Cancelling this season's Premier League
- Thread starter aazak
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Blueclouds
Player Valuation: £35m
Well if that is the case. Most pubs wont be opening again.
Bursting the Bubble: Why Sports Aren't Coming Back Soon
The NBA, NFL and MLB are dreaming up ways to play amid a pandemic, with talk of isolating players in Arizona or Las Vegas or maybe on the moon. It all sounds great, until you talk to people who actually know science.
Not sure if this has already been posted but if what they say in this article is true then yeah football won’t be coming back anytime soon and the idea of behind closed doors matches is equally as farcical.
Voodoo Billy
Player Valuation: £6m
Depends what they mean by "places of hospitality", been to a few pubs in my time which could hardly be described as hospitable. lol
aazak
Player Valuation: £20m
BBC mentioning the possibility and Heysel and us in the one article - what us the world coming to?
Liverpool two wins from title: Times teams were denied by unexpected events
By Mike Murphy
BBC Sport
Liverpool are almost there, a maximum of two wins away from a first top-flight title in 30 years.
Manager Jurgen Klopp guided the Reds to Champions League glory last season - the club's sixth European Cup triumph - but ending the long wait for domestic success would arguably trump that achievement.
However, with football suspended because of coronavirus, it remains a possibility that Liverpool could be denied the reward their astonishing season deserves.
The authorities - and the clubs themselves - remain determined to complete the campaign. But if the Premier League and government are unable to find a safe path forward, Liverpool 2019-20 could join a group of teams denied their crowning glory, all of whom were left wondering 'what if?'.
Everton 1984-87 - the European champions that never were?
Gary Lineker scored in the 1986 FA Cup final for Everton - a game they lost to Liverpool
In the mid-1980s the emerging team from Merseyside was Everton. Howard Kendall's young side raced to the 1984-85 league title with 90 points, 13 clear of Liverpool.
They added the European Cup Winners' Cup in Rotterdam, defeating Bayern Munich en route and were only denied a treble by a Norman Whiteside wonder-goal in the FA Cup final. That summer Kendall added Gary Lineker to his champions for an assault on the European Cup.
But the Toffees' European Cup hopes would be over before they began.
Less than 100 miles and a fortnight away from their Rotterdam triumph, 39 people died and 600 were injured when fans were crushed against a wall that then collapsed during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, after crowd trouble culminated in a surge by Liverpool supporters towards the Italian team's fans.
The incident led to English clubs being banned from European football for five years.
Everton were pipped to the league on the final day in 1986 before regaining the title in 1987, both seasons finishing on 86 points.
In that period Steaua Bucharest, FC Porto and PSV Eindhoven won the European Cup, so what might have been, particularly in 1985-86?
England's representatives had been pre-eminent in the European Cup for nearly 10 years, and having climbed to the top of English football, Everton were formidable opponents for anyone.
Four of their line-up started England's World Cup quarter-final defeat by Diego Maradona's Argentina in 1986, including the Golden Boot-winning Lineker. Lineker, who went to Barcelona and played in England's 1990 semi-final loss to Germany, has described this Everton side as the best he ever played in.
Yugoslavia 1987-1992 and beyond - sanctions prevent World Cup chance
Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, where they were knocked out on penalties by eventual finalists Argentina
Dejan Savicevic, Dragan Stojkovic, Robert Prosinecki, with Davor Suker, Predrag Mijatovic and Zvonimir Boban coming through - early 1990s Yugoslavia is perhaps the most tantalising 'what might have been?' in modern football.
Many of European club football's top sides of the 1990s had Balkan players.
Winners of the World Youth Championship in 1987, Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals at Italia 90. But two years later United Nations sanctions denied Yugoslavia their place at the Euros as civil war broke out.
Straining relations between the six republics joined under the banner of Yugoslavia eventually broke into ethnic conflicts.
During the exclusion period, both Euro 92 and World Cup 94 were competitions missing a truly great side.
Famously, last-minute call-ups Denmark won against all odds in 1992.
