Okay we all know that the football season has been suspended until April 3rd (for now) but there are many people of the opinion that there is still no way that we can just pick up from where we left off, and just continue playing all the games.
One prominent footballing official who thinks that the season will be abandoned completely is the West Ham vice-chairwoman Karren Brady, who has written in the Sun that she can’t see any other outcome.
She wrote: “Their [the government’s] wishful plan to hold off on cancelling big sporting events for a while was destroyed by one verdict — that Arteta had caught the virus.
“The house of hope collapsed because once the contagion was in the brickwork, dry rot took over.
“Arsenal’s matches had to be called off and all of Arteta’s dozens of contacts had to be placed in isolation.
“Arsenal hosted West Ham just a week ago and our manager David Moyes is also in self-isolation although that is a sensible precaution as he is showing no symptoms at all.
“The same was true of Hudson-Odoi. The masonry was falling fast.
“Such is the potency of the disease that no one is safe.
“We do not even know if it can be caught twice. Fundamentally, it has to be eradicated and not until there is an effective vaccine — a year ahead at least — big sport will be at its mercy.
“The only antidote at present is care in human contact and unrelenting pursuit of hygiene.
“Suspension or cancellation of the league was always a certainty.
“There is no dodging the possibility that all levels in the EFL as well as the Premier League will have to be cancelled and this season declared null and void because if the players can’t play the games can’t go ahead.”
She then goes on to say that the Premier League’s hope of restarting the season is a forlorn one at best. She continues: “So what if the league cannot be finished?
“As games in both the PL and in the EFL are affected, the only fair and reasonable thing to do is declare the whole season null and void.
“Who knows who would have gone down or come up if the games have not actually been played in full?
“A huge blow to Liverpool who might be robbed of their first title in 30 years.
“This will be discussed between the PL and the clubs next week at an emergency meeting.”
More may be known next week before the meeting, but with Boris declaring a state of emergency, there is only signs and projections saying that things will be getting a lot worse for a long time before any chance of remission.
Could Liverpool really lose their title despite being so far in front? It certainly is looking that way at the moment..
Being a diehard Gunner fan for the past 22 years, I still feel sorry for Liverpool if they lose the title due to covid-19. They have worked so hard all season, played some breathtaking football and deserve to win the PL. Anyway hoping that the scourge of the disease is over soon and everything comes back to normalcy asap. God and Mercy!
They should develop an algorithm which can probably take into account the team form, injuries to key players in a team, current points, history in upcoming fixtures etc then go with the predicted table. Its not completely fair but then would be closest to being fair. Season should not be abounded just like that with no result what so ever. Liverpool deserve to be champions, they played some brilliant football and have dominated home and abroad for more than an year. Taking this from them will not be fair and will not go down well for football. …football should be winner not petty rivalries n jealousies.
im a west ham fan and not a lover of baroness Brady, but she has given an opinion and this time has got it spot on. 2019/20 should go down as the one that was scrapped, we all know who should have won it, but to start again next season is the only logical option, obviously if a vaccine is fast tracked and games can be played late summer ( i can’t see it myself) then great. but for now lets crack this virus and stay safe. and people think about health before wealth and sport. if we have a total lockdown we will beat this quicker.
A totally self-interested suggestion by someone whose club is in danger of relegation?
she is 100% correct she is in contact with more pre directors than any of us, that is the consensus its her right in her column to say this, i don’t think west ham would get relegated anyway, 5 games ago Arsenal would have still been in trouble so put things in perspective its a health matter. its just a game after all
I don’t think you’d have gone down.. or will go down, whatever… you have a decent side (& I’m not just saying that because half of my family are hammers). Who knows how this will all end, but as you correctly stated – it’s just a game after all! Everyone’s health/well being comes first!
So what? Every other club will also argue what is best for them. Liverpool will want title before it is clinched, United will want a UCL spot, Sheffield will want game resumed. Everyone has their agenda now. It will be pretty messy.
It will be a travesty for Liverpool if the season is decreed null and void but I think there is a distinct possibility of it happening.
Most people know I am a Gunner of 77 years and believe in fair play always. We must not blisten to people like Brady she has too many vested interests and has crept into the hiarachy of football withou any talent. We must finish the football season as we did in 1963. . Liverpool have effectively won the title deservedly and even if the PL or FA just declare every outstanding game a draw it would be better than her stupid idea. Listen to genuine fans not people who get honours and money via contacts and have little knowledge of the real game.
It’s not her idea, and I am not defending her as I detest the woman, it has already been mooted by the Premier League that one of the options could be “cancelling” this season altogether.
if you have been a fan for 77 years ! so what by the way, that doesn’t mean you know any more than other fans, it just means you are old. This has nothing to do with her role in WHU. i don’t think they would go down anyway, its common sense. this country will soon be on full lockdown mode and no football or any sports will take place. so stop with the stiff upper lip stuff, you sound ridiculous .
gunnerpete, I am interested in your description of Baroness Brady as being without talent. I do not care for her either but recognise that she has many business and personal skills, as do most of us to some degree in our various ways. TALENT though is different from skill and few people have outstanding talent, though we almost all have skills. Great footballers, singers, musicians, dancers, painters etc have talent. Many of them though fail to have all but rudimentary business andeven life skills, The artistic talent is so often not a compatible partner with grounded and level headed life skills. There is room for all and though I agree with your wish to finish this season, I FIRMLY DISAGREE THAT IT CAN BE ACHIEVED IN ANY FAIR WAY THAT SUITS ALL. Most(though not all)) people besides yourself, are ALSO lovers of fair play and I suggest to you that whatever happens to resolve this football problem, cannot possibly be totally fair. Surely that is only common sense ?
