Club Statement: Coronavirus

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It's worth saying, the governments projections (positive projections) are 1/2 a million deaths. Events will very quickly move on from football and why it's a little harsh to not award the title to Liverpool. There will be far more pressing issues.
This will be a Society changer, boardrooms and small business up and down this country alone are apoplectic about the economic consequences, never mind around the world, not wanting to be doom and gloom about it but seriously this is a GAME changer, no COUNTRY or its residents can sustain itself/themselves for 3-6 months financially with no income, that is now a very real possibility not dismissing the loss of life too as important as that is.
 
I just don’t see how they cant cancel it, not at this stage.
If the 10-14 weeks is the peak, it means we’re not finishing a season til September time, what? We play a shortened 19 game season next season Jan-May?

How do players sign? Its not feasible. Teams can’t run on 23 game seasons in the Lower Leagues. They’d lose too much.

What a dreadful situation were in.
Why should football players be different to any other employees in this case? Here in Ireland employers will not be obliged to pay employees if they are closed due to corona.. there will be a social welfare payment of 305 euros a week to anyone off work. I don't see how players could expect to maintain pay of 10s of thousands a week only to have their club go bust. Clubs will easily get through this if players act like human beings and accept their share of the hardship that may effect everyone.
 
Unless it's really early in May, by that point it will already be too late. As cases continue to rise, I do think the consensus is going to increasingly be that sport just needs to be suspended for a length of time that it isn't possible to complete the season.

Maybe the FA will make a massive rick, and try to force people to play games against all advice, but they've tried that over recent days/weeks and it has really backfired.

It’s still amazing to believe that just a few days ago Anfield was full and thousands of Spanish fans came from Madrid which is currently fighting against the infection and mingled freely in the city, on public transport, in the bars, and in the stadium, before going back to hotels and airports for flights home. At the same time the premier league was still planning on hosting this weeks fixtures as the Arsenal squad had knowingly been in contact with a confirmed positive case. WTF where they all thinking? That they could just carry all this on and see if they could finish it before too many people died? The more this goes on the more absolutely abhorrent the decision making is. We’ve been given future projections from China and Italy showing exactly how this will manifest itself and the PL and UEFA still decided to carry on. Until Arteta tested positive and then all of a sudden it was ‘we’ll suspend the games’, like did they not think that anyone in football would get it? It’s just completely knee jerk reactionary nonsense and shows either (hopefully) a completely incompetent executive body that froze under pressure, or (more sinister) a greedy exec body who prioritised money and their favoured vested interests over the health of fans. Heads should roll at the PL for this because this is beyond the pale even for them. A simple question should have been asked as soon as this started in China and was identified as a threat to most nations - ‘if this impacts the UK, can football continue or not?’ If the answer is yes then we should be playing now, if the answer was no, then we should have cancelled the moment the first case occurred in the UK. The horrible truth is though that they thought they would just carry on, bank the money, and try and ‘get away with it’. Shameful.
 
This isn't the time for point scoring or gloating, with hindsight it might look a wee bit rash and insensitive. As the figures today and over the weekend come in, I think we'll see that Everton and the vast majority of clubs took the correct stance, while quite frankly governments proved ignorant, incapable or downright incompetent.

Individuals with a horse in the game, motivated by pettiness, greed or ego will be admonished by the suggested scale of this catastrophe, when faced with the loss of human life.

I'm proud of Everton today and the decision they made. Leading from the front. I've been a harsh critic but thank God we have people at the club who value life over a sport that could be rendered irrelevant under the threat of imminent tragedy.
 
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Check this one out - they are blaming us now!


Look at the problems it's causing now with a very small number of cases, can't imagine what it'll be like when it spreads on a wide scale over the next few months.

If Everton are in isolation, then there's no reason why they can't all be tested today and get the results back today/tomorrow. If they're clear then the game can go ahead. I'm sure though that they'll be willing for the game to be postponed.

And this one

This game now officially called off. A measure of Evertonil's desperation not to play us!
I am washing my hands in those beautiful tears lol
 
It’s still amazing to believe that just a few days ago Anfield was full and thousands of Spanish fans came from Madrid which is currently fighting against the infection and mingled freely in the city, on public transport, in the bars, and in the stadium, before going back to hotels and airports for flights home. At the same time the premier league was still planning on hosting this weeks fixtures as the Arsenal squad had knowingly been in contact with a confirmed positive case. WTF where they all thinking? That they could just carry all this on and see if they could finish it before too many people died? The more this goes on the more absolutely abhorrent the decision making is. We’ve been given future projections from China and Italy showing exactly how this will manifest itself and the PL and UEFA still decided to carry on. Until Arteta tested positive and then all of a sudden it was ‘we’ll suspend the games’, like did they not think that anyone in football would get it? It’s just completely knee jerk reactionary nonsense and shows either (hopefully) a completely incompetent executive body that froze under pressure, or (more sinister) a greedy exec body who prioritised money and their favoured vested interests over the health of fans. Heads should roll at the PL for this because this is beyond the pale even for them. A simple question should have been asked as soon as this started in China and was identified as a threat to most nations - ‘if this impacts the UK, can football continue or not?’ If the answer is yes then we should be playing now, if the answer was no, then we should have cancelled the moment the first case occurred in the UK. The horrible truth is though that they thought they would just carry on, bank the money, and try and ‘get away with it’. Shameful.

