It's really an insignificant amount in the grand scheme of things isn't it. There's players with bigger release clauses.
Could they void the PL due to the Coronavirus? | No | Resuming June 17th
- Thread starter Tarrou
- Start date
Let's assume football can't return until August and that June is too soon. Obviously within weeks this may look totally unrealistic and there may be many holes you lot can pick out but it's just a bit of brainstorming fun.
Bear in mind no European football until September. Games can be played behind closed doors for first few weeks if large crowds restrictions still haven't been lifted.
August 8th 2020:
- Resume PL season with 2 games a week
- FA Cup 1/4 finals to be played one midweek
5th September 2020:
Conclude PL season
8th September 2020-9th September 2020:
FA Cup Semi-finals
12th September 2020:
FA Cup Final
15th September 2020-16th September 2020:
Play remaining CL knockout ties (e.g. City v Real at the Ethihad) (play-offs during this period too)
17th September 2020:
Play remaining EL knockout ties (e.g. 2nd leg of Man United v LASK)
19th September 2020-27th September 2020:
- Play 3 EL games (1/4 final, 1/2 final and final) in Gdansk
- Play 3 CL games (1/4 final, 1/2 final and final) in Istanbul
- Season ends with Champions League final Sunday 27th September 2020
- Summer transfer window opens officially
24th October 2020:
- New Premier League season begins following 7 week break
- No European matches
- 2 league games a week the priority as no European Games
- League Cup scrapped for 20/21 so that PL games are the priority for mid-week
- Nations League scrapped, Only 1 international break in March for Euro 2021 play-offs.
- FA Cup games fitted in as normal
1st November 2020:
- 'Summer' transfer window shuts
4th April 2020:
Premier League season ends after 25 weeks.
11th April 2020:
FA Cup final.
18th April 2020:
- Champions League and Europa League tournament kicks off
- CL held in one country (e.g. Russia)
- EL held in another country (e.g. Spain)
- 7 games for the eventual winner. 1 leg group games and 1 leg knockout
17th May 2020:
- Season ends with Champions League final.
12th June 2020:
- Euro 2021 kicks off
12th July 2021:
- Euro 2021 concludes
August 2021:
- Premier League season starts on time again
- CL returns to usual format
Bear in mind no European football until September. Games can be played behind closed doors for first few weeks if large crowds restrictions still haven't been lifted.
August 8th 2020:
- Resume PL season with 2 games a week
- FA Cup 1/4 finals to be played one midweek
5th September 2020:
Conclude PL season
8th September 2020-9th September 2020:
FA Cup Semi-finals
12th September 2020:
FA Cup Final
15th September 2020-16th September 2020:
Play remaining CL knockout ties (e.g. City v Real at the Ethihad) (play-offs during this period too)
17th September 2020:
Play remaining EL knockout ties (e.g. 2nd leg of Man United v LASK)
19th September 2020-27th September 2020:
- Play 3 EL games (1/4 final, 1/2 final and final) in Gdansk
- Play 3 CL games (1/4 final, 1/2 final and final) in Istanbul
- Season ends with Champions League final Sunday 27th September 2020
- Summer transfer window opens officially
24th October 2020:
- New Premier League season begins following 7 week break
- No European matches
- 2 league games a week the priority as no European Games
- League Cup scrapped for 20/21 so that PL games are the priority for mid-week
- Nations League scrapped, Only 1 international break in March for Euro 2021 play-offs.
- FA Cup games fitted in as normal
1st November 2020:
- 'Summer' transfer window shuts
4th April 2020:
Premier League season ends after 25 weeks.
11th April 2020:
FA Cup final.
18th April 2020:
- Champions League and Europa League tournament kicks off
- CL held in one country (e.g. Russia)
- EL held in another country (e.g. Spain)
- 7 games for the eventual winner. 1 leg group games and 1 leg knockout
17th May 2020:
- Season ends with Champions League final.
12th June 2020:
- Euro 2021 kicks off
12th July 2021:
- Euro 2021 concludes
August 2021:
- Premier League season starts on time again
- CL returns to usual format
I’m knackered just looking at that and I’m not even playing the games.
If only life was so simple...
Imagine writing all of that out for a totally hypothetical situation.
As opposed to writing out an established situation? Have to think how they will carry on and that seems to work to me.
Should perk you up not Traveller you. Incredibly precise and considerate planning.
The players would have been without match fitness and general training for roughly five months come August, how can you expect them to adapt to such a demanding run of games?
With that kind of a playing schedule, there won’t be too many clubs with fit enough players to complete the season. Two games every week after a hiatus of so many months is asking for trouble.
No they wouldn't, they're professional athletes. They're still busy right now to keep themselves in shape should an eventual return occur. Just look at Germany, training already resumed even with the re-start of the Bundesliga still a month or more away. It'd be the same for the PL.
That said, the proposed run of games looks problematic. 2 games a week for 5 or 6 weeks straight is just asking for trouble injury-wise.
Was about to say the same.
Generally speaking, your fitness level begins to deteriorate within a few weeks without body conditioning, increasing in rapidity the longer you are without training. Five months is a long time to be without training, especially with the physical demands of PL football. They will be dropping like flies.
Much depends on how well the players have maintained their conditioning. You can't guarantee they will be fit and ready to compete in two 90 minute games a week.
FA Cup can't be fitted in as normal in that schedule. There's 6 qualifying rounds before any of the Football League teams enter in November. You'd either need to scrap it, or not let in any teams below League Two. If it's the latter than there'd be no point as that is what the EFL Cup is.
