He then added a little later, ‘Over the weekend I spoke to a leading expert, who is involved with the national response to the coronavirus pandemic, to ask him when sport as we know it – in front of packed crowds – might return. His response was sober and downbeat. “My expectation is that this is something that is going to be around for a long period of time,” he said. “There are no silver bullets on the horizon. We are talking months and months – and perhaps even next year and beyond”.’
The expert (who asked to remain anonymous) noted that a vaccine would probably not be ready until August 2021.
And that’s not my finger slipping as it often does. It is August 2021.
Yes, but, you may be saying, we could play behind closed doors. The problem with that is if a single player or member of the training or managerial team in a club tests positive then the whole squad is out for two weeks. Plus all the players of the other team that they have just played.
And all that is before you even think whether people who have been out of work since March 2020 will be ready to pay for their season tickets in July 2020. Especially where there is still the risk of playing games with no crowd present.
Plus another thing, if matches are off and on like yoyos go up and down, Sky and BT Sprout are not going to be that amused. What do they do – put a crew in each ground and hope?
The average club in the Premier League pays out £30m a week in wages before bonuses. So they desperately want to come back to a scenario in which they earn some money. But that’s not the point. They simply won’t be allowed to.
Ah yes, one might say, but we’ve been told the virus will pass by soon. Look, China is re-opening, so the end does come along. Yes, except that China did a much bigger lock down than England ever has, and even so, the virus itself could mutate. After all, that’s what the flu virus does – which is why it keeps coming back.
But there are things happening. For example eight PL clubs (including Arsenal) – all of them in the top half of the table before everything ended, have written to the Court of Arbitration for Sport demanding that Manchester City should not be allowed in next season’s Champion League, if their appeal is still going through.
The reason is that if they are allowed in, but are then found guilty and so banned from the competition, they will have plenty of time to adjust their squad, and so minimise the penalty. In particular they will be able to move players to other members of the City group, with a view to bringing them back later.
In comments which originated via the Daily Mail, an anonymous source is quoted as stating that, “The feeling is that enough is enough. For too long, City have been able to get away with breaching the rules at the expense of at least one other club that has been unable to get into the Champions League.
“The fear is that they will be able to delay any punishment and — should they win the appeal — get off scot-free, which would be outrageous.”
But there is more, because if CAS upholds the ban, then that is a mark of absolute guilty in terms of financial manipulation, and with that proven the Premier League or the FA could march in, take that as fact, and push through their own sanctions.
What particualarly angers some clubs it seems is that at the moment, money is as nothing to Manchester City – they click a finger and another billion barrels of oil comes their way. Worse, they have become the first club to respond to a charge, not by defending themselves, but by claiming Uefa is biased and incompetent. If they are right, then Uefa is incompetent and biased in all cases so no one is getting a fair deal. If they are wrong, then Man City is the culprit and needs dealing with. In short, through their defence, Manchester City have put themselves outside the normal realms of football clubs. No other club has ever launched such an attack on an official body.
Indeed normally when any person or organisation is accused of breaking the law they have a range of choices…
a) Stay quiet or admit guilt, accept the law, pay the fine, don’t do it again
b) Campaign against the law legally on the grounds the law is unjust
c) Campaign against the whole legal system and those who enforce it, in a legal manner
d) Moan a lot, but accept the law
e) Leave and go and live somewhere else and do something out.
At the moment Man City are at point d) with a bit of c), which raises the question, what will they do if they lose the case again? Will they suddenly change their tune and accept the court’s decision and the validity of the legal process?
Which leads to, “Does the Premier League and Uefa need Manchester City more than Manchester City needs the Premier League and Uefa?” I doubt it, but I don’t think Manchester City have realised that, which is always the problem when a family is allowed to run a country and do what it likes.
As a City fan in the belief that football is corrupt, I love reading your blog but your cognitive dissonance when it comes to all things City is…well, cognitive dissonance.
Man city disputing the law that found them guilty but questioning the authenticity of EUFA as body Hence suing EUFA unsuitability of finding them culpable in their (Man city) financial ethics that don’t confirm to FFP rules.
Remember they man city are members of EUFA BY Their CHOICE NOT BY FORCE.
My guess is that City will lose their case, accept any fine or suspension and continue on as if nothing ever happened. This is EUFA/FIFA,the sweet FA fondest dream…..a slap on the wrist, justice as seen to be marginally done and everything back to normal….move on,nothing to see here!
Remember the match fixing before the Great War?…a national crisis and a couple of years later and it was quietly swept under the rug.
OT: Gary Neville doesn’t get:
Gary Neville doesn’t get gravity. It doesn’t matter the an English person named Newton is associated with gravity, Gary doesn’t get it.
Add your own.
I think this rule FFP was made up by the Elite Clubs in Europe Man Utd Jovent B Munich Real Basra to safe guard there continues place in Champion League. The Daft thing is clubs like Man Utd can have Dept of over 400 Million pounds and still buy players it’s a joke, Who made the Rules up two men who had there hand till Blatter and Plititan rouge
If Elon Musk gave a damn, he wouldn’t be demanding societies reopen, he’d be finding the alternative to oil, so that the sheiks and sheikskys would be screwed, and Man City and Chelsea will have to win on merit, something neither has done since the early 1970s.