Football & Coronavirus [READ MOD NOTE IN FIRST POST - updated 06-05-20]

BullBlackNova

Player associations in Italy and Spain raising concerns about their members and the PFAI is due to meet with football officials today too.

If the players refuse to play - with justification in the context of the Nottingham Forest, Olympiakos, Arsenal crossover - the whole thing will grind to a halt immediately.

I can definitely see a temporary halt being called for a few weeks around the international break now.

AC Milan are due back in training at the start of next week. Worth keeping an eye there to see if it happens.

Mitch Connor

So the Arsenal game is postponed.... but all the Olympiacos players tested negitive, and Olympiacos are playing tomorrow night, game going ahead.

Feels like the Arsenal game being postponed is some odd kind of PR move.

all about the mane

Mitch Connor wrote: »

So the Arsenal game is postponed.... but all the Olympiacos players tested negitive, and Olympiacos are playing tomorrow night, game going ahead.

Feels like the Arsenal game being postponed is some odd kind of PR move.

Or a player is suspected of having it, just not confirmed yet

Niska

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Feels like the Arsenal game being postponed is some odd kind of PR move.

(From BBC - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51829511) - the owner of Olympiakos (who tested positive for Covid 19) met some of the Arsenal players, thus they're self isolating for 14 days:

"The medical advice we have received puts the risk of them developing Covid-19 at extremely low. However, we are strictly following the government guidelines which recommend that anyone coming into close contact with someone with the virus should self-isolate at home for 14 days from the last time they had contact.

"As a result, the players are unavailable for tonight's match against Manchester City and the Premier League has decided the game should be postponed.

"The players will remain at their homes until the 14-day period expires. Four Arsenal staff, who were sitting close to Mr Marinakis during the match will also remain at home until the 14 days are complete."

citytillidie

Niska wrote: »

(From BBC - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51829511) - the owner of Olympiakos (who tested positive for Covid 19) met some of the Arsenal players, thus they're self isolating for 14 days:

But Arsenals game at the weekend is still scheduled to take place why was that not postponed at the same time?

hetuzozaho

citytillidie wrote: »

But Arsenals game at the weekend is still scheduled to take place why was that not postponed at the same time?

Because the 14days would be over?

Cookiemunster

citytillidie wrote: »

But Arsenals game at the weekend is still scheduled to take place why was that not postponed at the same time?

14 days from when they met him, so they're clear after tomorrow.

LuckyLloyd

The international break will give space for big decisions to be made. At that point you’re down to a last 8 in European competitions and it makes alternative plans easier to manage.

MD1990

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The international break will give space for big decisions to be made. At that point you’re down to a last 8 in European competitions and it makes alternative plans easier to manage.

Chanpions league quarters & semi's should be just one leg at a neutrel venue.

LuckyLloyd

MD1990 wrote: »

Chanpions league quarters & semi's should be just one league at a neutrel venue.

I think it will be something like that ultimately. I don’t think the Euro 2020 playoffs or tournament proper will go ahead and that will give space to finish out games with alternative arrangements in the summer.

I’d imagine English Football is hoping they get through the next 10 days as normal.

The City / Arsenal postponement is not indicative of further actions - the players involved come out of quarantine on Thursday. Any severe restrictions will be driven by U.K. government. Behind closed doors first, then suspension.

Harry Palmr

Scrap international break and stage CL as follows at one venue

Day 1 Tuesday 24th
QF 1 v QF 2 Afternoon
QF 3 v QF 4 Evening

Day 2 Wednesday 25th
QF 5 v QF 6 Afternoon
QF 7 v QF 8 Evening

Day 3 Sunday 30th
SF 1 v SF 2 Afternoon
SF 3 v SF 4 Evening

LuckyLloyd

Just to put some maths on this, the exponential rate of increase for covid 19 epidemics thus far has seen an approximate doubling of case rate every three days. This should see U.K. case numbers exceed 400 when updated today (currently at 324 as of last update yesterday morning, was at 200 on Sunday).

By Saturday they will have 800 cases
1600 cases by next Tuesday
3200 cases by next Friday

I would expect they make a call on Tuesday / Wednesday to play fixtures on Saturday 21st behind closed doors. They are then not due to play again until weekend of April 4th and I’d expect the U.K. situation to be very different at that point, and football will be one small part of the equation.

