Tonight’s game between Manchester City and Arsenal has been postponed due to Coronavirus concerns.
Things could get a lot worse in the coming weeks with some games almost guaranteed to be played behind closed doors before the season is out but there is also a doomsday scenario where it is impossible to complete the 2019/2020 Premier League season.
This would leave a nightmare for the football authorities but as the Premier League is owned by the twenty clubs that play in it would likely come down to a club chairman’s vote.
It would be unfair to relegate teams in the bottom three positions before all fixtures had been played in full especially when some are only separated by goal difference presently.
One option would be to just cancel the whole 2019/2020 season as if it didn’t exist so it would be null and void.
Liverpool would not be crowned Premier League Champions and maybe Champions league and Europa places should be given out by ballot in the top seven positions.
Sure it would be devastating for teams like Leeds and West Brom as well as those chasing a playoff place but the same could be argued with their league if uncompleted.
Yes cancel it immediately.
Easy. Cancel the season. Crown Liverpool champions. Give the other CL places to Leicester, Chelsea and Man U. Promote Leeds and WBA, have a 22 team league next year, cancel the League cup….and give Europa League places to the teams with the biggest stadiums (lol)
Why not just freeze the current league positions and start the new season afresh. We are all assuming that the new season would start on the due date but there is a distinct possibility that the current situation would not be under complete control by then. In that case, at least we would have the opportunity to complete the current season.
cancel everybody else’s season and crown us champions
Difficult one who would you relegate, what about West Brom and Leeds as already mentioned, would Liverpool be crowned champions. Cancel the cup?
Play behind closed doors? Stream games so they can be seen at home only? Refund season tickets? Increased revenue from sponsors as higher tv audiences? If postpone start until after the summer have no transfer window until season ends? Contracts ended Jun20 to be automatically extended until the ‘new’ end of season date? And these questions ‘just a starter for 10’! As has often been quoted, football is nothing without the fans but it is difficult to see us being allowed to continue attending games as the coronavirus takes hold in the UK. But extending the season to enable us to attend has more complex issues. So playing behind closed doors seems more likely the easiest option however inappetising this is.
The scare won’t be over by summer at all. That equation can be ruled out
I don’t think anyone would argue about Liverpool being crowned champs.
Steve’s suggestion of promoting Leeds and West Brom to an expanded league next season sounds sensible if you give teams the option of opting out of the league cup. All European places go to teams currently in qualifying positions.
The Duckworth-Lewis method decrees that on the basis of the number of minutes played, players available (taking into account injuries), coronavirus, Jose Mourinho and rain…
Tottenham, Sheffield United and Chelsea will be relegated.
Liverpool, because they have the Klopp (and Doctors have enough on their plate without dealing with this sexual football disease) automatically drop to 17th in the Table.
West Ham, because their name rhymes with spam, which as we know goes with everything. Spam, spam and spam. Spam, eggs, chips and spam and Spam and Eggs.
This leads to the question…
What came first? Spam, eggs or West Ham United.
The scientific community has agreed (97% of them) that West Ham United did indeed come first.
So using the Duckworth-Lewis method, West Ham win the Premier league, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and World Cup (again).
For me the answer is simple, we go with the Duckworth-Lewis method.
what a load of b*$”l*-s
totally agree
My thought is to end season in normal timeframe behind closed doors, so the length of the virus issue shouldn’t be an issue. The start of next season is a different question. If it is clear it will need to be delayed (on presumption there is no appetite to start behind closed doors) that will raise issues on transfer windows, desire of clubs to pay new players wef 01July (particularly outside the Premier League) if the season is significantly delayed etc.