By Tony Attwood
On 27 April we broke the story that Cyprus could be considered as a location for running the remainder of the Premer League season, as it is still not possible to play the rest of the season in England – and probably won’t be for a while.
We’ve given a few more details as the days have passed, and the English media has refused even to recognise there is an issue (in the same way that they are refusing to discuss the major upheaval happening in relation to Fifa at the moment). But the project is out there, as we described in the article.
However, four days late, but they got there in the end, the Daily Mail has put up the story that
Premier League season could finish ABROAD says Gary Neville, who suggests moving the remaining games to Europe (but doesn’t say where…)
The subheadings (something the Daily Mail loves, along with random WORDS in capitals for no apparent reason) TELL us that
- Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have again discussed how football can restart
- Discussion is building regarding whether a select base should be used for games
- Neville feels the prospect of finishing the Premier League abroad exists
Of course they won’t mention Untold Arsenal being there four days ago, and instead choose to say that “Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have once again delved into the complexities of how football could restart, by exploring the option of concluding the Premier League overseas.”
But well, that’s what they do. And of course, they have to do this now, as other leagues are starting to call off their season completely. France, for example, has decided that their top divisions will not play on.
What’s more if the Premier League don’t take up the Cyrpus option, someone else will, and the chance will be gone. There’s only the opportunity for one League to play out its games on the island. And if Cyrpus is not chosen, where else? An island is the easiest area to protect and control, and there are not that many around that have the stadia that are needed – while being free of the virus.
However finally, the Mail has admitted that “the return of the Premier League is appearing more and more difficult in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with the best course of action appearing to group teams together in a select location to play out the season under lock and key.”
Jamie Carragher, at last made aware of the discussions going on, added on Sky Sprouts, ‘Using neutral venues, some sort of training camp and the safety of players and staff is the most important thing. That has to come first and foremost.
‘What if one club doesn’t vote for it but the rest of them do, does that change everything? It’ll be interesting to see how it works. Because if someone has a major problem with the season going forward whether it’s a worry for the players, neutral venues, then there’s so much to look at whether you need a unanimous vote for it to go through. That’s a big worry for the Premier League going forward. The virus will decide.”
Carragher was, as ever, struggling with issues of democratic votes and procedures established within the rule books, wondering as he does, what happened if most of the teams voted for a season to end in a neutral venue, while one team refused. Hopefully, someone can give him a bit of a rundown on how groups of people vote. Maybe someone should tell him that just because he votes Conservative at the election, that doesn’t on its own mean that they form the government.
- Why is the British media aligning itself with Fifa and ignoring alleged corruption?
- The tax man is watching and he’s not going to let clubs go…
When taking the Micky it’s a good idea to get the facts right. Garragher is socialist and has always supported Labour, regardless of leader.
So Carragher isn’t a totally lost cause.
As Terry mentioned, Carragher votes Labour and has actually donated to Labour candidates in the past. That being said, I don’t think he or anyone else needs a lecture in democracy from somebody who endlessly whined, whinged and complained about the 2nd largest democratic exercise in this country`s history. No doubt Attwood and his fellow fascists will be wanting another referendum after all this passes. Don’t be surprised if they use the Wuhan virus as a reason.
@Terry Highbury & @Johnno you guys just made my day and really it’s baffling that after taken how many minutes….? to read the article all u can pick out is the line of carragher seemly lost on the issue of vote with so many point we could all debate on in the article like
1) is it a must for the season to be completed
2) will the players and everybody involved behind closed doors while playing the games be safe?
3) what happens if something went wrong, who takes responsibility for it
4) are there enough medical procedures on ground to effectively help finished the league
5) what about taken the league to oversea to help achieve the Aim of finishing the league
6) is there anywhere better than Cyprus as suggested by the writer of the article.
While we are trying to discuss this issues we get to find more problems and solutions to this riddle been placed on humanity by this Virus pandemic. Taken potshots at writers of articles and ignoring the talking point is just ridiculously childish and before you tell me how long you have been watching football or supporting a particular team or how old you are please try to act accordingly to your self bragging rights.
Tony I believe finishing the league met alot to so many people for different reasons but I would rather have the season cancelled and award the trophy to Liverpool because no how they will lose the 25point advantage in 9matches, then having the players exposed to the virus that will end up costing us losing them for future events,also have it mind that some of them have hidden health challenges that are not know to many people that mostly cost them there lives while actively playing on football fields.