Also, CL and EL qualifiers normally start at the end of June for the lower ranked associations and last for 5 rounds. They would need to be factored in (baring in mind that some countries may choose to null and void their league seasons, which would be a minefield of deciding who qualifies).
A friend of mine who’s in the police says the police are planning for another spike in deaths in October. On that basis I think there needs to be some slack built in to next season’s schedule, so giving it until say October 2021 to finish, with the Euros falling mid-season (like the AFCOM). Then 21/22 could run from December 21 to October 22 followed by the World Cup.
Arrange friendlies with each other behind closed doors in July.
Agree regarding the FA Cup. I don’t understand this null and void thing? The leagues that have done it already have just declared the season finished not voided it, so you would just go off that. Can work out an automatic qualification system and scrap the qualifiers even if that is unfair on some leagues.
Why not exactly? Have you seen the Olympics or other championships. In sports like swimming, cross-country skiing and speedskating allround athletes are competing almost every day, they are pushing their body to the limit unlike footballers. Shouldn't be problematic to play fotballgames every other day
Great news coming out of Spain. La liga will start up again. Just a matter of when. Spain is a lot worse than UK and they have taken measures to start up again.
“A protocol is being drafted by three medical teams over the last two weeks for a return to training which involves the possibility of doing coronavirus tests and isolation in dressing rooms. When? We can’t say at the moment. The Spanish medical authorities will tell us. There is a state of alarm until 26 April and we will not start training until that point at the very earliest. The most probable options at the moment for matches returning are 28-29 May, 6-7 June and 28-29 June.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-target-dates-for-season-restart-javier-tebas
“A protocol is being drafted by three medical teams over the last two weeks for a return to training which involves the possibility of doing coronavirus tests and isolation in dressing rooms. When? We can’t say at the moment. The Spanish medical authorities will tell us. There is a state of alarm until 26 April and we will not start training until that point at the very earliest. The most probable options at the moment for matches returning are 28-29 May, 6-7 June and 28-29 June.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-target-dates-for-season-restart-javier-tebas
I had my legs slapped yesterday by a Mod in relation to my post about children dying of malaria. I'd just like to take this opportunity to apologise to all those who were offended by my comments, which were highly inappropriate & uncalled for.
That could be a fair solution I guess.
You are perhaps underestimating the physical demands of your average professional football match, and what it takes to compete in one for a full 90 minutes.
The demands vary from position to position, but fullbacks and strikers in particular work as hard if not harder than most sportsmen and women due to the near-constant requirement of pace and acceleration. Remove five months of vigorous training from their daily routine, and those demands increase further still.
Remember that footballers are not only required to train a variety of physical attributes - stamina, agility, leg power, acceleration, pace, to name a few, not to mention the mental demands - but to train them to the peak of physical perfection to compete with their peers. The problem is, it's highly unlikely every professional football in the PL will have maintained their fitness throughout this hiatus from the game. Although they are contractually required to do so.
Not many apologise around here; cheers to that, mate.
That's worse than Liverpool's backtracking of furlough.
Nah I'm only kidding, you did get a bit carried away in the steam of the argument so well done for calming down. I've been there. Many times sadly.
I'm glad to hear football will return to Spain someday
Some have finished with the final standings, like Belgium. Many are still undecided, with null and void still a possibility.
Example, if La Liga and Serie A void their seasons with no winner or final standings, but the PL and Bundesliga conclude their seasons, do La Liga and Serie A send their 18/19 Euro qualified teams, and PL and Bundesliga send the 19/20 qualified teams? It could get messy.
If all European leagues manage to conclude their seasons either by actually playing it or using the standings as they are, then this won't be a problem, but the rather bloated qualifying stages will need to be fitted in to the calendar somehow. The Europa League has about 2 million teams (might be a slight exaggeration) take part in it from beginning to end.
One of these days you'll really cross the line, then they'll change your name to 'reddevilman5'.
When your first line includes the word "assume", any precision is a total waste of time. With all due respect. That's the key issue here.
Football will start up again? Just a matter of when?
You don't freaking say!
Well I’m assuming worse than better. The PL are hoping to finish in June.
I think the only certainty of all of this, is that when we can next watch a game, we will utterly treasure it!
Looking at all the plateauing of several Euro countries from this virus, I think we can restart behind closed doors in June/July. First wave will have died down by then.
There won't be any football crowds for a while though. Last thing you want is a 60,000 crowd kickstarting the second wave going into autumn/winter
Of course, I assume the players are up for restarting as well and won't sue the FA for making them play in potentially unsafe conditions.
There won't be any football crowds for a while though. Last thing you want is a 60,000 crowd kickstarting the second wave going into autumn/winter
Of course, I assume the players are up for restarting as well and won't sue the FA for making them play in potentially unsafe conditions.
The strange thing is right now we all think we will, and ofcourse we will to some extent but as soon as the novelty of the return wears off the little things will annoy us again, it's human nature.
If the very first game back is Burnley Vs Newcastle we'll cherish it like prime El Classico, if it's the 'Super Sunday' game in week 5 we will moan like hell
Just randomely thought, if the season does get voided do fans get refunded for going to games that didn't technically happen?
Your obsession with this is truly something else
No chance. Now that would bankrupt every one!
You're spot on about us soon taking things for granted again though.
Did Redman actually say that?!
Do you actually think that players are robots?!
Fair play to you mate, we all get carried away sometimes.
Very much doubt we will see crowds at football games this year in Europe. Possibly not next year either.