However, it is the 1994 World Cup which could have seen this group victorious.
In the 1994 Champions League final Savicevic, alongside Boban in a great AC Milan side, orchestrated the dismantling of Johan Cruyff's Barcelona.
Two months later Bulgaria reached the World Cup semi-finals on the back of Hristo Stoichkov, with winners Brazil reliant on Romario's goals. Although the final was a heavyweight affair between Brazil and Italy, many of the regular big-hitters had failed to qualify or underperformed once there.
There are too many unknowns to say how Yugoslavia would have fared, but it would have been a lot of fun to watch this group trying to win the World Cup.
Separate Balkan national teams re-emerged in Euro 96 qualifiers, players now spread through five countries. France 98 saw Croatia finish third, and FR Yugoslavia reach the last 16.
Haras El Hodood 2012 - riot ends rare shot at glory
On 1 February 2012, a massive riot followed the Egyptian league match between Al Masry and Al Ahly at Port Said Stadium.
Following the investigations and aftermath of the riot, the government shut down the national league. Despite the huge financial risks faced by many Egyptian clubs at the time, the government felt unable to secure safe venues to resume play.
At the time of suspension, Haras El Hodood were sitting on top of the league, ahead of African Champions League holders Al Ahly by a point and with a game in hand. The team from Alexandria were surprise leaders having been no better than upper mid-table in previous years in a league dominated by Cairo's giants.
Al Ahly had won the seven previous titles and on the resumption of football won the league for the 37th time. Egypt's instabilities meant that professional football was not played until 2013-14, and for Haras El Hodood it was a return to the chasing pack.
There are not too many examples around the world of a league being suspended and unable to return, and fewer again where no championship or relegations are conferred on sides at the time of suspension.
This is one of them - will there be another soon?
Barcelona 2009-2011 - hopes of first Champions League treble hit by intervention from above
Pep Guardiola won 14 trophies in four years as Barcelona manager
When Pep Guardiola took charge of Barcelona in the summer of 2008, his side adhered to Cruyff's Total Football philosophy, with Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi leading a thrilling side.
Over the next three seasons, Barcelona won a hat-trick of leagues and two Champions Leagues. But for a freak occurrence, Barcelona may have secured a coveted hat-trick of European Cups, and ranked alongside Cruyff's Ajax team of 1971-73.
In the spring of 2010 a volcano in Iceland brought Europe to a standstill. It erupted and plumes of volcanic ash hung over the continent, causing severe travel disruption.
Barcelona had to resort to a two-day bus trip to their semi-final with Inter Milan. Even veterans of the Aberdeen-London Megabus route would struggle with the 650-mile drive across southern Europe, and most would agree it is not ideal preparation to play a game of football.
Inter won their home leg 3-1, enough to see them through to the final where they beat Bayern Munich. What if Barcelona had been able to prepare for the tie normally? They had won and drawn against Inter in the group stages earlier in the competition and showed little sign of dropping their standards. On this occasion help literally fell out of the sky for Inter.
Regaining the Champions League the year after, comfortably beating Manchester United for the second time in three years, was the closing act of this Barcelona side. An enthralling unit denied their European Cup hat-trick and ultimately unable to match their forebears at Ajax.
It also prevented them becoming the first team to win the trophy in three consecutive seasons in the Champions League era - a feat subsequently achieved by Barcelona's bitter rivals Real Madrid.
Liverpool two wins from title: Times teams were denied by unexpected events
By Mike Murphy
BBC Sport
- 4 hours ago
Liverpool are almost there, a maximum of two wins away from a first top-flight title in 30 years.
Manager Jurgen Klopp guided the Reds to Champions League glory last season - the club's sixth European Cup triumph - but ending the long wait for domestic success would arguably trump that achievement.
However, with football suspended because of coronavirus, it remains a possibility that Liverpool could be denied the reward their astonishing season deserves.
The authorities - and the clubs themselves - remain determined to complete the campaign. But if the Premier League and government are unable to find a safe path forward, Liverpool 2019-20 could join a group of teams denied their crowning glory, all of whom were left wondering 'what if?'.
