadiums (Wembley was mentioned, can’t really see the point of a 95K capacity ground with no fans though..). I see the Germans are restarting (without fans, I assume) in early May so I can see us doing the same 3 or 4 weeks later.
My feeling is the authorities should focus on getting the summer sports up and running, not football. I would rather watch golf with no fans on TV than football. If football with empty stadiums takes precedent over tennis, cricket, golf, etc, getting all the TV air time and then just rolls into a new season with hardly any break, I think that would be quite boring, and unfair on other sports/fans.
My view is that we should just let the teams with games in hand play those behind close doors (on TV of course), then call the season closed. So if Villa manage to beat Man City that would save them and send Watford down. I know that sounds harsh and it could have been us, but so long as everyone has played an equal number of games that’s as fair as they can be. I would also promote the 3rd place Championship team, so no play-offs – 3 up/3 down like the old days. Likewise those in the PL top 4 after the games in hand are played (I think Arsenal v Sheffield United is the other game to be played) would qualify for champions league.
This won’t happen, obviously, because football generates more ad revenue than other sports, simple as that.
Spot on Hugh how on earth does the fa or the idiots in charge of football can even think about the return of football until at least Sept let alone talk up returning it as it’s all about money! Nothing to do with anything else like people’s lives in this bad year for all in the world . I expect it from narcistic uneducated clowns like trump to come out with dumb statements like just a flu and let’s see churches full at Easter . AND I also can’t stand piers Morgan but a so called football group of leaders that we are supposed to look up to in sport shows these ridiculous pushing of finishing a season that could even start a second wave is beyond any sense as we have hundreds still dying daily . Highest deaths in Europe now predicted for UK think of that dreadful statistic!
It’s ‘narcissistic uneducated clowns’
Exactly how many people who were at Cheltenham Festival have tested positive for the Coronavirus within the timeframe of attendance resulting in infection?
Exactly how many have been able to get a test?
Nor even as many as the quarter of a million at Cheltenham