Finally . You are 77 , I am 68 and at our age it can be tempting to think that because something was possible way back then, that it is possible now. A completely different set of circumstabcrs and attitudes prevail now, whether or not we oldies like that fact. Being older, I also well remember the winter of 62/63, which is however in this current football world, a completely different set of circumstances.
I’m not going to be an apologist for Karen Brady, but she was managing director of Birmingham City FC for 16 years so she has neither ‘crept in’, nor is she ‘without talent’, or she wouldn’t have built a multi-million pound club from bankruptcy.
This season is over, no doubt about it.
Whether Liverpool can be declared champions or not, is really just an academic question with no real consequences either or.
But there are consequences with decisions on who will play in Europe, if those competitions will in fact start some time in the autumn. Also there are real consequences with decisions on relegation and promotion.
My advice to all of us while this pandemic lasts. We are going to survive this scourge successfully if we exercise a little more than the usual caution in following the directions of the health professionals.
This unfortunately is an added incentive for all our friends and families struggling to overcome the smoking habit. Our lungs do miraculously wonderful job for us, and smoking destroys our lungs. If we quit smoking right away, perhaps our lungs will recover just in time to subdue this terrible virus once we come in contact with it.
No need to panic, keep healthy and stay healthy.
Gily, A well intended post which I applaud. As someone who has never smoked and in my late sixties, like many of my generation , I grew up in a house where both parents smoked and neither reached 80 before dying, both from heart problems. I knew way before I was even seven that I WOULD NEVER SMOKE; I had no choice back then, other than to live in a smoke filled house. My parents both stopped smoking in their middle years but the physical damage was then already done.
Your advice is of course sound and wise but needs to be on every news bulletin on all media, hourly, as this site is not of any interest at all except to Gooners, the vast majority of whom do not smoke and never have nor ever will, thank God!
Do I phone 111 to ask advise on how I would stop myself dying of laughter if Liverpool were not crowned champions because of the Corona Virus ?……………………….I have already taken some precaution by purchasing a container load of toilet rolls……………………toilet rolls are a miracle cure!
Fair mindedness may be a concept that is alien to you it seems then Le Coq. I WOULD BE TOO EMBARRASSED TO OPENLY ADMIT MY SMALL MINDED MENTALITY IN A POST. But it does not exist, in my case, THOUGH CLEARLY YOU FEEL NO SUCH EMBARRASSMENT. Many may rightly feel that finding the football victims of this awful, common to all humanity virus, in this case Liverpool fans, as a laughing matter is in juvenile and bad taste.
I feel no embarrassment, Jon, with my sense of humour, something I will never apologise for is having extreme sense of humour DNA.
You win some you lose some and you cant make everyone happy, should I stop ?………………………..never!
Go on Le Coq, I enjoyed that. We need this to keep laughing in this time of panic. N before ppl start lecturing on how insensitive I am that so many ppl have been effected and died. 10 times more ppl died in recent war but that did not stop any one from laughing or continuing with life as we call it. It’s bad situation but then it’s part of life.
👍👍 Can always rely on Le Coq to make us laugh!
Le Coq, I am interested in the fact that you see no real and important differenence between laughing at ourselves and our common human condition, which is cathartic, on the one hand, and on the other hand laughing at the misfortune of others, as you do here . Yet you and others think it funny, even in the midst of a deadly human virus that kills many and will kill many more.
I depart from you on that juvenile philosophy of yours and do so gladly. Were you instead laughing at our mass human panic I would have gladly shared the joke. But THAT is NOT what you laughed at. IS IT!
As much as Liverpool have deserved the title, they have NOT won it yet. As much as Arsenal have not deserved a top four finish, they haven’t lost it yet. Same goes for most other teams in different contexts. I don’t think Liverpool can be declared champions but no decision is made on CL places and relegation. That would be absurd. If the season is terminated at this point then we would have to pretend as if it never happened.
You are right of course
We all have our own agendas
I’d struggle not to allow the title be awarded to Liverpool as they are so ridiculously far ahead. It would be catastrophic if they didn’t win if normal circumstances prevailed
No other team in the PL or in the top 5 of the championship could say for sure that either a European spot, relegation or promotion wasn’t on the cards depending on where you they in either league
How that dilemma is sorted out satisfactorily heaven only knows
This is a very tricky situation which borders on a dilemma! If you declare Liverpool the winner it means you have even to declare the other positions! Would everybody accept this? If the other teams disagree which will almost certainly be the case, what happens then? Perhaps we shall see endless litigation. Much as all justice lovers would wish to see Liverpool reap their just reward other factors might not make it possible. You can’t declare a winner without a runner up. On the other hand there are very few points separating the different teams with more than 6 games to the end of the season. Would it be fair to the other teams to declare other positions in such a situation? The answer is an unequivocal no. Thus the situation is more difficult than some people might have imagined! There is no easy way out.
Correction: It should be 9 not 6 games. Arsenal and some few other teams still have 10 games to go.