Everton 1984-87 - the European champions that never were?
Gary Lineker scored in the 1986 FA Cup final for Everton - a game they lost to Liverpool
In the mid-1980s the emerging team from Merseyside was Everton. Howard Kendall's young side raced to the 1984-85 league title with 90 points, 13 clear of Liverpool.
They added the European Cup Winners' Cup in Rotterdam, defeating Bayern Munich en route and were only denied a treble by a Norman Whiteside wonder-goal in the FA Cup final. That summer Kendall added Gary Lineker to his champions for an assault on the European Cup.
But the Toffees' European Cup hopes would be over before they began.
Less than 100 miles and a fortnight away from their Rotterdam triumph, 39 people died and 600 were injured when fans were crushed against a wall that then collapsed during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, after crowd trouble culminated in a surge by Liverpool supporters towards the Italian team's fans.
The incident led to English clubs being banned from European football for five years.
Everton were pipped to the league on the final day in 1986 before regaining the title in 1987, both seasons finishing on 86 points.
In that period Steaua Bucharest, FC Porto and PSV Eindhoven won the European Cup, so what might have been, particularly in 1985-86?
England's representatives had been pre-eminent in the European Cup for nearly 10 years, and having climbed to the top of English football, Everton were formidable opponents for anyone.
| How English clubs dominated in Europe before ban | |
|---|---|
| Season | European Cup winner |
| 1976-77 | Liverpool |
| 1977-78 | Liverpool |
| 1978-79 | Nottingham Forest |
| 1979-80 | Nottingham Forest |
| 1980-81 | Liverpool |
| 1981-82 | Aston Villa |
| 1982-83 | Hamburg |
| 1983-84 | Liverpool |
| 1984-85 | Juventus |
Yugoslavia 1987-1992 and beyond - sanctions prevent World Cup chance
Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, where they were knocked out on penalties by eventual finalists Argentina
Dejan Savicevic, Dragan Stojkovic, Robert Prosinecki, with Davor Suker, Predrag Mijatovic and Zvonimir Boban coming through - early 1990s Yugoslavia is perhaps the most tantalising 'what might have been?' in modern football.
Many of European club football's top sides of the 1990s had Balkan players.
Winners of the World Youth Championship in 1987, Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals at Italia 90. But two years later United Nations sanctions denied Yugoslavia their place at the Euros as civil war broke out.
Straining relations between the six republics joined under the banner of Yugoslavia eventually broke into ethnic conflicts.
During the exclusion period, both Euro 92 and World Cup 94 were competitions missing a truly great side.
Famously, last-minute call-ups Denmark won against all odds in 1992.
However, it is the 1994 World Cup which could have seen this group victorious.
In the 1994 Champions League final Savicevic, alongside Boban in a great AC Milan side, orchestrated the dismantling of Johan Cruyff's Barcelona.
Two months later Bulgaria reached the World Cup semi-finals on the back of Hristo Stoichkov, with winners Brazil reliant on Romario's goals. Although the final was a heavyweight affair between Brazil and Italy, many of the regular big-hitters had failed to qualify or underperformed once there.
There are too many unknowns to say how Yugoslavia would have fared, but it would have been a lot of fun to watch this group trying to win the World Cup.
Separate Balkan national teams re-emerged in Euro 96 qualifiers, players now spread through five countries. France 98 saw Croatia finish third, and FR Yugoslavia reach the last 16.
Haras El Hodood 2012 - riot ends rare shot at glory
On 1 February 2012, a massive riot followed the Egyptian league match between Al Masry and Al Ahly at Port Said Stadium.
Following the investigations and aftermath of the riot, the government shut down the national league. Despite the huge financial risks faced by many Egyptian clubs at the time, the government felt unable to secure safe venues to resume play.
At the time of suspension, Haras El Hodood were sitting on top of the league, ahead of African Champions League holders Al Ahly by a point and with a game in hand. The team from Alexandria were surprise leaders having been no better than upper mid-table in previous years in a league dominated by Cairo's giants.
