Late June is too late. A ball has to be kicked by the start of June otherwise FIFA’s July deadline is broken. If the league goes ahead it will be because as usual there’ll be a special dispensation for football from the rules everyone else has to abide by.
Yes I mean if we try to be objective here. One of the advocates Steve Parish has said
1) If we don't restart now we could lose next season
2) If next season is impact, football clubs will not survive
I agree with point 2, though I am not so convinced by his workings on point 1. Football would not survive failing to complete a 2nd season. Now lets throw a 3rd point in.
3) There remains a very good chance, as winter progresses we get a 2nd bout of this which could again cause shutdowns of sport. The 2nd bout of the 1918 flu was far worse than the first, and with the general pressures of winter is more dangerous. We do not know the impact on the immune system long term, or whether it could be re-caught/how it will mutilate.
Now if you has any sort of sense and were involved in the PL, alarm bells would be ringing that next season is absolutely critical to the survival of the game and the jobs associated. We can just about get through losing this chuck of games, but next season cannot go.
You would be doing everything that is possible to ensure next season is complete. I would suggest that would involve arguing to cancel all international (and offering to compensate national associations for loss of revenue) and looking to play 2 games per week for every week you have. You have consider losing the league Cup to put more games in and probably bringing the start day forward to the start of August like Scotland (and going 2 games per week). You may be able to get in an extra 8-10 fixtures that way. Essentially getting as much of the season done by winter as possible.
What this proposal, of a late June start date gives us is a likely end date of Mid August. Unless they plan to go into the next season with a 1 week turnaround (and clubs will need time to adjust) you are looking at a mid September start. If you get rid of relegation maybe this could be early September. Either way, you are really at risk of not being able to fit football into the conventional calendar, never mind any back up for a temporary shut down.
That is of course before you get to the reality of squads being wholly different for most of this period (akin to a new season). United are recalling Dean Henderson on loan for example, just to hamper Sheffield United. As yet I've still seen no solution to this. From what I've seen, Sheffield United would probably get Uefa qualification if it were voided, whereas without Henderson, and with a smaller squad they could well plummet to where we are. Maybe it's a risk they don't want to take?
I always felt late May would be where the decision to void would come. It doesn't even look like we will be out of lockdown until late May. I think at some point the discussion will have to start reflecting some of the pressures above.
I also think there will be more than the bottom 6 who are unhappy to continue on whats being outlined. I do wonder how the bullying of those clubs that we have seen sits with them?
