by Tony Attwood
We mentioned a number of times recently that there is a problem with the notion of ghost matches in that some fans are more than likely to gather at or near the stadium when a match is being played, whether they can gain admission or not. It is one of the reasons why the idea of playing out the season in Cyprus is being put forward.
In olden times the mass media would tend to ignore such ruminations from Untold, but it seems these days with the shortage of real live news our thoughts are being picked up a little more quickly. True it took several days and a press release from Qatar before the UK’s mass media returned from the Toppled Bollard and started to realise that there was such a thing as a pirate TV station called BeoutQ which broadcast from a satellite owned by Saudi Arabia – and that this was relevant to the purchase of Newcastle by that country. But they got there in the end, even if they generally failed to mention that the protestors (Qatar) by and large own PSG and BeIn. However such matters are details, and when have details ever bothered the media?
Now they have caught up with the thought that yes, some fans will gather near a stadium for a party when a match is being played – something we pointed out a while back in relation to the bid by Cyprus to host all the remaining Premier League games. It would not happen in Cyprus because access to the island can be readily regulated, and the number of fans who would go all that way just to stand outside the ground is going to be small. But the media are behind the curve on the Cyprus story so it is not getting an explicit mention yet.
And that is all before we get to the issue of testing everyone who has to be at the ground. in an era when care home staff in England still can’t be tested. A third of all coronavirus deaths in England happen in care homes, and there are still not enough tests for the staff and patients. One doesn’t even have to comment on that point; it just seems insane to be contemplating football matches returning to England while that situation continues.
(It’s not a media matter because the health of the elderly and the issue of football matches are dealt with by different departments in media organisations, and they haven’t talked to each other yet).
In fact what actually comes across in all this is that nothing much is being discussed at all. No one seems to know about any restart ideas, other than the Cyprus plan, and that one is only in the open because we found the story and put it on Untold.
The Guardian has suggested that some clubs are “questioning whether the government is trying to use football as a distraction amid criticism of its Covid-19 strategy and tensions over the lockdown, there is a growing feeling that the Premier League’s return could have unwanted consequences.”
And, well, yes. That’s a bit bloody obvious but I am glad to see that someone is awake. Of course, the government is looking for distractions, not because this government is being particularly inept, but because it is what government’s do. (Don’t football journalists ever talk to their colleagues who cover political and economic stories? Oh, no they don’t. Silly question.)
And all this of course before anyone has decided what to do with players whose contracts are coming to an end in two months time. Unscrupulous clubs with mountains of money could buy up players in such a position, just to stop others getting hold of them for the last games of the interrupted season, and then release the players once the remaining games have been played. A short term contract extension that would be good news for players who fear being unemployed for a while, and would harm teams that were needing them in case of injuries in the remaining fixtures. A dirty trick, but when we see what Liverpool! and Chelsea have done in recent years vis a vis young players, it looks fairly mild.
What’s more some players are abroad and they will have greater difficulties in terms of returning to England, and in terms of the isolation period, they will be expected to undergo.
But as ever it is money that dominates. The losses to the 20 Premier League clubs of not finishing the season are said to be around £57m per club on average, and obviously those clubs that might expect to be the subject to live TV more than others (clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City who feature on live games most of all) fancy getting hold of some of that cash.
However what makes this worse is that the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the British government is now getting involved. This is the department that gives taxpayers’ money to the FA without ever keeping any check on what it does with the cash or how it handles it, so goodness knows what sort of cock-up it will come up with if given half a chance.
The Arsenal Quiz
We’ve put up an Arsenal quiz, in which all the questions are concerned with events that happened on 29 April throughout history. See how well you know your Arsenal.
If you are stuck at home with nothing to do you might care for
- Arsenal “reportedly”. How often are those words used together?
- How other leagues are seeking a way through the crisis; another Untold exclusive
The chair of Fifa’s medical committee has said that it is unlikely football can restart before September. France did the same as the Nederlands yesterday by cancelling their season. I could see a return if we had sufficient testing but I can not, see with the lack of a coherent strategy, that our government will ever have sufficient testing. If those thousands of deaths in care homes do not provide the necessity of testing of residents and workers can we seriously hope to see football before September?
The possible end of the lockdown, both in general and in particular respect to football seems to be a convenient current distraction from the major questions which the UK government should be facing., (such as: why has its response to the pandemic been so inadequate compared to other countries? why has it had to focus on protecting the NHS rather than protecting people? how can it evade responsibility for the lack of testing capacity, PPE,for the Health Service and Care Sectors, especially when they are suffering from the consequences of 10 years of austerity?
Football is a convenient distraction for the govt. -whether it can be blamed for not cutting Premier league players’ wages, (especially Mesut Ozil’s) or be simply lined up for blame if a further outbreak of virus occurs after some attempt to resume matches etc.
I can tell you (as being from Belgium who are world champion in dead people based on our population) that most countries have completely mishit the ball.
I can see the same complaints in the UK that we can see in Belgium: not enough tests, not enoug protection for care workers, not enough protection for the people working in the elderly homes (in fact until 14 days ago no protection at all)
I think the “shuffle it under the carpet strategy” at first from China aided by the WHO has caused almost all countries to believe that things weren’t that serious at first. And then in Belgium we are also not really helped with “experts” who change their mind every day about what to do, how to do, what is important, what is not important…
In Dutch the expert on a virus is called a “viroloog”. But the word “loog” also exists in Dutch. And it means “lied”. An example is that the experts at first told us: “mouth masks are useless.” Later they confessed that they just said that because the Belgium governement had destroyed the strategic stock and didn’t replace them a few years ago. Now we are told that we have to use them when we take public transport and they they will help to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. So they just lied to us in our face. So the trust in the governement and in the experts has gone down the sink with a lot of people in Belgium. Including me.
Walter…as Ihave repeatedly maintained in every article I have written during this pandemic, relying on our leaders, ¨competent¨ authorities and politicians to do the intelligent, rational, logical, appropriate and effective thing in a crisis is like relying on a gorilla to do your tax returns. Yes, they will hand in something but it will be indecipherable and totally unusuable! Many of us are questioning what type of idiots have we put in charge of the asylum….
Walter, I remember many many years ago you told me you didn’t care for the music of Bob Dylan, but if you did you might know one of his more famous lines from a song, “Don’t follow leaders”. I think it holds sway now as much as at any time.