Al Ahly had won the seven previous titles and on the resumption of football won the league for the 37th time. Egypt's instabilities meant that professional football was not played until 2013-14, and for Haras El Hodood it was a return to the chasing pack.
There are not too many examples around the world of a league being suspended and unable to return, and fewer again where no championship or relegations are conferred on sides at the time of suspension.
This is one of them - will there be another soon?
Barcelona 2009-2011 - hopes of first Champions League treble hit by intervention from above
Pep Guardiola won 14 trophies in four years as Barcelona manager
When Pep Guardiola took charge of Barcelona in the summer of 2008, his side adhered to Cruyff's Total Football philosophy, with Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi leading a thrilling side.
Over the next three seasons, Barcelona won a hat-trick of leagues and two Champions Leagues. But for a freak occurrence, Barcelona may have secured a coveted hat-trick of European Cups, and ranked alongside Cruyff's Ajax team of 1971-73.
In the spring of 2010 a volcano in Iceland brought Europe to a standstill. It erupted and plumes of volcanic ash hung over the continent, causing severe travel disruption.
Barcelona had to resort to a two-day bus trip to their semi-final with Inter Milan. Even veterans of the Aberdeen-London Megabus route would struggle with the 650-mile drive across southern Europe, and most would agree it is not ideal preparation to play a game of football.
Inter won their home leg 3-1, enough to see them through to the final where they beat Bayern Munich. What if Barcelona had been able to prepare for the tie normally? They had won and drawn against Inter in the group stages earlier in the competition and showed little sign of dropping their standards. On this occasion help literally fell out of the sky for Inter.
Regaining the Champions League the year after, comfortably beating Manchester United for the second time in three years, was the closing act of this Barcelona side. An enthralling unit denied their European Cup hat-trick and ultimately unable to match their forebears at Ajax.
It also prevented them becoming the first team to win the trophy in three consecutive seasons in the Champions League era - a feat subsequently achieved by Barcelona's bitter rivals Real Madrid.
Good article here on the 'play behind closed doors' shouts. Although this article doesnt even mention the testing which would be required daily, or every coulple of days at least, adding to the issue
Premier League games behind closed doors? Here's how many people would have to be present
There is more to a top-level game than two teams, managers and a referee. When leagues resume, hundreds must be present for matches to take place.www.espn.co.uk
Football behind closed doors sounds simple: Get the teams in, keep the fans out and limit the other attendees to those people who simply have to be there. But with the sporting world as a whole facing the reality of returning to action without spectators -- once coronavirus lockdown measures are sufficiently relaxed -- even playing in empty stadiums will be a complex issue.
In England, While a resumption date for the Premier League has not been mooted, the Football League is planning to return on June 6, which would be 12 weeks after football in the country was suspended. If, as has been suggested, the aim is to finish the season within 56 days of that date, we are talking about 541 games across the top five tiers -- including the National League -- of the English pyramid.
There is no expectation within the game that supporters will be allowed inside stadiums to watch their team play, but even though the stands will be empty, a professional football match requires people to do certain jobs and fulfill key roles. Up to 200, in fact.
"People don't realise just how many essential staff must be at a football match in order for it to go ahead," a senior figure at a leading EFL club told ESPN. "If, or when, football returns, you are looking at between 150 to 200 people inside a stadium, so it won't simply be a case of 22 players and the match officials.
"For example, we would need six safety officers, even for a closed-doors game. At a bigger Premier League stadium, you would need to multiply that five times, just to cover all the basic requirements. So when football does return, social distancing measures and numbers allowed for public gatherings will have to be much less stringent than they are right now."
One Championship club has given ESPN a full rundown of the minimum number of people it would expect at a game behind closed doors, and it amounts to 166. In the Premier League, rights-holder media alone would see that number leap toward 300.