Yes absolutely spot on. I think that statement, put out on Thursday evening, less than 48 before most fixtures were due will go down to haunt them. We knew at that stage that Leicester has players in quarantine, Wolves had played at Olympiakos, and Arsenal had players in quarantine too. That was knowledge they have available to them. It was also public knowledge Mendy had it, and he had played against Manchester United.

They may well have known that ourselves, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Watford, West Ham etc were all quarantining players. I can't be certain, but there's every chance they knew. And they made that call.

It took them a further 12 hours after that Arteta news to make the decision. Why the wait? Why not immediately announce the decision?

I have said before, I don't think the PL's reputation comes out of this unscathed. I think they are badly tarnished. The only comparison I can think of is the Hillsborough disaster, and you have seen how institutions are now viewed on Merseyside as a result. I think there will be a similar level of anger and distrust from the football community after this.

When they announced their review (less than an hour after the initial announcement to say all things go ahead) they were being absolutely pilloried in the comments sections. Real genuine anger at the disgraceful behaviour.

It's for this reason I do not think they will try to put the games back on lightly, or try and stunt like games behind closed doors. I think that moment has gone.

A lot of Liverpool fans seem to think it's inevitable that they will be awarded the title, and there seems to be no understanding, you can't really award a title if you're not prepared to award relegation or promotion on that basis. The league will not want to do this. The end logical point, and the easiest legally is just to cancel and make no moral calls. Don't be surprised if it also involved just repeating the previous seasons teams in Europe. It's harsh on teams, but enough will go along with it.
 
Check this one out - they are blaming us now!


Look at the problems it's causing now with a very small number of cases, can't imagine what it'll be like when it spreads on a wide scale over the next few months.

If Everton are in isolation, then there's no reason why they can't all be tested today and get the results back today/tomorrow. If they're clear then the game can go ahead. I'm sure though that they'll be willing for the game to be postponed.

And this one

This game now officially called off. A measure of Evertonil's desperation not to play us!

I mean it's just idiocy. They players aren't training, they are in no fit state to be playing.

If the game went ahead and one of our team had the virus, the likelihood is they will be given the virus. It's nothing to do with not wanting to play, it's just common decency.

If they had anything about them as a club (which they don't) they would find the IP address of those individuals, and issue them life bans for comments like that, which deliberately parody those suffering with a pandemic for cheap laughs. Their club should make it clear, they have no place in modern football, or decent civilised society.
 
Why should football players be different to any other employees in this case? Here in Ireland employers will not be obliged to pay employees if they are closed due to corona.. there will be a social welfare payment of 305 euros a week to anyone off work. I don't see how players could expect to maintain pay of 10s of thousands a week only to have their club go bust. Clubs will easily get through this if players act like human beings and accept their share of the hardship that may effect everyone.

I think these uncomfortable decisions are all ahead of us.
 

"Never going to happen, in my opinion"

Would that have sufficed?

You'd think those last 3 words weren't necessary on a forum. By virtue of me making the post, I'd say it's pretty safe for you to assume it's a view I hold.

Perhaps we should all consider applying similar caveats to our posts in future, wouldn't want to upset any sensitive souls.
Many thanks.
 
A lot of Liverpool fans seem to think it's inevitable that they will be awarded the title, and there seems to be no understanding, you can't really award a title if you're not prepared to award relegation or promotion on that basis

What some Liverpool fans or Celtic supporters want at this stage is irrelevant. It's trite, childish and insular. There is a pandemic. No-one will care about titles, cups or Coronation street when body bags start piling up. Even if this is an exaggerated flu, the repercussions and the sheer logistics will render hospitals, already at their breaking point, domino'd, like watching a train crash.

What an empty chalice to hold. Stupid pride. There is no respect or honour in that. Capitalizing amongst misery. I don't think our neighbors would stoop to that.
 
What some Liverpool fans or Celtic supporters want at this stage is irrelevant. It's trite, childish and insular. There is a pandemic. No-one will care about titles, cups or Coronation street when body bags start piling up. Even if this is an exaggerated flu, the repercussions and the sheer logistics will render hospitals, already at their breaking point, domino'd, like watching a train crash.

What an empty chalice to hold. Stupid pride. There is no respect or honour in that. Capitalizing amongst misery. I don't think our neighbors would stoop to that.

Prepare to be surprised.
 
I think these uncomfortable decisions are all ahead of us.
I'm OK for a while in Ireland, I work in a school and we are shut now, so I'll be paid for a while but if it goes on for long enough and the rest of the country is shut down there's no way the government could justify maintaining my salary along with every other teacher and school staff. I could also be redeployed to help out where needed, and with my past as an electrician I'll probably end up working maintenance in a hospital if other maintenance come down with the dose.. I'll be there if required but it's still a worry.
 

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