Unearthly

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Just to put some maths on this, the exponential rate of increase for covid 19 epidemics thus far has seen an approximate doubling of case rate every three days. This should see U.K. case numbers exceed 400 when updated today (currently at 324 as of last update yesterday morning, was at 200 on Sunday).

By Saturday they will have 800 cases
1600 cases by next Tuesday
3200 cases by next Friday

I would expect they make a call on Tuesday / Wednesday to play fixtures on Saturday 21st behind closed doors. They are then not due to play again until weekend of April 4th and I’d expect the U.K. situation to be very different at that point, and football will be one small part of the equation.

Just on this. BBC have released this article

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51814874

UK will now be testing 10k people a day instead of 1,500 they were doing a day previously. I'd expect UK numbers to sharply increase but this is the correct way of doing it in order to manage the spread. South Korea are doing 10k a day and although they had a huge spike, they seem to have passed the peak.

Chuck Noland

Psg V Lyon in the French cup final is postponed now

French League Cup final postponed
The French League Cup final between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, scheduled for April 4, has been postponed amid efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, a league statement said Wednesday.
It said a new date for the match would be fixed in consultation with the clubs, broadcasters and the French football federation.

On Tuesday, officials ordered top football matches in France to be played behind closed doors as part of the fight against the virus, with more than 1,780 cases, 33 deaths in the country

LuckyGent88

Roma flight not given permission to land in Spain for their Europa game and now a player for Hannover in German 2nd division has been diagnosed with covid 19

Collie D

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Scrap international break and stage CL as follows at one venue

Day 1 Tuesday 24th
QF 1 v QF 2 Afternoon
QF 3 v QF 4 Evening

Day 2 Wednesday 25th
QF 5 v QF 6 Afternoon
QF 7 v QF 8 Evening

Day 3 Sunday 30th
SF 1 v SF 2 Afternoon
SF 3 v SF 4 Evening

International breaks get first priority. They won’t scrap them for club football. Cancel them, maybe but they won’t replace them with club games.

Unearthly

Well the Europa league looks in trouble now with the Sevilla/Roma and Inter/Getafe travelling mess.

rob316

I said it already they'll have to scrap the european cup competitions to give the leagues time to finish in the summer.

Chuck Noland

rob316 wrote: »

I said it already they'll have to scrap the european cup competitions to give the leagues time to finish in the summer.

They won’t scrap the Euros, Champions League and Europa league (UEFA Competitions) to ensure the Premier League, La Liga & Serie A finish. The English Spanish & Italian FA’s answer to UEFA not the other way around. UEFA won’t make decisions to suit other party’s they’ll make them to suit them selfs.

ArmaniJeanss

Chuck Noland wrote: »

They won’t scrap the Euros, Champions League and Europa league (UEFA Competitions) to ensure the Premier League, La Liga & Serie A finish. The English Spanish & Italian FA’s answer to UEFA not the other way around. UEFA won’t make decisions to suit other party’s they’ll make them to suit them selfs.

Nah, you got this way wrong from reading too much English media who think anything with Europe in it's initials is automatically an enemy.
UEFA isn't some big bad 'other', it works with the individual FA's and leagues.
And specifically in the case of the Big 4 FA's, it actively strives to keep them onside with it's decisions and often bends over backwards to do so.

Cookiemunster

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Nah, you got this way wrong from reading too much English media who think anything with Europe in it's initials is automatically an enemy.
UEFA isn't some big bad 'other', it works with the individual FA's and leagues.
And specifically in the case of the Big 4 FA's, it actively strives to keep them onside with it's decisions and often bends over backwards to do so.

Incorrect. It tries to keep the clubs onside, not the FAs. The PL, La Liga and the BL are separate entities from their FAs.

ArmaniJeanss

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Incorrect. It tries to keep the clubs onside, not the FAs.

That's why I said 'FA's and leagues' in the second sentence - the politics/relationship between the main league and FA in each country covers a wide spectrum and everywhere is different.

Notwithstanding that, poster Chucks assertion that 'UEFA won’t make decisions to suit other party’s they’ll make them to suit them selfs' is clearly wrong. Discussion and compromise has always been their policy, though that tends to leave no-one completely happy.

Chuck Noland

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

That's why I said 'FA's and leagues' in the second sentence - the politics/relationship between the main league and FA in each country covers a wide spectrum and everywhere is different.