A top-flight club source told ESPN that an average of 120 broadcast media are accredited for home games. The people you don't see -- riggers, electricians, technicians, producers, camera crew and sound engineers -- are just as important, if not more so, as the reporter or commentator; they will all need to be inside a stadium once football gets the green light to resume.
As for the teams, the modern-day game means we are talking about a lot more than two teams of 11, plus two managers and three match officials.
To start, the two squads have 18 players, including substitutes, while the manager has an assistant and other coaches. The refereeing crew, meanwhile, comprises a referee and two assistants, plus a fourth official and refereeing assessor in the stands.
You cannot play a game without a physiotherapist, and no Premier League team has just one anyway. The kitman is another essential backroom staff member. And there also is a team of analysts that produces video data for clubs; as many as six members occupy seats in the Manchester City press box due to a lack of space on the bench.
Every club has a doctor; although if efforts are made to cut attendees to an absolute minimum, one on duty might suffice. Legally, though, there would be a necessity for at least four paramedics and an ambulance driver. With police also required, emergency services could be stretched.
Ball boys and ball girls might seem like an extravagance, but if the match ball ends up in Row Z of an empty stand, can you imagine David De Gea or Andy Robertson climbing the stairs to retrieve it? A medium-sized ground would require a team of 12 on the sidelines, with more needed at arenas the size of Old Trafford, the London Stadium or Tottenham's new ground.
Similarly, ground staff are required to ensure playing surfaces are in peak condition before, during and after games. Championship clubs can get by with four, but Premier League teams might employ as many as 20 people, armed with pitchforks and rollers.
Off the pitch, the list goes on: A club secretary liaises with match officials and oversees all matchday operations, and then there are electricians, maintenance workers, cleaners and catering staff. Digital advertising boards are used for televised games, and a technician must ensure they are running properly. A trivial job? Not when the game is on television and sponsors are paying for the right to be seen.
And let us not forget VAR, which is a necessity for all Premier League games. A source told that ESPN that, under normal circumstances for a seven-match day, approximately 40 people would be needed. Beyond that, the smart technology behind the Hawkeye system that is used for goal-line reviews requires monitoring to ensure seven cameras in each goal work properly.
All of the aforementioned people will be monitored and guided by the stewards and officials, whose job it will be to keep the stadium secure -- internally and externally -- from fans who might try to sneak in.
So while the away team's bus driver might have to accept sitting outside, many staff cannot realistically be stood down for a closed-doors game. Even when football returns and the stands are empty, hundreds must be on hand for games to go ahead.
in no way do I advocate playing games behind closed doors as I truly believe that is the stupidest of all outcomes, but if it did become a serious option why does it have to be played at a stadium with all safety officers etc? Why not just play it at finch farm or other training facilities where stadium staff would not be required. If they are going to cock this thing right up you may as well make it a bigger laughing stock than what is being mentioned.
4737carlin
Player Valuation: £90m
I've thought that too, all they need is a surface the right size.
They need a tv crew and multiple cameras, not to mention the dreaded VAR cameras and a host of blind people to interpret decisions in the RS' favour.
Shevin Keedy
Player Valuation: £35m
I imagine they need near enough the same staff for a game of BCD footy regardless where it is held no?
ParisToffee
Player Valuation: £5m
Its crazy no one is willing to realistically look around and listening to experts on things ;-( Irish Health Minister has said there will be no live sports events/gatherings in 2020 with people, French said no gathering of people until 15th July at earliest ;-( , even Karen Brady again came out and said behind closed door games will need between 300/500 people to meet up as well as taking police/medical personal to grounds but also if players get injured, private hospitals that were promised to NHS will need to be free the day of matches for clubs
Someone said the peak was in February which means I may have hair it then without realising especially as Goodison was packed for the Man Utd game
Foot Long Hot Dog
Player Valuation: A packet of pork scratchings
It wasn’t.
Disgruntledgoat
Player Valuation: £50m
Denmark has just outlawed all gatherings of more than 500 people until September and their schools are opening on monday.
Theres no way this season gets finished.
Theres no way this season gets finished.
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