ClaretandHugh follower The Cat gives his from the heart views on efforts to get the PL re-started
By The Cat
Behind closed doors games in our huge bowl? REALLY?
When money is such a driving force against such blindingly obvious common-sense, normal people cannot comprehend how organisations can arrive at such decisions as ending the season under any circumstances.
This has been my view, early doors during this global health crisis because I couldn’t logically see this season being concluded.
Footballers, are athletes not machines that can be put into action at a moment’s notice no matter how much hours of gym work they have been doing since football was stopped. FIT and MATCH FIT are two very different things.
To subject these athletes to football at a moment’s notice is ludicrous, not to mention their own worries and concerns like the rest of us.
Football smashed out behind closed doors one game after the other is madness and totally meaningless and it would have zero legitimacy to ALL supporters and lovers of the game of football.
Injuries to players would be inevitable and costly without a proper pre-season or month-long training camp before competitive games.
With this nonsense planned the powers that be would be effectively screw up two seasons instead of trying to return to normality for next season or HOPEFULLY, later this .
All this rumour and speculation can only mean one thing. The powers that be who are responsible for the direction that we will be heading in are not on the same planet as the rest of us.
It should be banned at Government level because social distancing cannot be reasonably observed by the players or officials. It would be ridiculous if governments didn’t intervene to stop the lunacy of football league bosses.
I believe that unless ALL the following criteria are met, then the 2019/20 must be null/Voided
1) all games must take place in the same timeframe they were originally due to. Players must be given the time to recooperate between games. To do otherwise shows the integrity of the competition to be severely tarnished.
2) Every Premier League team must have EXACTLY the same first team squad as it did when football stopped. If just one player from any team isn’t in the squad then it renders the competition as altered. Ie: if Willan/Vertongan etc decide not to play beyond their contract, then whoever Chelsea/Spurs etc play, it will be to the oppositions advantage thereby skewering the integrity of the games.
3) All games MUST be with supporters in attendance. For 3 quarters of the season supporters have been in attendance. Those supporters had the opportunity to have a bearing on their teams performance and possibly the result. To play behind closed doors for the remainder is a disadvantage to all teams but more to some and not others. Again this wrecks the integrity of the competition.
We have come to the business end of the season. To change any of the above in any way ie: behind closed doors, playing all the games in shorter period of time etc would in effect render the season as totally flawed.
You cannot ask players to play 3 games a week for 3 weeks.. Some players can but some cannot. But those who cannot could have played in all the games if the timescale was as originally set by the Premier League. Imagine an important player in a team going for glory or fighting relegation who is perhaps older and cannot play 3 games a week. That has a bearing on the results and thereby the league table.
And clubs/Uefa/FIFA cannot by law stop players from leaving their current club on 30th June so that alters the mix too.
In short, I think that if the season cannot be finished as it was set out originally with all the same players and the fans in attendance, then the intergrity of the competition is gone.
Massive thanks, Hugh. I feel very strongly about this as we all should do, affected by a life-changing event for every one of us, and it may take years to get back to something approaching normality…… But things will Never be the same again.
I cannot, as hard as I try, see this season being concluded because this country is still in the middle of this pandemic crisis. What planet are these people on, who want to complete this season? Surely they can’t be human???