Notwithstanding that, poster Chucks assertion that 'UEFA won’t make decisions to suit other party’s they’ll make them to suit them selfs' is clearly wrong. Discussion and compromise has always been their policy, though that tends to leave no-one completely happy.

So you think UEFA will cancel their own competitions and tournaments to accommodate other competitions?

Fitz*

Out of all the different leagues and tournaments, the Euro 2020 is the easiest tournament to cancel. Surely that should be postponed until 2021, with the now free summer months being used to finish individual leagues and European club competitions. Play games as normal behind closed doors, as long as all players are screened daily (I presume top clubs already are doing this).

Get everything in order before the new season starts in July / August again. There are too many questions regarding club qualifications and titles to be answered by just cancelling everything.

Cantona's Collars

https://twitter.com/marthakelner/status/1237758423879598082

ArmaniJeanss

Chuck Noland wrote: »

So you think UEFA will cancel their own competitions and tournaments to accommodate other competitions?

I guess we'll see.
I'd expect in the case of the CL/EL that they'll be very flexible, possibly making the quarters and semi's one off ties to free up two midweeks. You could run the 1/4s, semi's and final in a week at the end of May.
Remember it's 100% in UEFA's interest for all the leagues to finish, because next seasons CL and EL start in late June/early July (qualifying rounds).

The Euros itself, no cancellation decision has to be made for at least a month anyway.
Cancelling it until next year isn't ideal for UEFA but not an unsurmountable issue. Most of the money will already have been paid (TV, sponsorship, ticketmoney). No sponsor is going to want the bad publicity of being the one who asks for a refund.

As I said, we'll see

Drumpot

I’d say within the next 3 weeks all football in Europe will be cancelled. They will try to push it out a month but there’s no more football probably until maybe the later part of the summer. Maybe start with empty stadium games.

This season may effectively be written off and if they can start next season it’s basically a reboot of this season. That’s not factoring in issues some clubs may have but I’m talking purely about professional clubs at the top of the sport who should be able to take a hit.

Chuck Noland

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I guess we'll see.
I'd expect in the case of the CL/EL that they'll be very flexible, possibly making the quarters and semi's one off ties to free up two midweeks. You could run the 1/4s, semi's and final in a week at the end of May.
Remember it's 100% in UEFA's interest for all the leagues to finish, because next seasons CL and EL start in late June/early July (qualifying rounds).

The Euros itself, no cancellation decision has to be made for at least a month anyway.
Cancelling it until next year isn't ideal for UEFA but not an unsurmountable issue. Most of the money will already have been paid (TV, sponsorship, ticketmoney). No sponsor is going to want the bad publicity of being the one who asks for a refund.

As I said, we'll see

The Italian FA have already said they’ll Inform UEFA which sides will be representing them in European football next season should the league not get completed. I’d imagine the Spanish FA and any others that don’t complete their domestic seasons will do similar in the event of it coming to that. Sponsors will want something should tournaments be cancelled or reduced from 2 legs to 1 leg. You’d also need a neutral ground in an area allowing flights from both country’s. As we’ve seen today if governments ban flights to their country from affected areas they won’t make exceptions for a football match.

HalloweenJack

An idea would be to decide the league tables on average points per game, then goal difference, goals scored, etc. Any ties after that to be be decided with play-offs behind closed doors. That'd do for leagues, at least.

With the developments in the EL today, I can't see the European competitions being completed in the current format. One-off games behind closed doors, I imagine, if they are desperate to get it down.

International football should be cancelled for the forseeable future. The risks of cross-contamination would be far higher.

Collie D

What would be the difference if they used average points per game instead of current standings unless there were teams with games in hand?

Cookiemunster

Juve have announced that Daniele Rugani has tested positive. I highly doubt they'll be playing Lyon next week.

osarusan

The emptiness of the stadiums makes them look even more huge than they are.

Chuck Noland

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Juve have announced that Daniele Rugani has tested positive. I highly doubt they'll be playing Lyon next week.

No leagues will get finished at this rate. Soon as one announces they aren’t finishing the others will follow suit. This is still in its early stage here

Fitz*

Premier League are playing all their games behind closed doors now, but will play on.

Need to take it a step further and cancel it all together now

Player and staff safety needs to discussed next

Cantona's Collars

The Times exclusive.

""All football matches in England will be played behind closed doors under government plans to combat coronavirus that could be triggered as early as today.

A meeting of the government’s Cobra committee this morning is expected to move its response to the pandemic from the “contain” phase to the “delay” phase. That will result in a crisis plan being unveiled for football. The Times can reveal:

● The current season will not be postponed and instead matches in the Premier League and lower divisions will be moved behind closed doors;

● All Premier League season-ticket holders and ticket holders for individual games will be able to stream coverage of matches into their homes;

● No games will be shown in pubs so as to avoid congregation of people;

● Premier League games will not be shown live in the 3pm slot on Saturday afternoons;

● Broadcasters will be permitted to screen more than one Premier League game during both the lunchtime and tea-time television slots on Saturday, and the scheduled slots on Sundays and Mondays; and

● Season-ticket holders and ticket holders for individual games at Football League clubs will be allowed to watch matches on iFollow streams.

The plan may be implemented once the number of UK coronavirus cases passes 500. Last night it stood at 460.


This is part of the article, the rest is about financial penalties involving broadcasters and hypothetical scenarios.

Cantona's Collars

The NBA has called a halt to games after a Utah Jazz player tested positive.

Gonna be a lot more sports following suit, it's not just about the money which the EPL is most concerned with.

PARlance

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-03-11/nba-suspends-season-indefinitely-over-coronavirus-pandemic

NBA cancelled

NBA Suspended, USA stops travel between europe and the USA for 30 now, this is really kicking off it it hasnt already

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/world/coronavirus-news.html

namloc1980

If players start getting infected then games won't happen.

Arghus

I reckon they'll go behind closed doors by the weekend and possibly the whole lot will be postponed shortly after. I don't think they have much choice!

PhilipsR

A player’s gonna be diagnosed soon and it’ll be done. Gonna be a mess to figure out.

Glebee

Arghus wrote: »

I reckon they'll go behind closed doors by the weekend and possibly the whole lot will be postponed shortly after. I don't think they have much choice!

This is whats going to happen.

PhilipsR

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

The Times exclusive.

""All football matches in England will be played behind closed doors under government plans to combat coronavirus that could be triggered as early as today.

A meeting of the government’s Cobra committee this morning is expected to move its response to the pandemic from the “contain” phase to the “delay” phase. That will result in a crisis plan being unveiled for football. The Times can reveal:

● The current season will not be postponed and instead matches in the Premier League and lower divisions will be moved behind closed doors;

● All Premier League season-ticket holders and ticket holders for individual games will be able to stream coverage of matches into their homes;

● No games will be shown in pubs so as to avoid congregation of people;

● Premier League games will not be shown live in the 3pm slot on Saturday afternoons;

● Broadcasters will be permitted to screen more than one Premier League game during both the lunchtime and tea-time television slots on Saturday, and the scheduled slots on Sundays and Mondays; and

● Season-ticket holders and ticket holders for individual games at Football League clubs will be allowed to watch matches on iFollow streams.

The plan may be implemented once the number of UK coronavirus cases passes 500. Last night it stood at 460.


This is part of the article, the rest is about financial penalties involving broadcasters and hypothetical scenarios.

The lack of concern for the public is baffling. Why does it have to go to 500 cases before they bring it in? Do they think it’ll magically just start to fall?! Of course it’s going to be over 500.

8-10

PhilipsR wrote: »

A player’s gonna be diagnosed soon and it’ll be done. Gonna be a mess to figure out.

Rugani was diagnosed yesterday

super_furry

Honestly I think UEFA has reacted too slowly to this whole thing. They should suspend the Champions League retroactively to yesterday. For the Premier League I think they should let things go on a game-to-game basis and play two, maybe three more rounds before deciding anything.

8-10

super_furry wrote: »

Honestly I think UEFA has reacted too slowly to this whole thing. They should suspend the Champions League retroactively to yesterday.

Retroactive? So Liverpool are still in it...?

super_furry

8-10 wrote: »

Retroactive? So Liverpool are still in it...?

Just a happy little coincidence, I'm sure.

LuckyGent88

The Danes have shut down their league.
Bosnia have asked for the playoff game against the north to be postponed and I’d say Slovakia will follow suit.

Euro 2020 is definitely not happening this year I’d say.

The Davestator

Hundreds of people still needed for a match to go ahead behind closed doors;
Players, staff, groundsmen, TV crews, Medical personnel etc.

Can't be long until the league is suspended.